"Big Bear Lake at Dawn" Book Now Available!

This book is now available! It contains 41 black and white images of Big Bear Lake in Southern California's San Bernardino Mountains--most of which were photographed from a kayak. Signed by Matt Artz.

Visit my Books Page to order! Please allow 3 to 6 weeks for delivery.

"Missions of the Southwest" Book Now Available!

This book is now available! It contains 48 black and white images of historic Missions in California and Arizona. Signed by Matt Artz.

Visit my Books Page to order! Please allow 3 to 6 weeks for delivery.

Lethal Art

"I went to an art exhibit this weekend and got hit in the head with a canvas. I had an art attack."

-- Jim Baumann

What Have **You** Done With It?

"Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest."

--Georgie Okeefe

Shutter Magic Article in the Redlands Daily Facts

I just found out that the Redlands Daily Facts ran an article about the Shutter Magic show back on May 17th! I'm not sure if they illustrated it with one of my photographs or not, because I only saw the mention online, not in print.

[ photograph above: Iris Meadow, 2004, by Matt Artz ]

Visual Haiku

"I often think of my work as visual haiku. It is an attempt to evoke and suggest through as few elements as possible rather than to describe with tremendous detail."

--Michael Kenna

[ photograph above: Japan, 1987, by Matt Artz ]

Shutter Magic Show Opens Today!

The Shutter Magic show opens today at the Chaffee Museum of Art in Rancho Cucamonga.

[ photograph above: Rock Creek, 2004, by Matt Artz ]

Emotion

"A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art."

--Paul Cezanne

William Gregory: Botanicals Gallery

William Gregory's Botanicals Gallery portfolio.

[ photograph above: Still Life, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Another Mention in the Highland Community News

Another nice mention of the Shutter Magic show in yesterday's Highland Community News--this time illustrated by the photo above.

[ photograph above: Little Lakes, 2004, by Matt Artz ]

Tales from the Underground: "Tiling" Experiments, Part II (Offset Images)

This morning I did some further tiling experiments, this time offsetting the images. The results are, in my opinion, much more pleasant. You can compare regular vs. offset byclicking on these links:

Tile #1

Tile #1 (offset)

Tile #2

Tile #2 (offset)

Tile #3

Tile #3 (offset)

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Mathematics and Art

"As a boy in school, my twin subject areas of strongest interest were Mathematics and Art. Photography combines the two so I feel I've really landed on my feet. I originally wanted to be a painter--I seemed to be good in that medium, but I didn't see myself surviving in England. I felt that I needed a way to make a living and photography is an ideal vehicle for both survival and personal expression."

--Michael Kenna

[ photograph above: Redlands, 2003, by Matt Artz ]

Tales from the Underground: "Tiling" Experiments

Photographer Steve Fibonacci has been telling me about taking some of my Tales from the Underground images and "tiling" them on his desktop. This morning I took three images and messed around with them for a few minutes, creating these three files:

Tile #1

Tile #2

Tile #3

I'm exploring the possibility of creating some large-scale tiled pieces like this for display at my Tales from the Underground show next January/February...

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

William Gregory: Anasazi Ruins Gallery

William Gregory's Anasazi Ruins Gallery portfolio.

Shutter Magic Setup

Setup for the Shutter Magic show in Rancho Cucamonga started today; above is a photo of my display. Below is a photo of Jerry Day setting up his display. Linda Hauser and Porf Aguilar were also there setting up. The show opens this Sunday, and the reception is the following Sunday. I hope to see a lot of you there!

Suspicious of Art

"So why do we question so much whether an artist is right to approach the subject matter? I think it's because people are suspicious of art, and because people hate art, actually, people hate artists."

--Jonathan Safran Foer

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Tilman Crane: Orkney Portfolio

Tilman Crane's Orkney Portfolio portfolio.

The Photograph is Not the Thing

"A thing is not what you say it is or what you photograph it to be or what you paint it to be or what you sculpt it to be. Words, photographs, paintings, and sculptures are symbols of what you see, think, and feel things to be, but they are not the things themselves."

--Wynn Bullock

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

William Gregory: Land & Sea Gallery

William Gregory's Land & Sea Gallery portfolio.

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Major "Tales from the Underground" Update

I just posted about 70 (yes, SEVENTY!) new images to the Tales from the Underground gallery...these were taken in two sessions, yesterday (05/20/2005) and the previous Friday (05/13/2005).

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Vision

"Vision without association--pristine vision."

--Minor White

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Bruce Barnbaum: The Hand of Man

Bruce Barnbaum's The Hand of Man portfolio.

Article in Highland Community News

There was a brief mention of the "Shutter Magic" photography show in today's issue of the Highland Community News. It's in the Calendar section, at the very bottom of the page.

Abstract Art

"All good art is abstract in its structure."

--Paul Strand

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Larry Wiese: Gallery 1

Larry Wiese's Gallery 1.

