Tonight I had my reception at the Brickton Art Center, 306 Busse Highway in Park Ridge, IL. It was great to see my friends in attendance. The gallery looked amazing! A big thanks to Kristin Haas.
I did an artist talk where I shared my thoughts on the development of this body of work and how this journey has allowed me to accept being vulnerable in the creative process. The idea of creating text-based photographs started about a couple of years ago when driving alongside Lake Michigan in Sheboygan. What started as a candid photo of Lake Michigan, the use of text via Pixlr and shared on Instagram grew into an unexpected activity that I found myself doing often.
I started to do some thinkin’ as to why I continued to add text to my water images and then it hit me. My environment is influencing me as to how I see the world. Sheboygan is starting to have an influence on what is relevant to me at this particular moment.
As with any idea you start to think what would be the best way to communicate it. So I started to photograph bodies of water with my digital camera and create a collection of potential titles. A specific body of water would determine what title I would use. The title would determine what font I should use. The font would determine what colors I will use. Everything was being influenced by each step of the creative process. This influence has allowed me to become part of this.
By letting myself become vulnerable to whatever may happen has helped me to easily navigate through this process to express how something that can easily be taken for granted can catapult a world of possibilities.
This exhibition features text-based photographs, paintings, and drawings. the unexpected vista ends April 25, 2015.
Here are some photos taken at my reception.
Photos by Liz Ann Lange.
frank juarez paintings 