Iron Fence

[Tom dinning]

It takes me a few seconds to decide on recording something I see, a week or two or twenty to figure out why.
When its on the screen I'll stare it down like Crocadile Dundee and the water bufallo, waiting for a reaction; from who or what I'm not sure.
The tools on the Mac are vast and fast. I fiddle with the mouse until RSI sets in.
I can't always find the answer to the questions in my head: "What am I doing here? What do I want to see thats not already there?"
Some days I get it.
Other days I'll wait for tomorrow.
I'm patient.

"A true artist must ask the right questions. Only then will their work be of any value".

Who said that?

Tom

 

[Asher Kelman]

"A true artist must ask the right questions. Only then will their work be of any value".

Who said that?”


I don’t know that is true. When Robert Watcher is taking a picture of a woman cooking for the crowd in a market, he has not asked a question, but sampled the best of the action at the peak moment.

The viewer is then left to ask the questions!

But I would say that what Robert does in a lot of the time “Art” or “ART” by any of current standards for the office wall, an exhibition, a gallery or collection “standards”! It just needs either self traction and magnetism or market makers.

It’s not the asking of a question that initiates art but a precipitating experience or what I would call a “vision”, real or imaginary in one of our senses!.

A question might be good or essential for engineering, creating art for a marketing, or boosting a social or political cause. It can still be art but, has no sine qua non of an “initial question”.

But the idea sounds great, wise and insightful, like most shortcuts,aphorisms.... and prophets!

Asher

 

[Robert Watcher]

I find this pic rather fascinating. It well may be antennas on top of buildings (I have no idea and don’t really care), but I get a sensation of motion and helicopters behind a wall. Liquify transforms.

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

Almost an abstract vision me thinks. Ya know sometimes your muse will play tricks on and sometimes she just walks away. I just wait until I can feel her back again. I think you dont have to know, Why.. just do it and in the end you should feel t inside because you are the art!. I never care what other artist say about how to make art! I just make it regardless. I like this work, There is a feeling of "hidden"when I look at also I really like the soft austere of it .

Charlotte

 

[Tom dinning]

Almost an abstract vision me thinks. Ya know sometimes your muse will play tricks on and sometimes she just walks away. I just wait until I can feel her back again. I think you dont have to know, Why.. just do it and in the end you should feel t inside because you are the art!. I never care what other artist say about how to make art! I just make it regardless. I like this work, There is a feeling of "hidden"when I look at also I really like the soft austere of it .

Charlotte

Thanks, Charlotte.
See! I told you. Encouraging me to be brave.
It’s not so much others who concern me; it’s me. Some synaptic connections are difficult to dissolve.
“Is this OK?,” I ask myself.
“Do it,” I respond gingerly. “Just don’t show anyone”.
I’m like the little boy with the magazine I found under dads bed. I hide the products of my lust in the closet under the stairs.
But I’m learning.

Tom.

 

[Tom dinning]

I find this pic rather fascinating. It well may be antennas on top of buildings (I have no idea and don’t really care), but I get a sensation of motion and helicopters behind a wall. Liquify transforms.

It’s a reflection of my past, Robert.
In parts of Sydney there are remains of my childhood.
Such is this place.

I am a child, creeping out of the house to explore. It’s furnace hot. I can smell eggs cooking on the pavement. My feet burn from the heat. Shoes are optional for children in this city.
I want to know what’s beyond the fence line. I can hear traffic, people walking and talking, two dogs barking at nothing, a train rattles across the bridge: Click-clack, click-clack, and I sing along with the rhythm.
I can’t see over the fence. There’s a reason for that but I can’t work out if I’m too short or the fence is too high. I try to climb it but the iron has seemingly reached melting point and my hands sting even before I can withdraw my attempt at the summit.
There’s nothing to stand on. There’s a reason for that as well. In this neighbourhood, no-one is trusted and the dogs can seemingly climb picket.
I jump. In glimpses I see .. the past, the future, the present, the unknown, the destination, the rest of the world. As I jump it all blurs into a soft rendition of the harshness that is actually there.

