A Book End piece: Is began before the Flood of '93

I started using a plastic $10 Panorama camera I had picked up in Topeka at Wolfes Camera That Spring of 1993 and while the image I will post first was not done with these plastic cameras, the sweeping change in style erupted from that winter and spring" Before the Flood actually over took my home.

This piece was one in a series I started that used a 1942 Websters Dictionary i rescued from a yard sale after it had rained on it. My friend and I drove down that street everyday toward her house on the way home and it rained almost everyday in Kansas that Spring. So I saw this old dictionary still sitting there wet and finally i stopped and took it home and rescued it.... a life changing event for my artistic style that year.


 (I will reserve this space for the photo of said dictionary as it was resurrected).....Please Stand By.


Thinking in the literary idiom (like "Thinking in the Photographic Idiom" a book title I have, also in a box where my real life resides) is and was a new deeper trick to add to my photography. If I could NOT get people to look at Actual Photographs then i would used torn scraps of (fine papers) paper and a label maker to transcend the standard issue 'picture' and make the viewer ask WHAT does it mean?

I am guessing; Poets are sometimes asked What does that mean also. So the process of searching a 1942 Dictionary clearly took on dramatic cultural and social difference in references to women and objects as well as an idea based on a WORD. A word i found that was a catalyst to really make me think and then USE THOSE OLD words was the word "Nymphomaniac" in 1942 that was not such a nice thing about the female gender: whereas in 1993, it did not seem to appear harsh in meaning - except for a one guy I used to know...briefly..what they said is true.....

again I digress...........

The technique of searching words and then pairing them up took on an entire process in itself: That was the fun of it not for everyone - it is tedious and looking up meanings in newer dictionaries Circa 20th Century: was like an addiction that then turned into collecting Dictionaries.

Note the paper backs i bought just 3 years ago, stunned me in lack of any sophistication of vocabulary or breadth of diversity and knowledge of much more than slang. So you might know "Cassette Player" but unless your older the word: Terse... Right out the window.

My favorite dictionary was the 1981 Funk and Wagnalls paper back, and I found older Funk and Wagnalls, even a large double set.

So Once the word pairs were taped to a page- reflecting my intent or covert poetry or signals of hidden personal meaning and to be sure the totally out there enigma word traps that when combined with the photograph the viewer had to ponder any deeper meaning as it applied to them - or just be hacked off at me.

 I did however provide a long narrow tablet (list) with xerox copies of the 1942 Websters meanings in the first exhibit i got a grant from the university to present in the Student Union of KSU. ...and My first newspaper review.

So with the words printed or rather squeezed out of the old label maker, those were then paired up with the words - still on the plain paper one word at top and other at bottom and single CONTACT sized black and White photographic print Very small.
The image in this first post of "Debutante:Aphasia" is an actual 35mm frame with extra black around edge to show it is full frame of the negative: THIS IS how I presented all photographs- Never Cropped or edited - ..as so many faux Photographers do today: shoot a crappy pic and edit in Photoshop! I was actually told that by someone who said its all in the computer now.. (after that statement: I went scorched earth into searching for any works on Photographic Ethics - did not find what I needed - so there was my bitch about it.. )

 After all the paper was torn into sizes mostly around 3"x3" or very similar - with exception of later postcards and tiny 2"x2" many where in this size range- it make you get close to read it and see photo and then the paint....

So the paint. After the labels were applied on white papers and taped to a cardboard backing the Paint was rubbed on with fingers - layer on layers; working with paint directly from many small jars or tubes of many colors (or favorites) at some point when I had enough to fill desk or drying stand- I glued down the photos.

I then used left over fabric paint that made glossy, raised dots and to add to those were very small brushes- at some point. I also found I like metallic paint especially gold, and iridescent tints.
I also began using old pens and nails and sandpaper to scratch into the surfaces- thus the added nuance. finally I used the finest brush to highlight the lettering across top of embossed labels - not always but especially when your making a pun or feast out of the paint the words are always important in the process.


SO Now what make a youtube video and show you the dvd of my musical portfolio? sorry the last least has left me wanting and the old PowerMac is just tired too and too old.... I will try to add a image with a Panorama photograph to represent similar words. it appears blogging is time consuming and in this chair- painful as well........ DON'T FORGET TO FEED THE FISH.......