Affordable Art Show Includes Woodbury, New Milford Photographers
http://www.countytimes.com/articles/2012/10/12/entertainment/doc5076eae50efad946877296.txt?viewmode=fullstoryCaptured 'Memories'
The blast of springtime color is rather astonishing, despite the image being mostly out of focus.
The greens and blues and browns are vivid, even if they are also hazy. But in the center of Shona Curtis’ picture, which is among 17 photographs currently on display in the “Affordable Art Exhibition” at Danbury’s Still River Editions, a mother and child sit clearly and comfortably on a park bench.
The two subjects are pictured from the rear, so the viewer only gets to see the back of their heads—and while they are also 30 yards away, they are more crisply framed than the whirlpool of vernal colors around them. The effect has a particularly narrative quality.
When Lys Guillom, a gallery associate at Still River Editions, was asked about the title of the picture, “Memories,” and how the name relates to the image, she indicated that the brightness of the colors offers a key to happy recollections. Those are the kind of memories that people cherish.
“I think it is warm memories,” commented Ms. Guillom.
That’s the idea, but more broadly “Memories” is about warmth in the middle of a vague recollection. Maybe “Foggy Warm Memories” would have worked as a more detailed title.
Ms. Curtis, a resident of of New Milford, doesn’t disagree.
“This is one of my personal favorites. I just like the psychology of it and the colors, it’s sort of dreamlike,” said the photographer. “I think of memories like that, sort of fuzzy and not what it was, but the important aspects of it are there.”
She wants people to create their own interpretation, because memories are like dreams in the sense that their qualities are malleable. Her willingness to let people create their own takeaway stems from her training—not as a photographer, because she never really was one in the professional sense, but as the psychotherapist she is.
Ms. Curtis can’t even pin down a style or genre that this image would be categorized under, since it’s not really a landscape photo or purely abstract, but a mixture of the two, and more.
“I guess I’d call it poetic, for lack of a better word,” she offered.
Ms. Curtis has been photographing for about 25 years. “Memories” was taken about two-and-a-half years ago, but she can’t remember exactly when. It’s a little foggy, but she remembers it being a nice spring day in Harrybrooke Park in New Milford.
She enjoys photography as a hobby and thinks of it as one would an old friend.Even when they’ve been away for some time, “We pick up right where we left off,” she said.
After all, old friendships are made of memories.
This is the second “Affordable Art Exhibition” at Still River Editions, located on East Liberty Street. Each picture sells for $100. The show opened last weekend and concludes Dec. 21.
To learn more, see the Web site at www.stillrivereditions.com.
'Two Coats Forgotton'
How
haunting is the image that can say so much about the emptiness of
abandonment, and do it in one tightly-cropped, black-and-white
interior—which is the case with one of 17 photographs in the "Affordable
Art Exhibition" at Danbury’s Still River Editions.
In
the case of "Two Coats Forgotten" by Woodbury photographer Dennis
Yates, viewers are left to wonder about a couple of ratty, lonesome work
coats left hanging inside some workstation. Maybe it’s a barn or a
studio of sorts, but the shot is cropped too tightly to allow viewers to
discern the deteriorating room’s designation.
The
cracks in the wall and the cobwebs in the corner indicate that this
room is out of use and probably has been for some time. The two
forgotten coats are made of some heavy fabric, perhaps even denim, with
white splatter stains that could be paint or just as likely guano. They
appear to be very warm, but unless one is freezing it wouldn’t be
advisable to put on either; there’s probably a family of mice living in
the pockets.
"I think it has a
certain mystery to it," said Mr. Yates, who snapped the picture in an
old North Dakota farmstead. "The place is not abandoned, but is no
longer lived in."
Earlier this
year, he was brought to the Midwest with a program by Tillman Crane
Photography, one that gets camera artists access to a rural location. In
that locale Mr. Yates found something captivating about the scene, the
lines and the textures and the fact that these two articles of clothing
had been resting on a hook for nobody knows how long.
"And they are probably still hanging there," Mr. Yates added.
A
photographer by hobby and an analytical chemist in his career, Mr.
Yates picked up on digital pictures a little more than a decade ago. He
doesn’t have too much experience in showing his work; he’s displayed at
the Bridgewater Country Fair and other local venues, but Still River
Editions (which prints his pictures) thought his work was good enough
for exhibition.
The picture is
evocative, the lonesome feeling it emotes is palpable, and if "Two Coats
Forgotten" were a movie it would be designated film noir. And all that
description amounts to the exact kind of expression that makes a
photograph good art.
"A
photograph can capture the same range of emotion and visual impact as a
painting," said Lys Guillom, a gallery associate at Still River
Editions. "You just find things that resonate with you and you like."
This
is the second "Affordable Art Exhibition" at Still River Editions,
located on East Liberty Street in Danbury. Each picture sells for $100.
The gallery showing opened last weekend and concludes Dec. 21.
Affordable Art Show Includes Woodbury, New Milford Photographers
