…is almost over. It’s hard to believe my last post to this was in July 2020. I didn’t mean for this to be a once-a-year thing. Let’s resolve in 2022 to up to the productivity. Let’s just hope I’m not merely adding to the pile of broken resolutions (admit it, you have some as well lol).
Since my last post, well, let’s take a look. There were the protests/riots after the death of George Floyd, a clusterf**k of a presidential election in the United States, a clusterf**k of a protest on the day Congress was to certify the election results, Covid vaccines developed and deployed, economic inflation that is threatening to do some real damage to economies around the world, new Covid variants, and an ever-deepening divide between people groups of people in the United States. This list is just the United States alone. Many nations around the world are facing their own new challenges brought on by Covid.
On a personal level, I lost someone I considered a friend (non-Covid related) as well as Ozzy, my beagle and all-around great dog that adopted me at the age of 8 weeks. He would have been 13 in Jan 2022. I miss him every day. I also almost lost my German Shepherd to a severe infection. Thankfully we were able to intervene before it could spread to other parts of her body. Many of you know I live in Texas and the challenges Texas residents across the entire state faced in February. All these things were in addition to the stresses brought on by the challenges of recovering from 2020. Recovery is going to continue into 2022, but one thing I feel is much more optimism than 365 days ago. I need this feeling if I have any hope of accomplishing my goals in 2022.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. Texas began its collective reopening in 2020 and accelerated that process in 2021 as vaccines became widely available. I found myself with some promo work and, after getting the pokes myself, was back in the bars doing what I loved the most – photographing live metal performances.
Since June, I have shot 7 shows, which is a little slower than the normal pace over the past couple of years (excluding 2020). For me, however, this pace is good. The show from where the above image was made was a chance to reconnect with people I hadn’t seen in over a year (some in nearly 2 years). It was the fuel I needed after the Dawn Of Dissolution shoot to feel purposeful again.
Creatively (and in general) things felt as if they were getting pretty dark for a little while. I tried me hand at a few things in 2020 but quickly gave up on them as things with the outside world seemed to be only getting worse with each passing day. I tried my hand at digital painting from a photograph:
This little experiment last about a month before I fell back into the funk. A couple of friends and I joined together and started processing each other’s RAW images. This turned out some interesting results. Although at any one time we were working on the same image, this exercise taught us that different people can look at the same objective information and see something totally different from the others. This particular activity lasted several months until one of the members started classes at a local college. Once he completes his work, we will be starting this again.
There are several other things I started and continue to actively work, especially now that I feel a little more like myself again. One in particular is a marriage of text and imagery based of a lyric I once heard. “I will give you sanctuary in these hymns of Thanatos” is that lyric. It’s stuck with me since I first heard it a little over 14 years ago. I am organizing a series around it. Here are a couple of sketches:
These are a little all over the place as they were tests of different techniques and concepts. I’m beginning to drill down on some consistency over the execution and will soon start executing more fully realized images. I’m a little excited about this project as the lyric on which it’s based is beginning to burn more and more brightly in my mind.
For the final topic of this entry, I picked up work on an existing project that had been neglected for a long time. This project is the skyscape images that helped me get into the BFA program at the University of Houston. I’ve often wanted to continue this one, and now that is happening. As of right now, the project is strictly digital as I lost my medium format film camera in Hurricane Harvey in 2017. A friend of mine recently gifted me a Pentax K1000 35mm film SLR. As soon as I can begin purchasing color film, I am going to definitely be adding that back into the project (it is a mix of digital, color negative, and color positive images).
In terms of my art, this is where I’m at so far in 2021 and heading into 2022. I have a lot of goals to reach in 2022, both in terms of my art and in my personal life. I would like to get back to New York to visit my family sometime this year and find a way to get my wife home to visit hers (which is, in my view, the greater priority). I will find a way to discuss some things more in depth in a future post that will come much sooner rather than later. Until then, I bid you all a Happy New Year and good fortune in whatever form will do you best in 2022.
