PATTERNS AND TONES

"Griffith Observatory, No. 1" 2014 Lately I have been capturing and creating what I call Sun Shadows . I have been particularly drawn to photographing shadows cast by railings and the geometric patterns they make while interacting with staircases. The steps break the bold shadows into repetitive patterns which create a lovely abstract arrangement.  As I changed their color profile to greyscale, the images began to flatten  out from 3 dimensional lines, into a 2 dimensional plane. If you can remove the initial recognition of the object and let the abstract shapes wash over you, you may begin to see what I mean.  The images are constructed from a form built out of a functional object.  Only the change in scale and frequency of lines give the illusion of the image receding,  reminiscent of the De Stijl or Neo-plasticism artistic movement that came out of the Netherlands in 1917.   Although...

I'm an optical junkie. I love an illusion and feel comfortable vacillating between visual deception and physical reality. Perhaps that is why I enjoy amusement parks, pop-up books, geometry and magic tricks so much. Figuring out the deception is as fun as a puzzle but comes in second to the enjoyment I derive from the discovery of the deception after I have been observing the object for a period of time. Spatial perception is a concept that I have been exploring in my Paper Ballet project this year and it has made me rather sensitive to the environments I come in contact with on a daily basis. As I try to incorporate stereoscopic elements to a flat 2 dimensional image,  I find that I too am creating an illusion to trick the mind into creating depth where none exists. For instance, the other day I was strolling down the aisle of my neighborhood supermarket and noticed that not only were the aisles narrower but there were many obstacles in the way which made me slow...