Book Arts and Photography

Books on Display Exhibition Opening

Friday March 6, 2015, the Central Branch Library will be hosting Night Lights an evening of arts and crafts. As part of the evening, I will have an exhibition of twenty photographs. The photographs are from a series of images taken over several years of the window display by Caryl Askins, owner of Paul’s Book Store, 670 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin. Doors to the exhibition open at 8pm. The event will continue until 11 pm. It will be great to see you at the opening. Once the exhibition opens, you will be able to see more photos from the exhibit by clicking on this Books on Display link or by clicking on the image above. The exhibition will remain in the 3rd floor gallery at the Central Branch Library at 201 West Mifflin Street, Madison, Wisconsin until April 23, 2015.

Twin Peaks: Black Lodge Photo Booth

Friday, February 6 at the Madison Public Library yours truly will be working with other artist to create a “Photo ‘Op” Photo booth during the Twin Peak Anniversary event. Photos snap shots start at 8PM. Stop by for a photo. It will be worth a thousand words. More information at Madison Public FaceBook events pages. The event was well attended and we all had fun! Check out the photos here.

Student move out day.

Move out day for many apartments in Madison, Wisconsin is today, August 15th. It reminded me that some years ago I grabbed these wheels from a broken desk chair on West Washington Avenue. I knew I could make something out of the star shaped wheels. Then my son Will returned home from school with a few milk crates. Dad’s always have zip ties. Above is my mobile studio flash lighting cart, with a battery power supply! It has a much smaller foot print than regular studio light stands.

UW Mad Arts!

Arts Institute Award Ceremony. Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. University of Wisconsin Madison. May 15, 2014. (Jim Escalante Photography)

Last night the Arts Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison hosted a celebration event to honor students and faculty from the arts on campus. Visit a gallery of photos of the 2014 Arts Institute Awards at this gallery. Albeit, most images are of Art Department, my home!

The need for scale in an installation

Master of Fine Arts installation by Natasha Hovey

Artist often ask if they need to include a reference to show scale. As Natasha and I walked in the gallery, a group of students were in the gallery. I asked Natasha to stand still and asked the students to mingle around quickly. I took about 10 photos with a 1/4 second shutter speed and then created a GIF file. This shows how tall the piece is and the students provide a certain amount of the depth of the piece. Plus it is a bit lighthearted. Thanks to the students. You can see more images of Natasha Hovey’s artwork here.

Birch bark canoe is launched

On November 21, 2013 visiting artist Wayne Valliere (Mino-giizhig in Ojibwe), of the Lac du Flambeau band of Lake Superior Chippewa and a crowd of supporters launched a birch bark canoe at Lake Mendota, Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more information please visit the UW-Madison Art Department website. Visit this link to see more photographs of  Wayne Valliere’s canoe and the launch.

Post production for postcard

Recently, artist Lisa Gralnick needed a photograph for a show announcement. The work is still in progress and we quickly set up a still life in an area with soft available light. The photos needed  editing prior to be used for a post card. This link shows a short video on the steps used to prepare the file for a 4 x 6 inch postcard. You can see more of Lisa Gralnick’s photos at this link.

The postcard arrived in the mail! You can see photos of art work by Lisa Gralnick and Venetia Dale at this link.