How to See – Wyeth Walk #173
Went to the James Welling interview at the Brandywine River Museum of Art this evening. The current exhibit at the Brandywine is of his Wyeth-inspired photography – it was incredibly wonderful to hear about his career and how he got into photography through art and sculpture and how deeply the paintings of Andrew Wyeth have impacted him. I took pages of notes of his commentary, too much to share here, but I can say briefly that he spoke about a colleague saying that the photographer Robert Frank taught him how to see… and that for him (Welling) it was the work of Andrew Wyeth that has taught him how to see. That resonated with me very much, because all of these “Wyeth Walks” I’ve been doing have been teaching me how to see through the eyes of NC and Andrew Wyeth, and in turn my piano improvisations are channeling this.
Welling also said that he is “fascinated by what photography can capture which is different than seeing.” In my photo today I was amazed to see the globe emerge from the image as I played around with the contrasts and colors. I was interested in the water drops and my reflection in the larger drop (it reminded me of Andrew Wyeth’s self-portrait reflection in the doorknob of “Her Room”), so I was focusing on how I could manipulate the drops to bring out the reflections… but was certainly not expecting the globe image!
As an aside, it is definitely starting to be time I get myself a proper camera… it’s been wonderful to practice composition with my iPhone, but I am more and more craving higher resolutions (and a macro lens!).
p.s. speaking of channeling, I was flabbergasted to see during the lecture the image of one of Welling’s gradient photograms – with oranges, reds, and yellows. I was flabbergasted, because my photograph from Wyeth Walk #133 was the same colors and gradient… an uncanny similarity. My photo was a snapshot of my cocktail after all day of driving on our way to Maine for my Wyeth research. I had been in the car all day and hadn’t had a chance to walk outside. When I posted the picture on my blog I felt like it was a stretch to put a non-nature picture in my Wyeth blog, but in the spirit of posting something every day, I put it up anyway. Now I know why I was moved to do so…when these uncanny similarities come up after the fact, it tells me I’m on the right path, that the channels to the creativity beyond are open.
September 10, Chester County PA, temp 78F