It's funny where the casual phone call can land you. Five years ago fellow OCAC alum Blue Mitchell gave me a ring to ask if I'd be interviewed for a new venture he was starting. When I asked him about the project I was, I'll be frank, stunned. Blue wanted to start a magazine about alternative photography. A magazine. On paper. Printed in full color. A magazine that was taking for its theme one of (at the time) the most misunderstood areas of fine art photography (which, naturally, is where I'd put most of my energy for years). 

Long story short I was thrilled to be a part of the first issue of Diffusion, which has grown to have a significant following, and I am perpetually grateful to Blue for his enthusiasm, dedication and incredible networking skills. He's done quite a bit to shape a continuing dialogue about what constitutes a photograph, and has generated a real community of creatives who might not have found each other without Diffusion.

This Friday night is the opening of an exhibit at the rightly esteemed VERVE Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe, where I am part of a group of alternative photographers who have been featured in Diffusion over the past five years. It is an honor to have selections from my SUBJECTIVE series included and I'm looking forward to meeting others whose images I have so admired over the years. If you're in Santa Fe then you should stop by between 5-7pm and then, on Saturday, you should return to hear a presentation at 2pm by Blue on Diffusion's growth. I hope to see you there!

For those interested in reading my initial interview in Diffusion, Issue 1 a second edition reprint is now available.

Additionally, I wrote an article in Diffusion, Issue 4 titled Transient Reflections and Fixed Impressions: Thoughts on the Physical Photograph in a Digital Age which explores the importance of the photograph as a physical object; wandering from reflections on Talbot, the Smithsonian, historical happenstance and Vera Lutter.

I am pleased to report that I'll be returning to Portland for the first weekend in November to offer a 1-day workshop at OCAC (Sat, Nov 2) and celebrate the ongoing success of Sitka Center for Art and Ecology by taking part in their annual Art Invitational at the World Forestry Center (Sat-Sun, Nov 2-3). 

Atelier 6000, a non-profit print shop in Bend that provides access to presses for artists and those interested in learning printmaking, has put together an exhibit of works about the diverse iconographic elements of the regional landscape. While primarily a show featuring book artists and printmakers, the fact that so much of my process is informed by printmaking techniques, and that my work is, in part, a reflection on multiplicity, I was granted a place in the exhibit. I'm honored to be part of a roster that includes my friends Clare Carpenter, Christy Wyckoff and Barb Tetenbaum-- all masters of their craft and great inspirations!

The opening reception is tomorrow, Friday, August 2nd from 5:30-8pm at: 389 SW Scalehouse Ct. Ste 120
Bend, OR 97702

And if your weekend plans don't include a trip to the beautiful wilds of Central Oregon, well, perhaps you can make it out in the next two months as the show runs through September 30th.

I am pleased to report that I'll be taking part in two different group exhibitions this month, both of which open on Thursday evening. The first show is at Oregon College of Art and Craft, which has invited alumni working in photography, book arts and ceramics to submit recent work for a two-month long summer exhibit. There are alums from as far back as 15 years (just a little after the college starting awarding a BFA degree in Craft) taking part in the exhibit with a broad range of both functional and conceptual work represented. The opening for this show is from 4pm-6pm on Thursday, June 6th at the Hoffman Gallery (located at the center of OCAC's lovely 10-acre campus).

The second exhibit is with Gallery 114 in the Pearl District (just across the street from Blick Art Materials on NW Glisan) where my dear friend Myra Clark is a member. Myra recently mounted a solo exhibit there which featured abstract paintings charting her path to recovery following a head trauma-- and among these works was a small selection of exceedingly minimal paintings, predominantly in white, that contain elements reminiscent of Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross series from the late 1950's. 

When Gallery 114 asked each member artist to invite another artist to participate in an exhibit about collaboration Myra kindly asked me to be her counterpart. The exhibit, titled +1, asks members to exhibit their work "side by side with mentors, muses, collaborators, comrades, and friends."  In planning out our part, Myra and I sought to identify harmonies that existed in line, color, and composition between her minimal white works and my photo based transfer works while simultaneously acknowledging (and celebrating) the great differences in representation evident. The resulting grouping is not, strictly speaking, a "side by side" display, but rather an activated grouping of works that creates its own unique symmetries and tensions. The process of devising it allowed me to see familiar work in a very new light, and brought an appreciation for elements within each piece that heretofore I'd perhaps glossed over when pairing them with my own works in past exhibits. The opening reception for +1 runs from 6pm-9pm on Thursday, June 6th at 1100 NW Glisan-- I do hope to see you there!

