Vizual Eyez Art Exhibit: November 2007

Monday, November 19, 2007

"City Approach"
Sue Garland

"Reflections"
Sue Garland

"School's In"
Sue Garland

Thomas Cordova

"Ana"
Thomas Cordova

"Tree"
Thomas Cordova

Thomas R. Cordova
Artist Statement
The light and the dark, the good and the evil,
triumph and tragedy.

These two opposing elements are not always in equal measure or
immediately apparent to the viewer.
However, the tension created by the two factors creates
a contrast and enhances the beauty of the work.

This photo series is an expression with household
flashlights that represents the two opposing
elements in all of us.

Photography has always piqued my interest as
a child growing up in a small town in South East
New Mexico. One of my brothers took up
photography as a hobby and sparked the fire
that would become my life long love with the art
of photography.

The first camera I owned, at the age of 10, was a Polaroid,
and whereever I went the camera was always nearby.
I have always thrived to see thee most common object
in a different way.
Every day I am absorbed in my photographic work.

"Irwindale"
Rena Monico

"Melrose"
Rena Monico

"Sunset"
Rena Monico

Artist Statement

My approach is to encapsulate a moment, which impacts feelings of realism, stirs feelings and gives an everlasting impression of the colors and tones of the moment.

Rena Y. Monico

Richard Midgley

Patrick Gadut

Patrick Gadut

Artist Statement

These photos are a sampling of my present direction in photography. They also have an underlying connection that is an important part of my inner experience when composing and capturing images.
For each, I saw the image with my eyes and/or my mind, captured the image with my camera and the resultwas what I saw. Just a moment when everything falls into place.
I am naturally drawn to photographing images of nature and people, also images with an underlying feeling of quietness.

Patrick Gadut10/31/07

Juan Alaniz

Juan Alaniz

Juan Alaniz
Artist Statement
My mother was my inspiration and motivation in life. After she passed away in a car accident, I was left with a void.
I turned to photography as a distraction of my daily routine in life.
Photography has given me an opportunity to document and preserve the memories of our daily lives.
I capture and document love, happiness, hate, surprise, anger, loneliness, joy and passion.
I believe "to remember is to live" and that through my work I can reach out to people by bringing a smile or even a tear to their face. Furthermore, allowing them to relive the joy of "remembering".
On my series "Los olvidados" (the forgotten ones),
I head out to the streets of Los Angeles, California. As I capture people living on sidewalks, using cardboard as blankets and shopping carts as storage, I want to let the world know that these are people in need. They are human.
People living in the streets are hopeless, useless, and often in fear for their lives. At some point, their lives got diverted to the obscure life of the streets. They’re in desperate need of a smile, a helping hand, a warm bed, a secure shelter. Unfortunately, they have been forgotten. They range from infants, teens, young and old. There is no age just a face without a name.

Juan Alaniz

Margie Molina

Margie Molina

Metaphoric Realism
Margie Molina- Artist Statement

I never felt I had a choice in becoming an artist, it simply exists as I exist.

I findthe creative process blind to limitations, demanding all of me.

The work process is violating to the physical body as well as to the mind, and that is what I find beautiful. I find the appetite of the creative process demanding on the artist, yet liberating.

To be an artist is conflicting, drawing attention to the art, therefore to the artist.
Exposing the hidden is poetic.

Revealing the nature of my person makes me vulnerable.
I prefer to be private and hidden; it gives the illusion of safety.

I hesitate to sit on the lap of vulnerability but it seduces me to come and sit for awhile.
Inspiration makes way from a sentimental state in my soul. Attention is given to
the alterations of the mind as it strains to accept its conditions.

Exploring a state of mind, guides me to see man’s plight and his journey in search of his value.
I am particularly inspired to materialize the melancholy state of females.

Study is given to the temporal moment of a romanticized solitude.
Emerged in mood, I labor until the birth of an image. Empathizing with the
disposition of the body and mind as it fights, gives up, and endeavors to find it’s place,
makes way to an acrylic filled palette, to the clicking of a camera.

My body of work includes expressionism and realism. At times I venture out in
search of metaphors revealing brokenness, and melancholy forms found in structures or
witnessed in nature. I am drawn to geometric forms depicting despair, unisons, or
movement.

