The Flashing Muse: the gift

It’s been about six months since I last wrote a Flashing Muse blog. While I hoped for a more frequent flow of conversation, I was fresh from cancer treatment, so allowances are made for one’s revival.

All the while I’ve been shooting and adding to my collections of, primarily, abstract street photography, as well as further developing my line of fine art apparel sporting my images. In the interest of making my work more available, I’ve evolved into a modern haberdasher of sorts.

My intention with this blog space is to share about my creative inspiration and process, understanding that my approach to photography is unconventional. I was trained in commercial photography school in the late 70s, but that was never my bent. I already had an eye for the abstract and obscure, attempting to transform everyday scenes from mundane to magnificent. With adulthood, I put my passion to the back burner.

A few years back, the legendary singer/musician Dion DiMucci, explained to me how art is a direct connection to the Divine. “Your eye is a gift from God, so the question is not do you carry the gift, but how do you carry it?” It was that simple gift, from an artist like Dion, that gave me the inspiration to bring my photography from the back porch to the front room.

As such, immersion in my creative work has been an essential element in my overall healing and revival. Despite the difficulties of the past year, I found solace and inspiration with my muse (the Divine) during the darkest moments. As a result, my perception evolved, seen in my most recent work in the following, evolving themes.

Flash Foto: my recent work

Dots on Broadway – This series, as is generally the case, evolved on its own. Meaning, I did not preconceive the concept of transforming mundane New York City bus shelters into vibrant and fantastical views of the city. It appeared while walking past a bus shelter, uptown on Broadway, one evening. An opportunity to apply my reflective technique emerged, whereby I create a multi-dimensional perspective for the viewer, in a single-layer image. I’m now looking to present this series to galleries for consideration.

Closed Cafes – There’s a quiet, uniform feeling to New York City’s closed cafes, often with chairs stacked in an organized fashion, devoid of life. It was in passing by these storefronts that gave inspiration to this series, as a theme for my multidimensional technique. This series is still evolving.

Being Human – As long as I’ve been immersed in photography I’ve shied away from shooting people (except for rock shows I photographed in my teens). During the summer, however, my muse nudged me towards humanity. Another gift of my revival! As such, I began approaching strangers-of-interest in our New York City neighborhood, asking if I can take a “casual portrait.” To my amazement, most enthusiastically agreed. The results surprised me, and my subject matter expanded, as I found a new eye in the process.

Reproductions
Aside from my images of particular people, all my work is available for reproduction in a variety of sizes, and mountings. If you’d like to place my work on your wall, or as a gift, talk to me. I’m happy to play interior designer and assist with the right image and mounting for your setting.