Thursday Challenge: Wet -

"The Papermaker's Beater"
digital photograph by Mick Mather

This is my old papermaking blender filled with water and the remains of "Erosion Cube". Kris Henderson's "Erosion Bundle Project" is now in it's final stage which means, for my part in her project, making a piece of paper from what's left. Stay tuned.

Thursday Challenge: Photography -

"Watching the Detectives"
digital collage by Mick Mather

This week, Thursday Challenge offers us the theme of photography. Not long ago I was working with a terrific group of teenagers on a public art project who managed to design, assemble and site a sculpture in less than 3 weeks time. Part of that effort required documenting as much activity as possible and there were multiple cameras in operation during each creative session. Coleen, a professional photographer with a studio at The Gear Factory where all of this was taking place, appeared one day and offered to shoot a few rolls of film with her big, honkin' rig. Tonight's post is based on two of the photo's I managed to take of her at work after collaging, manipulating and layering as I am wont to do. You can see the sculpture here at No Matter What Shape - The Archive.

Thursday Challenge: Black -

"Gatehouse at the Edge of the Black Forest"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather
- original photograph by Ann Ballard -

For the theme of black at Thursday Challenge this week, I cropped a photograph taken by my good friend and poet, Ann Ballard ... you can see the original here along with a very succinct vision of how I've come to think about photography as a visual artist. I often get the feeling that I'm the odd man out at the photomeme sites I contribute to each week, even though I've made it a point to keep 99.9% of the posted work completely photography based. What I see that predominates, especially in digital photography, is a purist standard. There's nothing wrong with that in my humble opinion - unless it reaches the stage of an oppressive philosophy where there's no room for anything else - and thus whistle as I work happily away. I know there are a lot of other artists working the way I do and I'm always delighted to see that work, always delighted when it inches incrementally forward in acceptability. Still, there's barely a developed square foot in all of this worldwide acreage. Not a complaint there either, mind you, just an observation.

NEW from The Selfportrait Series -

"Selfportrait of the Artist as a Transportation Center Poster"
digital collage by Mick Mather

One of my favorite bodies of work, and by far the longest running, is The Selfportrait Series. You can imagine my great surprise when I learned that Thursday Challenge offered up the theme of portrait for the coming week. As an update to anyone unfamiliar with these pieces, this is always an opportunity for me to wear satire on my sleeve and poke fun at myself, the medium of photography and the various uses of photographic imagery - whether that be for fun, for profit or for documentary purposes. :)

Thursday Challenge: Green -

"Split Rock Green"

digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

First, this image fit perfectly, in my own mind, for the week's theme, green, at Thursday Challenge. It happens to be one of a number of photographs that I have in the files for a new series that I'd like to finish through the spring and summer. This body of work, called Henderson Skyline, consists of photographs of the tallest structures in the Town of Henderson in Jefferson County, New York. From this silo near Flat Rock to the Lighthouse at Tibbett's Point, I've photographed a number of other structures, including some bird houses, atop poles, some fifteen or twenty feet off the ground. The concept is a bit tongue-in-cheek since this area is mostly low, rolling farm country with a scattering of bedrock sticking up through the topsoil in a number of places, but, I digress. So, what am I waiting for? Truthfully, a collaboration with another photographer is exactly what's kept this project on the back burner. Any takers?