I’ve been asked to donate a photograph to a Red Ribbon benefit auction for Madison, Wisconsin’s Aids Network. I like to do what I can to help worthy causes, so of course I agreed to donate a framed print.
My problem is that I can’t decide which of these two photographs I should offer. Help me decide by leaving a message here, or contacting me directly. I need to have the photograph framed by February 15th, which means I need to choose one by February 1st.
Option 1: The Ice Tester
This man has the responsibility of skating on the pond to determine if the ice is safe enough to allow the general public to skate. It was a very silent morning, and even from this distance I could hear his skates as they slooshed across the ice. Even though the ice tester is a key (if very tiny) part of the image, the real star is that amazing old stone bridge. To me, it gives this brand-new photograph the feeling of a vintage classic.
The Ice Tester, 16" x 20"
Option 2: Foggy Morning – White Fence and Black Trees
It may be a photographic cliché, but fog is still so beautiful. It creates instant atmosphere. But, in my opinion, what makes this image interesting and beautiful is the repeated verticals of the trees fading away into the fog, contrasted by the pristine white fence. Just like option one above, the photo evokes the quiet of the morning when I snapped this photograph.
Foggy morning: White fence and black trees, 16" x 20"
Those are the choices. Which photograph do you think will fetch a higher auction price for the charity? Which would you be most proud to display in your home or office?
Please give me feedback… I really need your help.
Thanks for reading.
See more of my photography work at www.keithdotson.com
Public Market, Seattle by Keith Dotson, formerly sold by Urban Outfitters as a canvas print.
Earlier this year, Urban Outfitters offered a canvas print of my photograph Public Market, Seattle on its Web site and in its stores. The entire inventory sold-out in approximately six months, and the image received rave reviews and a unanimous a 5-star rating from buyers.
Since Urban Outfitters sold-out of the canvas wall art prints of Public Market, Seattle, I’ve received many emails from people hoping to purchase the canvas directly from me. Unfortunately, no more canvases are available, and because I can’t buy in scale the way UO does, the price of an identical 20″ x 30″ canvas is fairly prohibitive.
However, I am happy to offer the popular image as black-and-white photographic prints. These are professionally printed, high-quality photographs on luster surface paper (not inkjet prints). All prints are sold unmatted and unframed, but matting is available for additional cost (tell me if you want to know more about mat prices when you email).
PRINT SIZES
11″ x 14″ …………………….. $65.00 + $7.50 Shipping
16″ x 20″……………………… $90.00 + $7.50 Shipping
20″ x 24″ …………………….. $125.00 + $7.50 Shipping
Other sizes are available, just send email to request a specific size.
To order, email me for PayPal information, or visit my Web site at www.keithdotson.com.
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Since Urban Outfitters sold out of the canvas prints of Public Market, Seattle, I’ve had a lot of people enquiring directly for copies of the canvas. Unfortunately, those are no longer available. However, I am happy to offer the popular image to you as a black-and-white photographic print. These are professionally printed, high-quality photographs (not inkjet prints). All prints are sold unmatted and unframed. PRINT SIZES 11″ x 14″ …………………….. $65.00 + $7.50 Shipping 16″ x 20″……………………… $90.00 + $7.50 Shipping 20″ x 24″ …………………….. $125.00 + $7.50 Shipping Other sizes are available. Email to request a specific size. |
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| To order, email me for PayPal information. |
I read an article once where an established career artist advised aspiring artists not to get married or have a family because the art must come first and families will suffer. That sounds a bit extreme — I managed to raise a family on the fruits of my art career — but it’s still a point well taken. Many artists, myself included, are driven to create by an obsession, a compulsion, an irresistible urge to feed the angelic choir we feel in our souls when we get into the flow. It’s an urge that can cause us to resist the encroaching humdrum of normal life and it’s one that partners and family don’t always understand — spouse needs to talk about their day; lawn is overdue to be mowed; kids need a bath; all that becomes secondary to the obsession to create. Take it from my experience, this obsession can become as destructive as it is creative if you aren’t careful. But taken in healthy measure, it can also help us to push our skills to new levels.
Leftover pigments from my watercolor days
For most of the first 40 years of my life, I focused on painting and drawing. Since my time as a young child, I had drawn, sketched or doodled constantly. I drew in school, I drew at home, and when I wasn’t drawing on paper, I actually practiced drawing in my mind. I have a vivid memory of sitting on the sofa as a boy, watching The Flintstones on television, and mentally tracing the lines of Fred Flintstone’s head over and over. I imagined my hand making those lines. It was my own form of visualization.
