Break Even XII, Warning

This image is currently on exhibit at Etherton’s Temple Gallery in Tucson, AZ. http://www.ethertongallery.com/exhibitions/red/index.html

running simultaneously with the stage play “Red” about the artist Mark Rothko. Below is my artist statement. Artist reception April 13th, 6 – 7:30.

Rothko’s large paintings at first may seem as variations on one another, but each one or series creates a strong mood, emotion, for him and his viewers. While he made his latter works devoid of any object or scene, for the most part mine are not. But, I want my works to view and feel differently depending on how far or close one gets to them. The emotions that one goes through seeing something at a distance, just discerning shapes and color or the lack of it, I hope grows, changes and contrasts with the mood that is produced as one gets closer to it. Through this visual transformation, I imagine ones thought processes kicking in trying to make sense of things that may be nonsense, reaching recognition and then, a reversal from the objective to the emotional, allegorical again.

This photographic diptych from my series Break Even, Break Even XII,Warning, produces that progression of thought and emotion for me. At a distance, it appears as textured rectangular blocks of color, warm but alerting. Closer, details in the two desert meadow scenes taken in Catalina State Park can be discerned. The reddening of the lower portion gives pause to one visually entering the hidden dangers, more visible now, at the top. An allegory of life’s issues and an internal journey is the best way that I can describe what I hope viewers experience. – Diana Yakowitz

22″ x 24″ photo diptych, Archival pigmented ink on Museo Silver Rag, mounted on bamboo board.

The Collection

Mandala, The Collection

Years ago, I did a shadow box sculpture with many of these vintage pins in the form of a garden gone wild. I wish I had photographed it before I dismantled it, but that was during one of the photographic breaks in my life. This new image in mandalic form unifies all of these different floral and a few fauna forms. Most were gifts over time. The backdrop is a vintage faux marble coffee table.

“You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.”  James M Barrie

16″ x 16″ Limited edition of 30, Archival pigmented ink on museo silver rag paper, prices available on request.

Each of these limited edition prints will be shadow box framed with two or more of the actual pins incorporated into the composition.

24

This image was shown as part of a show titled “Urbanity: Points of Views” and was among four naturally high contrast images under the title “The Things We Make.”

Tables set up for a VIP party inside the modern art section of the National Gallery in Washington, DC. seemed to be begging to be photographed. I could not resist contrasting it with the TV series 24 with its violence and fictional government. Here in the reality of the nations capitol, with a new more reasoned government, was a civil scene. So, I tilted it so that this fictional reality would better resemble the fictional TV disasters a second after this shot.

11″ x 14″ Limited edition of 50, Archival pigmented ink on museo silver rag paper, prices available on request.

Form and Essence

This image is quite special to me. The glow in the vintage aluminum bowl is from a neon sculpture by the late artist and dear friend Hazel Colditz.

Available by request.

Waking Dream

Port Susan, Stanwood, WA

These Trumpeter Swans were frolicking in the waters between Camano Island and mainland Washington State. Photographing into the stark light of the sun immediately suggested the near focus and black and white for this naturally high contrast image. The near focus softens the swans as they appeared to my squinting eyes.

11″ x 14″ Limited edition of 50, Archival pigmented ink on 100% rag, smooth water color paper, prices available on request.

Calm Again

© Diana Yakowitz, 2011 all rights reserved.
Sunset looking south from the road that connects Camano Island to the mainland of Washington State near Stanwood. This is Leque Island that is under reclamation from diked farmland back to riparian zone. When I first arrived here 7 years ago, there was a farm house, out buildings and barn here, Eidy Farm.
The conversion is controversial and not because of the loss of farmland, but rather that the un-natural changes to the area over the years of the dike are causing a return not to its former state but a new one that some feel will cause more salinization to the fresh water systems supplying parts of Camano Island.

11″ x 14″ Limited edition of 50, Archival pigmented ink on 100% rag, smooth water color paper, prices available on request.

Swimming with Art

Another addition to my series of images that due to the light or shadows at the time are primarily dark images with some isolated highlights. The settings immediately and spontaneously suggest titles to me and I have kept them despite second thoughts on occasion. Isolation, of course, suggests other metaphoric impressions and I do think of these images as impressionistic. Dark Waters, The Sentinel, and The Sunbathers are previous posts in this series that I have decided to title “The First of All Pleasures” from the quote by Oscar Wilde “Illusion is the first of all pleasures.” and the admonition of Albert Einstein “Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you cease to live.”

16″ x 20″ Limited edition of 25 and 11″ x 14″ Limited edition of 50, Archival pigmented ink on museo silver rag paper, prices available on request.