Throughout my studies, may vision be brought to my eyes. May this creative
journey lead me to find my place among man and, in the process, gain more compassion
and more love. I selfishly partake in creativity to gain the breath of liberation.

Julia Hart

The desert is a place of great expanse and harsh elements.
But within these extremes lies a beauty as soft as the curving lines of a sand dune, and as quiet as the pastel colors of its vistas.
The textures of its rock formations and the tangles of its trees a variety of soothing yet eerie feelings.
In the desert's aridness, weather can make a striking difference in in how we see it. Clouds may not contribute much moistureto the ground, but most certainly soften the contrasts caused by the desert's extreme heat and light.
In 2005, California was blessed with an extraordinary display of spring wildflowers.
The deserts came alive.
This rich display of color drew me back to the desert after an abscence of many years.
I was again awed by its beauty.
Through the spring of 2007 I continued to make several sojourns back to capture the soft and quiet beauty of this stark environment.

Red White and Blue 1
Dave Thomas

Red White and Blue 2
Dave Thomas

Red White and Blue 3
David Thomas

Artist’s Statement of
David E Thomas

I took my first picture of a homeless family in downtown Bogota, Colombia over 40 years ago.
I remember thinking how glad I was that my county didn’t have social problem as serious as that.
At that time I never would have dreamed that the number of people on our streets who were homeless, addicted or mentally ill would grow so dramatically in the decades to come.
I became a “street photographer” in Colombia because I wanted to record the lives and customs of its people.
Recently, I rediscovered street photography when I realized that it was more interesting to walk (with my camera) through downtown Los Angles to my employer’s newly relocated offices rather than ride there on a bus. So each day very early in the morning I walked almost a mile down South Broadway looking (hunting) for interesting things and people to photograph.
“Artistic” landscapes and sleeping homeless people became my easiest “prey”. Occasionally, I risked “shooting” homeless people who were awake and potentially hostile.
However, while I have found the “hunt” to be challenging, I have hoped that at sometime my photos of the homeless could be used to raise the public’s consciousness about the plight of these people, many who are victims of our society’s failings.
Still it’s the “thrill of the hunt” that drives me.
Getting a great shot is very satisfying.

Alvino DeMeo

Bird Goddess and Bird of Pardise

Birthing Bird Goddess

Natura Erotica

Artist’s Statement:
Recently, in the last 5 or 6 years, I have become intrigued by combining photographs together to convey or to create an interesting/inspiring/thought provoking final image.
These Images I call PhotoImages.
Definition of PhotoImages:
PhotoImages I define as any process that begins with a photograph and uses that image to enhance, transform, combine it with other images and, in general, manipulate it in any way you want to (mostly in PhotoShop) in order to create an interesting/inspiring/thought
provoking final image

Alvino DeMeo

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Don Hanson "Spirit of Martha Graham" 2006
(new title, 6-29-08)

Don Hanson "Jelly Fish Waltz" 2007

Don Hanson "Red Kachina Dance" 2007

Artist Statement:

I have been fascinated by the play of light and time since I first saw Gjion Mili’s photograph of Pablo Picasso drawing a picture of a bull in mid air using a pen light as his “brush”.

These images are part of my continuing exploration of that technique.

Using LED pen lights and Photoshop, I can generate images that dance in patterns
that are not possible in the original making of the image.

Don Hanson

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Side A of exhibit postcard: 14 Artists

Group Exhibit by 14 Artists:

1) Juan Alaniz
2) Fazeel Chauhan
3) Thomas R. Cordova
4) Alvino DeMeo
5) Patrick Gadut
6) Sue Garland
7) John Gee
8) Don Hanson
9) Julia Hart
10) Richard Midgley
11) Margie Molina
12) Rena Monico
13) Kenneth Roberts
14) David Thomas

Side B of exhibit postcard: details

Vizual Eyez

Exhibit by Emerging Artists,
Beginning November 30, 2007

at:
Tri-Community Photo Center
252 W. Puente Street, Covina, CA 91723

Exhibit Hours, Open Daily
Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday: 7:30am - 10:00pm
Fri: 6:30pm-9:30pm... Sat: 7:30am - 6pm... Sun: 12noon - 7pm
Contact: Vizual_Eyez @ yahoo.com

Sunday, November 4, 2007