Cumulative Time

"Perhaps most intriguing of all is that it is possible to photograph what is impossible for the human eye to see: cumulative time."

--Michael Kenna

[ photograph above: Big Bear Lake, 2004, by Matt Artz ]

Self Trust

"Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live"

--Goethe

Tilman Crane: Lucent Images Portfolio

Tilman Crane's Lucent Images Portfolio portfolio.

[ photograph above: Big Bear Lake, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Towards a Digital Aesthetic

Digitality: Approximate Aesthetics by Anna Munster.

[ photograph above: Claremont Packing House, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Missions of the Southwest Book

For months (years?) I've been promising to make another PDF book available for free download from my web site. Most of the delay has been due to my investigation of various "print-on-demand" services--that's right, instead of another PDF book, this would be a *real* printed book you could purchase from me!

The print-on-demand technology looks awesome, and I should have some samples in hand within a week or two in order to determine if the quality is good enough to pursue further. Print-on-demand would allow me to produce small quantities of books with a very low initial investment. Books would be printed in very small editions (probably 100 to 300) and each would be signed and numbered.

Hopefully I will have good news on this front within two weeks...

[ photograph above: Mission Carmel, 2002, by Matt Artz ]

The Fourth Dimension

"I now measure my growth as a photographer in terms of the degrees to which I am aware of, have developed my sense of, and have the skills to symbolize visually the four-dimensional structure of the universe."

--Wynn Bullock

[ photograph above: Rock Creek, 2004, by Matt Artz ]

Become a Camera

"Let the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera."

--Minor White

[ photograph above: Still Life, 2005, by Matt Artz ]

Intuition

"What I feel is that the picture-taking process, anyway a greater part of it, is an intuitive thing. You can't go out and logically plan a picture, but when you come back, reason then takes over and verifies or rejects whatever you've done. So that's why I say that reason and intuition are not in conflict--they strengthen each other."

--Wynn Bullock

[ photograph above: Big Bear Lake, 2005 ]

David Maisel: Owens Lake

David Maisel's Owens Lake portfolio.

[ photograph above: Owens Lake, 2004 ]

Harmony

"As I become more in harmony with the world around, through, and in me, the varieties of time weave together."

--Minor White

[ photograph above: Big Bear Lake, 2005 ]

This Morning at Big Bear Lake

I spent about an hour up at Big Bear Lake this morning, kayaking and taking some photographs. It all looked very different; the water level has risen about 15 feet since my last visit there (October 2004). Seven new photographs from this trip have been posted on my web site.

[ photograph above: Big Bear Lake, 2005 ]

One Picture Books...

An interesting concept: One Picture Books.

Inner Tuning

"I have often photographed when I am not in tune with nature but the photographs look as if I had been. So I conclude that something in nature says, 'Come and take my photograph.' So I do, regardless of how I feel."

--Minor White

[ photograph above: Kelso Dunes, 2002 ]

Realism

"I love the medium of photography, for with its unique realism it gives me the power to go beyond conventional ways of seeing and understanding and say, 'This is real, too.'"

--Wynn Bullock

[ photograph above: Claremont Packing House, 2005 ]

Tilman Crane: Scotland Portfolio

Tilman Crane's Scotland Portfolio portfolio.

Shutter Magic Update

I updated the information apge for the Shutter Magic show--fixed a few typos and added the names of three more photographers (Dorothy Brunnell, Dennis Tannen, and Jerry Day).

[ photograph above: Rock Creek, 2004 ]

Time Will Tell

"Don't forget to re-visit your photographs after taking a break from them. Time tends to sort the gems out from the detritus."

--Steven Fibonacci

Maybe Edward Weston's 'Pepper #30' Already Did?

"The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution."

--Paul Cezanne

[ photograph above: Still Life, 2003 ]

Motivation

"An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction is motivated by necessity."

--Manray

[ photograph above: Claremont Packing House, 2005 ]

John Wimberley

John Wimberley, one of the modern masters of black-and-white fine art photography.

Death

"In an artist's life, death is perhaps not the most difficult thing."

--Vincent Van Gogh

[ photograph above: Virginia City, Nevada, 2004 ]

Funny; Is It Available on Amazon.com?

"My family is really boring. They have a coffee table book called 'Pictures We Took Just to Use Up the Rest of the Film.'"

--Penelope Lombard

Fact?

"There are no facts, only interpretations."

--Friedrich Nietzsche

The Source of All Art and Science...

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed."

--Albert Einstein

[ photograph above: Highland, 2005 ]

Evolving Style

"The photographer Ruth Bernhard used to tell me that (how their style evolved) is like asking somebody how they evolved their signature. It is not something I've ever worked on consciously. I think style is just the end result of personal experience. It would be problematic for me to photograph in another style. I'm drawn to places and subject matter that have personal connections for me and I photograph in a way that seems right. Where does it all come from, who knows?"

--Michael Kenna

[ photograph above: Highland, 2005 ]