I don’t have anything
against “reality”, but sometimes it needs tweaking.
Photography
has been my passion since the late ‘60’s when I got my first camera – a
Polaroid Swinger – and immediately started trying to do things with it that it
was never intended to do. In 1974, thinking I would surely be the next Ansel Adams, I
dropped out of Arkansas College, where I majored in Art, to pursue a career as a
Professional Photographer.
Over the
years, on & off, I have made a good portion of my living taking pictures of
people in the “real world”, and still occasionally shoot a wedding or two if
the circumstances are right, or relationships with those involved won’t allow
me to escape the task.
The advent of
digital photography opened up a whole new world.
Now there are no limits to what can be done with any image my camera can
capture. I have found myself wandering away from ordinary photography to put
down on canvas those visions that have always floated around in my head, which
my hands were incapable of creating with a paintbrush.
I start with
my own photographs and digitally manipulate them into canvas art prints.
Often, those resemble the original subject, with only a slight tweaking
to convert them to pastels or watercolors, for example.
Other times I get carried away, and the final image is some bizarre
representation of that subject that comes from somewhere within.
Not my job to figure out why.
The final
images are enlarged, printed on canvas (sometimes paper, if more appropriate),
and “gallery wrapped” on a wooden frame, then signed & numbered.
Usually, production of the prints is limited to thirty.
Once stretched, numbered & signed, I hand paint a U/V protection
coat, which adds brush strokes, making each print truly unique.
I have to
leave it to smarter people than myself to interpret the meanings of my prints
– if indeed there are meanings.
To repeat one
of my favorite illustrators, Gahan Wilson, “I paint what I see.”
I hope you
like what you see.
Peace,
Rick Baber