Starting a New Project?...

Well, I should be done shooting my "Memory Project" (still a working title), as my parents are fully moved into their new home. But I'm not quite ready to be sequencing that project and working out how those images are all going to go together. I may START doing that, but I think it will take me a while to figure this all out.

In the meantime, I've been thinking about starting a project in the Midway Neighborhood of St. Paul. Midway gets it's name because it's about midway between the 2 downtowns (Minneapolis and St. Paul). There seem to always be a lot of people in transition in Midway, and I think that will become my subject.

I figured the 4th of July was just as good of a day as any to start "scouting" for this project. So I headed out with my camera to make some photographs. I only got 2 mediocre images before the sky opened up and rained me out. This first image is a fitting way to start a project on the 4th of July, right?

"Perkins Flag with Storm Clouds on the 4th of July"


"Selling Michael Jackson Memorial T-Shirts"

These aren't great shots. I didn't even know if I wanted to put them up here. But I want to make myself get going and work on this project.

I need to just go out and shoot. A lot. A LOT a lot. Here we go......

Camera Evolution

12x12 Show at CVA

Sorry for 3 posts in a row about the same show, but I have a few more images to share that I took last night. I was able to see the show with no huge crowd (unlike at the opening). I was teaching a summer course at the College of Visual Arts, and the gallery was open when we wrapped up class. Here's a few of the back corner of the gallery:

All 2D work had to be EXACTLY 12 inches by 12 inches. It lends itself to a formally interesting show, with a variety of work. Here's a view looking to the front of the gallery:

That's my piece to the far left of that image, right by the front window. Good exposure! Here's yet a closer view:

And finally, one shot for Mom, showing me with my piece. Mine's the one I'm pointing to......

CVA Alumni Show Reception

Friday night was a lot of fun! I was able to catch up with some former classmates (and a few former faculty members) that I hadn't seen in YEARS. The CVA gallery and Room 404 next to the gallery were full of people the whole time I was there. I didn't actually make it into the gallery until I'd been there for about an hour (I kept running into old friends).

Here's a shot from the back of the gallery as the reception was winding down:

Look closely at the middle of that image. That's my photograph as the very first piece of art on the wall at the very front of the gallery:

I used the image of the tricycle as the image that would TRY to encompass the entire project. That's a tough thing for one piece to do, and I don't know that it completely worked.... Anyway, this is the piece I'm referring to:

That's all for now...

Show Opening

Just a quick note to invite you all to an opening at the College of Visual Arts Gallery at 173 Western Avenue in St. Paul (on the corner of Western and Selby avenues). The opening is this Friday, June 12th, from 6-9 pm. I'll be there for most of it. I'd love to see you there!

I'll snap some photos at the reception. It should be a pretty cool show. I'll post again next week. Thanks!

Final Work for the Memory Project

I think I’m done shooting for the “Memory Project” (still a working title). Now I need to figure out how everything goes together and try to turn it into a cohesive project. Here’s the last of the shots from earlier this spring:

“Reel Mower”


“Skis, Life Jacket, Clorox”


“Granary Door”


“Under the Feed Scale”


“Boat Shed Door”


“Dad’s Snow Blower”


“Spring Melt”

Jon Arbuckle Teaches Color Theory

I made some new images 2 weeks ago. (I'm trying to wrap up the shooting for this current project, and then move more heavily into the editing and sequencing stage.) I still need to pick up the negatives from DigiGraphics.

In the meantime, this Garfield comic from a week ago made me laugh:

Ha! Good stuff! Back with some new images shortly...

Honesty: NOT Always The Best Policy

If you didn’t know, I’m a college art and design professor. I teach at a few different colleges/universities in the area. I teach mostly photo/design/media classes. But at one of the schools, I also teach a Foundation Color Theory course.

Before we jump right in to color, we first reacquaint ourselves with value. One of our first projects was a 9-step achromatic value scale. One student had some troubles, and on his/her envelope, he/she labeled it like this:

"9 Value Scale of Crap"
(I removed the student’s name to protect his/her identity)

Honesty: not always the best policy.

Purdy Pictures

It’s time to take a break from my regularly scheduled posts. Here’s something a little different.

I took my Holga to Mexico a month ago, and I made some pretty photos just for the sake of making pretty photos. Don’t judge me. Here are 4 of them:

“Driftwood with Conch Shells”


“Flowering Tree”


“Waves at the Beach”


“Plants Growing on the Cliff”

Thank you. You may now return to your snowy and dreary Minnesota winter. Sheesh. I’m ready for spring.

Quote on "Seeing"

This was sent to me by one of my mentors:

At first, it appears that nothing could be easier than seeing. We just point our eyes where we want to go, and gather in whatever there is to see. Nothing could be less in need of explanation. The world is flooded with light, and everything is available to be seen. We can see people, pictures, landscapes, and whatever else we need to see, and with the help of science we can see galaxies, viruses, and the insides of our own bodies. Seeing does not interfere with the world or take anything from it, and it does not hurt or damage anything. Seeing is detached and efficient and rational. Unlike the stomach or the heart, eyes are our own to command: they obey every desire and thought.