That’s what I remember.

 

[Tom dinning]

"A true artist must ask the right questions. Only then will their work be of any value".

Who said that?”


I don’t know that is true. When Robert Watcher is taking a picture of a woman cooking for the crowd in a market, he has not asked a question, but sampled the best of the action at the peak moment.

The viewer is then left to ask the questions!

It was from Robert Adams. I found the reference. I'll pass it on if you wish.

"I don't know that is true" equally suggests you don't know if it's not true. Let's just say Its an opinion and leave it at that.

It’s not the asking of a question that initiates art but a precipitating experience or what I would call a “vision”, real or imaginary in one of our senses!.

A question might be good or essential for engineering, creating art for a marketing, or boosting a social or political cause. It can still be art but, has no sine qua non of an “initial question”.

But the idea sounds great, wise and insightful, like most shortcuts,aphorisms.... and prophets!

Perhaps it is why some produce art and others produce photographs.
You might be thinking of precept. That seems more prescriptive and applicable to engineering and the like.
I don't know how Robert operates.
The idea was to ask oneself the question. "What if ..." seems a good start, don't you think?

Oh, its so nice to be back.

Tom

 

[Asher Kelman]

Tom,

If Monet sits in front of a haystack in autumn, musing, (and enjoying a split baguette packed with cheese and olives), did he think, “I wonder if .......”?

I believe instead, he took in the taste of the baguette.

The sienna color was harmonious with the straw of the haystack, the olives with the stubborn last leaves on the trees and he chose his paints and mixed them, thinking perhaps of Tuscany.

But did he ask a question, “What if the shadows were longer, what if the shadows were rust”?

......He didn’t need to, as everything occurred each evening in sequence and he knew what was coming, like his own name

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

That is a fascinating pictures. It reminds me of the strange creations that neural networks sometimes output.

Welcome back, here and on your blog.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Tom Dinning: Iron Fence
​

“It takes me a few seconds to decide on recording something I see, a week or two or twenty to figure out why.
When its on the screen I'll stare it down like Crocadile Dundee and the water bufallo, waiting for a reaction; from who or what I'm not sure.
The tools on the Mac are vast and fast. I fiddle with the mouse until RSI sets in.
I can't always find the answer to the questions in my head: "What am I doing here? What do I want to see thats not already there?"
Some days I get it.
Other days I'll wait for tomorrow.
I'm patient.

I decided I have to read again your words to “get” and start to appreciate your quotes proposal about finding the “right questions”!

I had never considered this as I start with a concept and allow it to talk with me! The work speaks to me, but I don’t interrogate it!

But this concept of being a “Crocodile Dundee” staring at a bison trying to figure it out and finding the relevant question, is novel to me.

Does anyone else ask such questions when facing his/her pictures on the screen?

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

I don't ask myself that particular question: "what do I want to see that is not already there?".

Ideally, there is a feeling. I would like other people to experience it. Sometimes, I try to express it with words. Sometimes, I try to express it with a picture. If that feeling happens in front of an object, probably a camera is the tool to express it.

 

[Tom dinning]

Thanks all for dropping by.
The opportunity to show the results of my labour is acknowledged and I am grateful.
Christine will only let me hang on the wall if it matched the wall colour and drapes. Hang on, we don’t have drapes!

I continue to delve deeper into my thinking to find new imaginations. Getting them in print is not always successful.
Success is subjective, of course. ‘Like’ is never enough for me.
I can only grapple with my inner self. And anyone else who wants to join in.

 

[Asher Kelman]

On success?

....I continue to delve deeper into my thinking to find new imaginations. Getting them in print is not always successful.
Success is subjective, of course.

‘Like’ is never enough for me.

What more do you want, need or miss of a photograph?

....I can only grapple with my inner self. And anyone else who wants to join in.

Is that unique? Don't most people do that?