Valentine Week – Day 2

by Alden Cole on February 9, 2015 · 0 comments

“There is music, even in the beauty and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument.” – Sir Thomas Browne (1905-1982)

CameraSketchesWPCamera Sketches, aka “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou…” • 2 photographic prints • 18″ x 24″ framed • collection of the artist.

Inspired by the DaVinci Art Alliance’s Open Lens, a juried photography show open to interested area artists for the reasonable fee of $10 for three pieces, I decided to submit my first entries ever to a photography show. Considering the fact that I have taken thousands of photographs over the years it seemed appropriate to try. My first choice was pairing two photographs taken at different times from my third floor studio, of an unsuspecting neighbor and a workman. By combining them artfully I took another look at the age-old story examining affairs of the heart.

YearningWPYearning • oil on linen • 20″ x 16″ • collection of Ed and Sophie Bronstein

January 2012: inspired by the left photo in the composition above, I painted this tribute to yearning and youth – a young Juliet at her window, waiting… The original photo was taken in 2010 of my young neighbor Olivia Billborough, whom I did not actually meet until this past December shortly after meeting her parents, Paul and Arline, for the first time at a neighborhood holiday party. The painting had been created rather spontaneously one weekend in mid-January 2012 as my entry for a show of art inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It won a third prize, and shortly thereafter my friend Ed Bronstein bought the painting as a present for his wife Sophie.

Romeo.WPRomeo, Romeo… • acrylic on panel • 16″ x 12″ • collection of the artist

2013: My first attempt at a companion piece to the above painting was this one painted in the fall of 2013, based on a series of photographs taken earlier that spring of a workman who had been doing demolition and construction work on the home of neighbors Mike Gaudioso and Linda Searnock. Unlike the photo chosen for the dual composition at the top, this examination of the Romeo-like protagonist shows the lover in a moment of pensive self-reflection. You’d almost think he was aware of the camera’s presence and posing rather self-appreciatively…

Dawn2Dusk800Dawn to Dusk – a series of photographs taken hourly, starting at 6:30 a.m. one summer day while leisurely vacationing in Maine • 14 4″ x 6″ photo prints mounted on 30″ x 20″ board, framed • collection of the artist

Neither this piece or the photo composition above of “Juliet and her Romeo” survived the jurying process to make it into the DaVinci Open Lens show, which had inspired their preparation and framing. However, my third entry did pass the jurying process, and will be featured in two days. Stay tuned…

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