Camera as Artist's Tool: Artwork by Rebekah Younger, Jim Kelly, Paul Brahms and Arunas Bukauskas

Well it is happening! I am exhibiting a whole collection of my photographs at a gallery in Portland, ME along with 3 other artists. The show is entitled, "Camera as Artist's Tool" and opens on Friday, October 3 - November 1 at the Addison-Woolley Gallery at 87 Market St. The opening is from 5-8 pm on October 3 and there will be an artist talk on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 2pm. Come see the show if you can.

The show features work that either blurs the line between painting and photography like Jim Kelly's and my own or uses photography as a reference, like Arunas Bukauskas and Paul Brahms.

I will be showing my "Extracts - Firestroke series". These pieces are extracted photographs from an original mixed media painting. What do I mean by extracted? I used my camera to explore the painting in close detail with a macro lens, much as I have done with flowers. They are about examining the textures, lines and colors independent of the larger context. What emerges is a series of distilled compositions that are strong and richly layered.

Here is the statement I wrote for the show.

Is this a painting? Or is it a photograph? Are these distinctions relevant in an age where most art experiences are mediated by digital technology? In this series each medium was part of a creative process of discovery. In painting there is the urge to make a mark, to leave a trace of myself through the expressive line. My ego, or sense of self, expresses in layers of complexity, building up associations as the hand moves across the page. I use the camera to frame the image, separated from the physical act of making, looking with fresh eyes. In the process of perception, the composition is deconstructed and distilled by the act of photographing it. Fragments were extracted, as the eyes moved across the image, capturing lines, a shape, a color.


These images digitally record the process of looking, a process that creates new worlds of wholeness out of the fragmented impressions of an original composition. In our daily lives, do we not extract our vision of the world out of the whole in our effort to make sense and order out of the chaos of stimuli, seeking beauty and wholeness in the fragments?

If you can't make the show and would like to see more of these images visit my website, www.rebekahyounger.com You will find them under the digital mixed media category in artwork as "Extracts".
Comments always appreciated...