Each one of those ideas is completely wrong. The truth is more difficult: seeing is irrational, inconsistent, and undependable. It is immensely troubled, cousin to blindness and sexuality, and caught up in the threads of the unconscious. Our eyes are not ours to command; they roam where they will and then tell us they have only been where we have sent them. No matter how hard we look, we see very little of what we look at. If we imagine the eyes as navigational devices, we do so in order not to come to terms with what seeing really is. Seeing is like hunting and like dreaming, and even like falling in love. It is entangled in passions--jealousy, violence, possessiveness; and it is soaked in an affect--in pleasure and displeasure, and in pain. Ultimately, seeing alters the thing that is seen and transforms the seer. Seeing is metamorphosis not mechanism.

James Elkins, The Object Stares Back

Nice. Interesting thoughts. Thanks Lynda!

Fall and Winter New Work

It’s Valentines Day. I have some work for you. Consider it my Valentines to you.

“Dad’s Main Hopper at Harvest”


“Soybean Stubble and ‘The Tree’”


“The Old Tricycle in the Garage”


“Asparagus Patch Over the Winter”


“Snow From the North”


“Tiles Behind the Bins”

2 Funny Photo Things...

I'll have some new work up shortly. In the meantime, have a good laugh:

Good stuff!

Rhodes Scholar and CVA Holiday Show

First of all, I’d like to congratulate one of my current students, Ashley Nord. She was just named one of this years Rhodes Scholars! I will be the first to say that, being her Digital Photography instructor, I had everything nothing to do with her success. Here’s her bio in the official press release:

Ashley L. Nord, Rapid City, will graduate in December from the University of Minnesota with a triple major in physics, astrophysics and global studies, and a minor in Spanish. A pole vaulter who won fourth place in the Big Ten championships, she has conducted research in biophysics at ULCA and astronomy at the Universities of Hawaii and Minnesota. She has also been active as a tutor, and is writing a senior thesis on the drug trade between Latin America and the United States. At Oxford, Ashley will do a doctorate in physics.

I want to invite all of you to the College of Visual Arts Holiday Sale! Current students, faculty, staff, and alumni have work VERY reasonably priced at this holiday sale in St. Paul. The sale contains work that is all priced under $200! And there's a silent auction for more expensive pieces. The artists receive 50% of the sale, and the remainder goes to different scholarship funds at the College. Come check it out! I’ll be there for the preview party on Friday night, and then for the sale on Saturday.

173 Western Ave, St. Paul
(@ Western and Selby)

December 6th, 10 am - 4 pm



See you there!

The Minne Photo Show

Tonight was the opening of the “Minne Photo Show” at Fallon in downtown Minneapolis. It was a collection of great Minnesotan photographers, and I was honored to be a part of it!

You can see the writeup about the show here: http://www.fallon.com/minnephotoshow/

In case that site isn’t up forever, here are 2 screen shots. This is the little write-up about which art is on which floor (I’m the one with the church and the Clydesdales on the 25th floor):

And here’s my work on their site, right next to my friend Erika Ritzel:

I got a “private tour” of the show with their art buyer, Kerri, along with 2 of the photographers in the show: Brian Lesteberg (whom I’ve known since grad school) and Kristine Heykants (whom I met in Santa Fe over 2 years ago [even though she’s a local]).

I hope everyone at Fallon is able to enjoy the great local work on their walls for a few more weeks!

Lunchtime Lecture at CVA

Two days ago, I gave a “Lunchtime Lecture” at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. I presented the last few bodies of work from the last few years for the students, faculty, and staff. When it was over, Kelly Hulander (who sets up the lectures) told me that there were 3 times the amount of people at my talk than at any of the others! Great! I hope they liked it!

Show at Silver Eye Center For Photography

The 2-person show that I was just a part of recently came down. It was in the New Works Gallery at the Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, PA. Here are 2 screenshots from their website:

And a close-up:

It's interesting how they paired me with another Mid-Westerner. I don't know how that makes me feel...

Anyway, back to teaching. Time to go push back the frontiers of vagueness...

New Work

I've finally scanned a few negatives that I made a few weeks ago. As always, here are some that have potential (these were all shot in the house, which is something new for this project):

“Dad's Stereo”


“Thermometers”


“The Back Porch Closet”


“The Basement Sink”


“The Canning Shelves”


“Holding The Freezer Shut”

Work at Fallon’s HQ

I was recently contacted by an art buyer from Fallon (world renowned design firm - among other things, they produced the famous “Cat Herding” Super Bowl commercial a few years ago). Their art buyer wanted to hang 2 of my pieces at Fallon’s headquarters in downtown Minneapolis (Fallon also has offices in London, Singapore, and Tokyo). I went downtown this morning to drop off the pieces.

Here they are outside of my car, ready to be delivered (I’m such a geek for taking a photo of this, I know). The smaller image is framed 18x22, and the larger image is framed 23x28:

I call this image “Two Photos and Wheel-Well Rust.”

I headed up to the 24th floor and dropped of the work. Then I took a minute to enjoy the view. Here are the fall colors in the distance from 24 stories up:

Out another window was the Foshay Tower:

After taking in the views, I thanked the woman who helped me at Fallon, and took a minute to walk along the farmers market down Nicollet Ave:

New images shortly. I promise...