When I went to art museums, unlike others who would stand back observing a masterpiece, possibly enjoying the brilliance of the finished piece, or its significance in art history, or maybe its place in the oeuvre of the artists career, I would stand as close as possible to the art to study how the master handled brushstrokes, paint texture, or layers of wash. I read about art and artists incessantly, trying to improve my knowledge, my skills, my technique, or my instincts. I would ask myself, “What makes this great art?”
Then in 2006, purely by accident and almost instantly, my obsession switched from drawing/painting to photography. I stopped carrying a sketchbook every where I went, and instead started carrying a camera. I researched photographers and their art. I wrote to photographers whose work I admired (rarely did they write back). I studied Web sites and joined photography groups. I packed away my watercolor brushes and Arches watercolor blocks. But I brought forward with me the sense of line, composition, texture and tone, and the intense work ethic I had developed over the previous decades. I wanted to be good, and I wanted to be good quickly.
Weld Boat House, Harvard: One of the snaps that turned my interest to the pursuit of photography.
Today I see photographs everywhere I look. Often on car trips I battle with my urge to slam the breaks and pull to the road side to snap a photograph of something that presented itself in a flash of inspiration, as a fully formed composition, complete with a framed edge. A companion once complained that I was so busy taking photographs that I wasn’t really enjoying the beauty of the place around me. On the contrary, photography gives me a heightened awareness of all the beauty around me every day, no matter where I go.
If you’d like to see the results of my photography obsession, you can see my black and white photographs on my Web site at www.keithdotson.com.
Thanks for reading.
"Spirits Divided" Petroglyphs made by the Jornada Mogollon people of prehistoric New Mexico
There’s no doubt we live in troubled times. With wars and recessions and changing climates and hostile politics and all the other turbulence, it’s easy to feel things are worse than ever before. Pop culture is currently full of references to the fact that the Mayan calendar ends at 2012, portending what some believe may be the end of the world. Apocalypse movies are back in vogue.
"The People Were Here" at Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. Ironically, the site is located in a basin with the infamous Trinity nuclear test site over the other side of the mountain range
I find comfort in history. Taking the long view helps keep things in perspective. This certainly isn’t the worst of times, nor is it the end of time. Mankind has faced challenges throughout our existence (black plague anyone?) and looking at the lives of the ancients reminds me that our problems aren’t insurmountable. As a history buff and a photographer, I’m fascinated by the places where ancient peoples still talk to us. Seeing the mounds, markings, and structures they built helps me feel part of a long continuum — reminds me my earth-shattering problems aren’t so bad in the big picture.
Ancient cultures were often wise, resourceful, creative, and very much in tune with their environments. They were also often superstitious, crude, violent, biased, warlike, and myopic. In short, they were just humans like us. Yet amazingly they found ways to survive, thrive and even flourish. We will too. Hopefully we’ll leave behind something as beautiful and awe-inspiring as some of them did.
See more of my photographs at www.keithdotson.com.
Crumbling boundary walls at Tulum, Mexico
Hand-painted murals still communicate to us today, hundreds of years after the disuse of this ancient site.
A flare for the dramatic: Ancient peoples certainly knew how to select dramatic locations for the significant sites. This is Tulum, a Mayan site located on the Gulf coast of Mexico.
A cone mound at the massive Cahokia Mound Site, in southwestern Illinois near St. Louis.
"Public Market, Seattle" my canvas print from Urban Outfitters
This post is just to say thank you to everyone who purchased my canvas print “Public Market, Seattle” from Urban Outfitters online store. This was my first experience licensing a photograph for retail and I was nervous it wouldn’t sell. But now, in less than ten months the online store is out of stock, and the reviews posted at the store are fantastic, which I find both flattering and humbling. The fact that people are opening their wallets to purchase a piece of my photography in the worst economy in decades just blows me away.
One buyer said this: “I adore black and white photograhy and art and this particular piece is quintessentially timeless. I lived in Seattle throughout the 90s and this piece conjures up great memories of a great city.” Another said, “If you like black/white photography, you’ll love this piece.” And still another said the print receives lots of comments from visitors.
Dealing with Urban Outfitters has been a very positive experience. They seem to be very artist-friendly in their practices and they treated me fairly every step of the way.
So again, thanks to everyone who brought “Public Market, Seattle” into your home. I hope it adds some small measure of pleasure to your lives.
You can see more of my black and white photography at www.keithdotson.com.
The road into the Wisconsin woods, October 2009
I always loved the Paul Simon lyric, “She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes.” It seems most appropriate in Autumn when the fallen leaves are all varieties of flaming red and yellow. On a recent excursion to the woods, I found myself feeling guilty for walking on the rich carpet of fallen leaves because I felt almost as though I was treading on a priceless collection of precious gems, not just diamonds but all kinds of rubies and garnets and other brilliant stones, and all of them sparkling with drops of freshly fallen rain. All alone, with the silence broken only by the rustling of the leaves as I shuffled through them, it was one of those spiritual moments of perfect beauty when all of the senses are fully alive. My challenge as an artist specializing in black-and-white photography, was finding a way to capture the stunning beauty of that cold, rainy fall day when the most spectacular stimulus came from the vivid colors.
