Showing posts with label David Fokos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Fokos. Show all posts

Friday, April 27, 2012

Loveliest of Trees

 

The last Friday of April is set aside annually in celebration of National Arbor Day, a holiday which encourages the planting and caring for of trees and other foliage.  According to our good friend, Wikipedia, it originated in Nebraska during the early 1870's and has since spread to a global level.

What better way to celebrate the greenest of holidays with a vertically integrated product: trees make paper, photographs are printed on paper, photographs on paper look FABULOUS on your walls!  See the logic there?

So in honor of the 140th Arbor Day here is a small forests' worth of the photography world's best trees!

Mitch_Dobrowner_Wind_Swept_Tree

Mitch Dobrowner: Wind Swept Tree

 

Maggie_Taylor_Oh_Happy_Day  Jerry_Uelsmann_Untitled_1969

Maggie Taylor: Oh, Happy Day      |      Jerry Uelsmann: Untitled, 1969

 

Josef_Hoflehner_Elephant_Hill_Pathway  Jeffrey_Conley_Snow_Covered_Branches

Josef Hoflehner: Elephant Hill Pathway      |    Jeffrey Conley: Snow Covered Branches

 

central park #21

Takeshi Shikama: Central Park #21

 

Jeri_Eisenberg_Magnolia_No_9

Jeri Eisenberg: Magnolia, No. 9

 

22_Forever  Michael_Crouser_Girl_and_Tree

Susan Burnstine: Forever    |    Michael Crouser: Girl and Tree

 

Brett_Weston_Holland_Canal

Brett Weston: Holland Canal

 

Charles_Grogg_Bonsai_(Juniper)  Jefferson_Hayman_Tree_Central_Park  Keliy_Anderson_Staley_Plum_Tree_Connecticut

Charles Grogg: Juniper Bonsai  |  Jefferson Hayman: Tree in Central Park  |  Keliy Anderson-Staley: Plum Tree

David_Fokos_Haybales_Ripsa_Sweden 

David Fokos: Haybales, Ripsa, Sweden

Henry_Gilpin_Trees_Reflections  Dan_Burkholder_Tree_in_April_Snow_Catskills_Sm

Henry Gilpin: Trees, Reflections    |    Dan Burkholder: Tree in April Snow, Catskills

 

Niniane_Kelley_Palm

Niniane Kelley: Palm

Brad_Moore_Roosevelt_Huntington_Beach_California

Brad Moore: Roosevelt, Huntington Beach, California

 

Pine-ing for any of these images?  Don't have a collection and looking for one to take root?  Already have one but looking to branch out?  Want me to stop with these ridiculous tree jokes? Don't be such a crabapple! Come into the John Cleary Gallery or give us a call and we'd love to help find that perfect photograph for you.

 

Artist: Bryn Terfel / Album: The Vagabond and Other English Songs

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Tutto รจ Tranquillo e Placido

 

This past weekend at the John Cleary Gallery we had our first exhibition opening of the year, featuring the work of San Diego photographer, David Fokos.  

David Fokos on Plum TV from clifford reese on Vimeo.

 

Though I deal with our photographers through email and over the phone on a daily basis it is often a bit nerve-wracking actually meeting the artists (especially during an opening) for no other reason than I want to make sure that they are pleased with the hanging, lighting, labeling, etc.  -- it is kinda my job after all.

 

Morning Rings

Morning Rings, Study #3, Boston, Massachusetts, 1997

 

Catherine had forewarned me that David emerged out of an engineering background, and I would have been a bit more surprised had his first comment, after the requisite introductory small talk mind you, not been something along the lines of:  “Okay, everything looks great and now I’m going to make small tweaks to just about everything.”  But that’s the thing: I welcome the criticism because A.) who better to perfect it than the artist himself and B.) it allows me to do a better job next time. 

 

foggy night3

Foggy Night, Stafford, Texas, 2005   Taken near Catherine’s home when David was visiting for a past exhibition

 

Especially instructive was the lighting process, and if you come to the gallery then you can see how fabulous these pieces look in the right light… for as lovely as they look here on the interwebs, no pixilation can properly compare to the real thing.

 

fresh snow3

Fresh Snow, Chilmark, Massachusetts, 2007 – something Houston, TX (currently at 78 degrees) will not be seeing for quite some time

 

Just as we change the front of the gallery for every new exhibition, so do we try to rotate the photographs throughout the rest of the gallery as well.  When Catherine told me the large Renate Aller piece was coming down behind my desk in favor of three of David’s smaller pieces I requested that perhaps I could chose one of them, for selfish reasons only, natch.  Regular blog followers might remember seeing David’s work in a previous post from last year where I talked of first seeing his work, and I now have the opportunity to live with this piece behind me for the next month!  I LOVE THIS JOB!

 

David_Fokos_Night_Watch_John_Cleary_Gallery

“Nightwatch, Port Townsend, Washington, 2002"”  I miss you, my dear Mason!

 

David was also accompanied by his wife, Barbarella (@divabarbarella), AKA: my newest favorite person ever in the whole world. Typically I have about two “new favorite people ever in the whole world” per year… looks like the rest of y’all are going to have to try an awfully lot harder during 2012. Barbarella, a long time columnist for the San Diego Reader, regular NBC/KNSD “News in the Morning” contributor, socialite and TEDx emcee extraordinaire—among other fabulously not-so-hidden talents—is basically a San Diego (and now Houston) celebrity.  Check out her most recent piece, “The Pointy Ball Game” from The Reader about being in Houston during a Texans game and enjoy this interview with Maestro Jahja Ling of the San Diego Symphony from her “5 Questions With Barbarella” series:

 

Needless to say, David and Barbarella, Catherine and the rest of the after-opening gang were the perfect antidote to a stressful day – oh, by the way I got profanity spewed at me for the first time by a client earlier in the afternoon and spent the entire evening with what I think might have been a migraine– and though the time was brief it was quite the extraordinary evening and one I shant forget for some time. “Shant”’s a word, right?

As you can tell from the lack of personal shots, in all of the tizzy of the evening I forgot to take one single picture with anyone.  Looks like I’ll be heading to San Diego sometime soon!!

 

Artist: W.A. Mozart / Album: Le Nozze di Figaro