Today and tomorrow are it for Newspace's 2013 themed exhibition about images that exist at the perimeter of what is commonly accepted as photography. Or, to be more specific, fine art photography, which is perhaps a term better left vaguely defined so as not to ruffle any proverbial feathers. 

Within the exhibit there are conceptual investigations of what constitutes a photograph, as well as materials explorations with alternative processes like liquid photo emulsion. Many of the photographers on display (like yours truly) are really dealing with the conceptual framework through material process, which is probably the most unifying element to what is essentially a very visually disparate exhibit.

There is a heavy digital component to the show, as apparently the validity of digital images/manipulations continues to be a contentious subject among the photographic community (despite the fact that much of the world now produces images using digital means).  

In fact, the work that resonated most profoundly for me was a digital composite by Amy Elkins titled 11 Years out of a Death Row Sentence (river) which perfectly conveyed its spiritual tenor through a very knowing homage to the cathartic Pictorial tradition that is so rampant in landscape photography. This image alone is worth the visit to Newspace this weekend, but there are also great works by J. Swofford, Buzzy Sullivan, Shawn Darwent, Emidio Puglielli, Lauren Grabelle and Ben Panter.
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Photography at the Edge | 2013 Themed Exhibition
Newspace Center for Photography
1632 SE 10th Ave. Portland OR 97214
Mon-Thurs: 10am-9:30pm
Fri-Sun: 10am-6pm

If sweeping coastal headlands, herds of wild elk, and the waving grasses of a windswept estuary aren't enough to entice you to the coast this winter, perhaps the opportunity to meet a few artists while touring about the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology will be just the nudge you need.

This coming Monday evening the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology is hosting an open studio event that is free and open to the public. There will be food, drink, and a chance to meet the writers and artists in residence at Sitka this winter. My studio will be open for the duration with a number of completed works and works-in-progress on display. I do hope to see you there!

Learn more about the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology's residents from the 2012/13 winter season.

This coming weekend I'll be participating in the annual Spring Open House at Troy Studios in SE PDX. This Open House will be unlike any other I've done in the past as this event will also serve as a STUDIO LIQUIDATION SALE! 

As I'll be moving from the Troy Laundry Building in June I've decided to let go of a few things rather than try and re-incorporate them into my new studio space (see also suburban garage). Ridiculously low prices are guaranteed on items like:

oil paint, book cloth, coasters, frames, office supplies, Jeffrey juvenilia (invest now in priceless relics of my formative years as an artist), toys, magazines, books, comics, furniture, flags, apparel, and so much more

So come on by to say hello, see some works in progress, sift through art materials/inspirational fodder, and to help me bid the laundry building farewell after so many years.

Troy Studios is located at 221 SE 11th Ave. Portland OR 
Friday, May 11th from 5-9pm
Saturday, May 12th from 12-6pm

With spring in the air you might be turning your thoughts more towards the great outdoors than to the hallowed white walls of the art gallery but I tell you now that it is possible to marry both in the upcoming weeks if you are at all near historic Astoria, Oregon.

An excursion to this coastal town, situated at the ferocious mouth of the Columbia River, will not only get you that blast of salty sea air, but can also stimulate your aesthetic consciousness with a group exhibit of Portland photographers held at Lightbox Photographic Gallery. Some stalwarts of the PDX photo world are taking part, including urban minimalist TJ Norris, antiquarian advocate Blue Mitchell, Blue Moon Camera's Zeb Andrews, and silver gelatin master Stu Levy to name just a few. They even let yours truly sneak a piece on to the wall as well.

The exhibit is presented in honor of Portland Photo Month, a bi-annual celebration of photography in the Rose City that honors the diversity of photographic talent world-wide through exhibits, lectures, and workshops on all things related to the capture of light by a lens, chemistry, code or any combination of the bunch.

REMNANTS has been installed at 12x16 Gallery in Portland's Sellwood neighborhood. 12x16's space is quite lovely, divided into two different exhibition areas- one for a monthly exhibit by one of the co-op members and the other for an invited guest artist like yours truly. 

An Artists' Reception for myself and Maryann Fielder will take place this coming Sunday, April 15th from 2-5pm. I do hope you'll have an opportunity to stop by. 

REMNANTS features over 25 new works arranged with a selection of past works in compositions that treat the gallery walls as something of a tabula rasa. Vandalized antiquity, golden domes, teetering roller coasters, and bittersweet eulogies all have their place and offer a glimpse into the muzzy preoccupations that make up my visual life.