PATTERNS AND TONES

"Electric Sun Shadow No. 1" 2018 Seeing patterns in the shadows below my feet has kept me amused and delighted. I find beauty all around me when I turn my attention to the world around us and take the time to just look. These electric sun shadows are a fine example of finding beauty and significance in the most random patterns of my daily life. My eye is always searching for connections and meaningfulness in simple forms and markings. In this latest batch of images I've created for my  Sun Shadow series , I've expanded my fascination with shadows cast from objects close by (such as stairs, slides and steps), to confining shadows cast from objects from above. They have become more like drawings, separate from their template. They exist in the frame of my lens independent from the world around them. These electric sun shadows were cast from the old electric pole lines that still traverse the neighborhood in which I work. Their presence is an unusual one here in...

"Down the Garden Stairs No. 1" 2017 from the Sun Shadow Series  I have always fought against the two dimensionality of photography. I was always trying to expand space within the constructs of the very nature of the medium. But in this Sun Shadow series I've been working on, I've actually embraced it and have been working on ways to actually flatten out perspective within the photograph. In "Down the Garden Stairs" I began looking once again at how graphic hard edge shadows created in the midday sun refract against the linear steps below. Removing color from these images, it flattens the image plane out even more to create a dialogue between just the shapes and the space they occupy. I am continually in awe of  Ruth Bernhard 's 1930 photograph " Lifesavers ", where the objects are transformed by the space and light in which they are arranged. But it's the discovery of the unexpected in the image that rings my bell, especially when...

"Waterfront Park No. 1" 2017 from the Sun Shadow series Following the sun again after several weeks of much needed rain, I decided to capture a new set of images for my  Sun Shadow series . These studies were taken at San Diego's lovely Waterfront Park  playground. Working with the abstract shapes in Photoshop, I manipulated the depth of their shadows to give the two dimensional image more space. All scratches on the polls and debris on the ground were removed to focus on form instead of being distracted by their visual noise. I was delighted by the crack in the ground seen in  "Waterfront Park No. 5". This intrusion into the abstract forms drew the image back into reality. I think I may want to explore this idea further in subsequent entries in this series. In the meantime, I continue to enjoy capturing abstract forms that pop up in front of me while basking in the warm mid-winter sun. Julie Green February 25, 2017 "Waterfront Park No...

"Kite Flyer No. 1" 2016 On my way home from Hong Kong earlier this year, I had time to sit and ponder several projects I have been working on over the year. My exploration on light and how we perceive it, as seen in my pieces on Water Refractions  and my Sun Shadow series , as well as distortion in perspective, as seen in my woven portrait  series, are subjects that have captivated me this year. Bending light and perspective floats my boat. I then began wondering if I could move a single frozen moment in time by cutting the image up. As I slept on the 15 hour flight home, I had a vivid dream of my daughter running with a kite, its tail lingering behind her. I remember looking at the image of my daughter in the same way as Marcel Duchamp 's famous painting "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" 1912 , with its depiction of rhythm and movement all on one plane. Except in my dream, I worked from a single moment and it was my goal to try to make, as Duchamp s...

"Step Shadows No. 1"  from The Sun Shadow Series I've been exploring the crisp shadows the sun makes down here in Southern California for the last several years and I am still fascinated by the geometric shapes their silhouettes create. Just like seeing objects in the clouds, Sun Shadows (as I refer to them) are as equally fascinating to me. A recent trip to the Natural History Museum rendered these stark contrasting forms on the steps of it's granite steps. A sense of fluidity takes over when these patterns ripple across the horizontal slabs. I can almost hear a song being played in the repetitive spacing. I'm sure John Cage would have appreciated its angular form and space. It is for pure pleasure that I explore these abstract forms cast before me. They are a timeless genre that man has seen since the dawn of time but with harder shapes of granite steps and metal poles which lend a more modern graphic to the eye. Julie Green November 5, 2...