The carpet of fallen leaves, sparkling with fresh raindrops, reminded me of a layer of precious gems
Then I noticed a few stray leaves that had blown off by themselves — lying face down — their silvery undersides sparkling with truly diamond-like beads of rain water. I saw many of the ingredients I rely on for a black and white photograph: contrast, amazing light, texture and form.
Rain drops on the underside of a fallen leaf
To me, these images of beaded, fallen leaves perfectly capture the moment I felt on that chilly, wet, quiet October day. These are the diamonds on the soles of my shoes.
See more of my photographs at www.keithdotson.com
Six of my photographs are available as 18” square art prints for only $19.99 from Fathead.com. Click here for more information about those.
Blog words and pictures copyright 2009 Keith Dotson. All rights reserved.
Just in time for the holidays, Fathead.com is now offering a special discount price on my SM/ART Square photographic prints, when you purchase four or more. At just $19.99 each, SM/ART Squares are already an incredible value. These are high-quality, 18-inch square black-and-white prints that can be framed or hung directly onto the wall.
I love the SM/ART Square concept because it offers affordable art prints by famous artists like Monet and Van Gogh, and by art photographers such as William Wegman (the dog photographer), and myself. In fact, I was honored to be selected to participate in the inaugural launch of SM/ART Squares, alongside such esteemed names from the art world.
These prints make great gifts. You can see all six of my SM/Art Square photographs on my Website at http://www.keithdotson.com/Fathead.html, where you can also link directly to the SM/ART Gallery page on Fathead.com to make the purchase.
This print is one of my six SM/ART Square photographs available from Fathead for just $19.99
Abraham Lincoln at Mt Rushmore, with snow on his forehead and obvious marks left by the stone carvers' work.
Most travel photographs of Mt. Rushmore play up the grandeur, the patriotism, or the beauty of the place with vivid blue skies, blazing sunsets, or perhaps fireworks overhead in the night sky. My photographs of the awe-inspiring setting would probably have been similar, but I visited on New Years Day, when the sky was dead white and the faces were dusted in fresh snow.
Mt. Rushmore seen from a break in the rocks below
Visiting Mt. Rushmore in the middle of winter has obvious disadvantages (it’s really, really cold), but it also has some real advantages: I had the place all to myself… literally. Except for a few frosty park rangers, I was alone on the trails. That kind of solitude provides the opportunity to experience the majesty of the park in an almost zen-like reverence. As a photographer it was amazing to shoot where I wanted, taking my time to concentrate and enjoy the scenery without crowds or interruptions. The unexpected advantage is that the combination of the snow and the soft light allowed me to see the carvings in a whole different way.
By looking at those gorgeous travel photos of the monument, you get the impression Mt. Rushmore is polished smooth, but it actually displays a lot of evidence of the carvers’ work. I was struck by the drill marks and lines, both in the faces and in the debris at the base of the mountain. Even if my photographs of the monument aren’t calendar-worthy, I’m glad I visited when I did, for the light, for the experience, and for the new way of seeing this incredible monument.
View more of my photographs at www.keithdotson.com.
Tool Marks on Debris Below Mt Rushmore
Autumn is well underway here in the northcentral US.
Honking, squealing chevrons of Canadian geese have been flying over for weeks. The air is getting nippy and the trees are starting to go aflame with color. Every farm and market is bursting with big, orange pumpkins, and assorted varieties of wrinkly, bumpy, or otherwise oddly shaped squashes.
Soon, front yards and forest paths will be carpeted with a lush, rusty layer of leaves, and the bare trees will signal that winter isn’t far behind.
George Eliot said, “If I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
I discovered this feather under a tree. It’s not very large and relatively unremarkable as feathers go, but I found it interesting. It’s both simple and incredibly complex. It’s so aerodynamically perfect it almost blew out of my hand while I carried it home. Not until I photographed it did I see the true beauty of its design and form.
To see more studies of this feather and the rest of my black-and-white photographs, go to www.keithdotson.com.
I find these little dried blossoms — which nature gave wings to help with dissemination of the seeds — to be incredibly beautiful. I have photographed variations of these many times. I love the texture and the sheer ingenuity of the design. When they drop they spiral through the air like tiny helicopters. Functional and fun to watch. However, one guy who saw the photo said, “Oh, that’s one of those things that clog my rain gutters.” I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.
See more of my photographs at www.keithdotson.com.
