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South Portland #75

This is a section of a freight car with 13 horizontal bars of reflective material that has been painted over with graffiti. This was some sort of early barcode system called KarTrak ACI (Automatic Car Identification) that when scanned would identify the railcars and the rolling stock. The ACI system was abandoned in the late1970’s. This car was retagged with purple and silver paint before it moved on.

Palermo #322

Transformative Visions @ Union of Maine Visual Artists - UMVA - 516 Congress street, Portland, ME opening May 5th 2023

About my abstract work: I spend a lot of time in vintage auto salvage yards and boatyards where I discover incredible visual elements that inspire me the same way as do the great abstract painters. I hunt for this wild art, looking for patterns, color, texture & composition in subjects both man-made and natural; embellished by chance and patinated by nature, with an unspoken history of random events that can only be guessed or imagined. There is no reference to the identity or the scale of what I photograph; the abstract imagery coaxes a personal interpretation contingent upon the viewer’s imagination.

Lancaster #13

I was on my way to Montpelier, VT when I chanced by a lot full of dumpsters in Lancaster, NH. I didn’t have a lot of time, but I grabbed some shots of what I think was the most beautiful dumpster that I had ever seen. Every section had something interesting going on, and with some amazing color! it was early spring and the receding snow had left sand deposits caught by the rust. It was a photographic jackpot!

I went back at a later date to take more time to reshoot it, but it was gone! So, having traveled so far, decided to shoot what was still there. I set up my tripod and was shooting another interesting dumpster, when I heard someone say: “What are you doing?!” I turned and saw a man standing with his hands on his hips. I replied that I was taking a picture of a dumpster (which was pretty obvious) … then added that that he probably really wanted to ask why was I taking a picture of a dumpster? He nodded, still puzzled, and asked if it was his dumpster. He affirmed that it was, and then I asked him to come over and take a look through the viewfinder, which he did, at which point he said: Oh, cool!” or something to that effect. “exactly” I said, “and if you blow this up & put it on a wall .. and don’t know it is a dumpster: way cool!”

Then I asked him what happened to the other dumpster … and my worst fears were confirmed; he told me that he had gotten rid of it. But how do you throw out a dumpster? Have you ever tried to throw out a bad trash can? ….. they keep leaving it, because it is the trash can! It turns out he sold it for scrap as it was too decrepit and unsightly (which is not easy for a dumpster) to be of use; an embarrassment to his fleet. A shame, I thought it was just getting good!

Pit #79

Transforming raw earth into art.

With my drone I capture the unintentionally artistic abstract patterns made by the men who are constantly moving, sorting and piling various gravels.  They create designs in the earth; the beauty of which, I assume, they are quite oblivious, as their unwitting artistry can only be appreciated from above.

Pit 917

The linear piles look like skeletal fingers that have dragged scratching the sand.

Pit #631

A favorite subject for me to shoot with the drone: gravel pits. The textures, shapes, and colors are always surprising and the patterns of the tire & tread tracks add to the mix.

Pits or Piles?

I was shooting a group of gravel piles with the drone; moving around; rotating; hooting at different angles and positions,. When I reviewed the images for the day I had two images of the piles that were of the same area, but 180 degrees different in orientation. Curiously one shot looked like piles of gravel while the other looked like pits in the ground and they were shot just about a minute apart, so the lighting had nothing to do with this interesting optical illusion. What made the images transform from positive to negative space? I decided to do a mirror image of the same shot and lo and behold you see it both ways …. a transformative vision.

Farrago #25

Transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary by combining unlikely sources: a boat hull in Eastport, ME, a dumpster in Lancaster, NH, a ‘54 Ford in Berwick, ME, and the fender of an old Dodge flatbed truck out in back of Harold’s Cave Creek Corral in Cave Creek, AZ.

Farrago #26

I look for sections of objects that strike me as abstract paintings; rust, organic growths, dents, scratches, cracks, patina, weathering, erosion, corrosion, reflection, fading, peeling paint, and shadows produce layers that interest me. In the Farrago Series I take this a step further creating my own layers from disparate sources transforming them into one abstract image.

Farrago #7

A patinated vintage fire truck in White River Junction, VT, a derelict delivery van in Machiasport, ME, and a graffiti laden freight train in Portland, ME transform into this abstract piece.

Farrago #8

Composed of a rusted steel plate on the side of a lobster boat in Jonesport, ME and a scorched minivan in Warren, MA; an unlikely, but compelling pairing.