I went to Olympia Washington over the weekend to visit my twin brother Joe and his family. Olympia was very wet and very beautiful and very wet and also very wet. I took a lot of photos, most of them include some form of moss or hippies, and sometimes mossy hippies. Joe is an artist, and I helped him set up a show at the Blackfront gallery
I will include his artist statement here so you get an idea of what he is up to:
My work explores the relationship between time and space. By “painting” a shadow in tape I turn a moment in time into a physical object. The tape shadow is left behind, stuck in place, flopping over a curb or bending up a wall, as the actual shadow continues on its path. Some shadows are captured from people or objects that are only temporarily filling a space. They move on leaving their presence recorded.
The blue shadows created with painters tape are reminiscent of the shadows in Monet’s paintings of haystacks. Whereas Monet painted idealized scenes of agrarian life in expensive oils, my shadows are cast by urban ephemera and recorded in a common commercial product. These shadows are a form of temporary public art. They are removed as easily as they were put in place.
It is a coincidence that this show corresponds with Groundhog Day. I can make no promises that my work will bring an early spring.
One thing I didn’t suspect was that by the time we got to the last shadow, the plant, it would be midnight and I would be so tired of kneeling on hardwood and painstakingly tearing tape that I would want to tape Joe to the wall and leave. I pushed through that phase and finished up the taping and was glad. It looked great and the show went really well.
PS- I bought a new camera (Nikon D80) and will likely be tormenting everyone with hundreds of photos.
