Light Study in Photography

Light Mosaic Series

Light Mosaic/Below the Surface

I often think that the light dancing in or on the water is a beautiful way that a Higher Power has chosen to communicate love to us if we will just pause long enough to see it and receive it.

The lake light photographs were taken in September 1999. We had moved to Incline Village from Sonora, CA, the month before. Due to leaving my circle of artist friends in Sonora, the move had been very difficult for me, but I had dreamed what I had thought was an impossible dream of living near both water and mountains, and now my dream had come true. I immediately fell in love with my dear Lake Tahoe and became very attached to the heart of the Sierra.
I have long been attracted to mysterious and playful light, shadow, reflection….and the way light can be magically diffracted…..as in the way light dances through water, whether in a glass or in a body of water. I became mesmerized by the mosaic patterns of light in the water at certain times of the day and by the interesting way reflections of commonplace things like the poles on a pier could appear as mystical figures dancing in the water and attempted to capture that mystery in these photographs.

Light Mosaic/Bear

Light Mosaic/Sacred Language

Shadow Study Series

Shadow Study 99.19

The Shadow Study photographs and paintings were inspired after I saw a show of Manuel Neri’s figure studies at the art museum in Palm Springs several years ago.

We usually spend Thanksgiving week in Palm Springs, so during our visits over the next 2-3 years, I photographed a series of studies of my shadow. The condo we stayed in had a tiny fenced-in pool, so I could take the photographs with no interruption. I took at them at various times of the day and had so much fun playing with the various shadows I could make with my body combined with the varying angles of light against the concrete or water. In some I looked very tall and skinny…..in others, very wide and square and monstrous. I was also able to create interesting shapes such as haloes, using a hat, etc. After I developed the first series, I saw some interesting things that I hadn’t been aware of when taking the photographs…….for instance, the words “No Diving” placed within or across my shadow. I had been reading a book about the shadow (psychologically), so this coincidence inspired me to do a series of triptychs exploring my own shadow aspects (anger, fear, feeling powerless, etc).

Shadow Study 00.1.12

In the triptychs I used 3 copies of the same photo and painted on the photos exploring the shadow aspect and then the shadow aspect with light shone on it (anger/shadow……..phoenix rising/light).

Some of these paintings on the photographs helped me to explore and work some through some difficult things I had experienced in my childhood. I also began to play with the placement of seams in the concrete, leaves that had fallen, etc. within my shadow.

Here at Vista Gallery are examples of the shadow photos as well as hand-colored giclee prints of some of the painted shadow explorations.