Crosses of Mine

This cross series was not meant to promote a specific religion nor, generally-speaking, any religion at all.  It was meant to address the issue of freedom of thought.  How so?

Series of Acrylics on Paper

Let’s start with those who we consider today’s great leaders of thought.  From our Pope Francis promoting a smarter Catholic faith, one which includes elements of both reason and empathy, contradicted by the thoughts of self-described, Christian-American politicians^* and their arcane treatment of women seeking abortions, we are in an age encompassed by spiritual upheavals, both in religion and secularly.  

Cat Scratch on Yellow

“Different shades for different folks” is more than just an expression in this threesome, where the color yellow takes on different expressions dependent on its presentation.

Pastel on Paper

• Pastel Drawing.  Pastels can express rage as much as innocence and do so in this image.  Expressions: A tsunami about to pummel a sand dune; a dead branch left by a sick, algae pond; rays from a sun; a tree waving in a passing hurricane; and flow, simply flow.

  

  Lake Alfred, Florida

• Gradual Blend. “Red skies at night” is a common theme in modern photography but when emanating from a yellow base, it forms a scheme that is less fiery than red, yet more developed.  A yellow blend is the background of this entire image, most of the foreground of which is sharp.  Expressions:  autumnal equinox; state fairs; and romantic friendship-based love.

Davenport, Florida

• Sharp Contrast. Halloween’s almost upon us.  With this said, it’s fascinating to note the sharpness of autumn images.  Cats, for example, don’t “scratch” during Easter—when you’ll see them expressed as round balls of cuteness—but when it’s about harvest time?  Sharp can put the spook into any image, if done with a witch’s brew.  Expressions: Lurking killer; full moon; controlled chaos; and taboo fun.  All that expression; all just one image. 

My Future Yesterday

A Memoir

Paper: Agfa Matte
Camera: SLR X700 Minolta 35 mm
November 1983

In an instant not too unlike September 11, 2001, I witnessed history materialize through my camera's eye.  It was the contrast of my childhood images and those same images plaguing my adulthood right now.  I couldn't for a long time figure out what was missing until today.

As best as I can remember, I was on the way to a wedding.  I detoured to the place of my childhood to see what had taken my breath away so very long ago.

It was a perfect day.  Sweet and awesome in every way.  Not too hot; not too cold: In fact it was so perfect that even the sidewalk seemed to have taken to tearful joy making, every moment so happy that I could virtually pop, glisten, covered with footery walking in every direction, and my future mirrored the scape of the towers above me.  Oh, God.  I looked up and nearly rolled off my dad's back.

I remember thinking that Jack in "the Beanstalk" didn't have it so good.  When he looked up, he saw Forever ascending up into the clouds and what a climb that must have.  But I saw myself on a privileged steed watching "The Jetson's" on an elevator flying me up to see for myself the spectacle of the city below.

"Put me down, Daddy, right now," I said.  I had become Super Photographer Kiddo, riding into the 80's on a snowy cloud.  Not a care in the world except to get my precious images, and I did, as you see here.

How that relates to my adulthood today?  As I look at the straight and narrow mass that once damned the sky of New York, making targets of us all, and that these Twin Towers did not fall as cartoons in my head.  They fell as a mark in my life that had also altered and amassed the world in a mystifying change all with one common denominator: Fear.

I look at these photos today, remembering my expectations and realizing that I could never have imagined that Super Kiddo would come back to remind me of just how much I've lost in my future today.  For that reason, I say Godspeed to those who became part of America's legacy into the 21st century, the victims of 9/11.  May we learn from our mistakes.

Inside My Head

The Seizure

The Tree of Pain.  2011.
Watercolor and acrylics on paper.

My eyes were tight with surreal images flipping through them, sliding realities merged each with the next memory. A laborious pain of pressure filled my lungs and I could no longer breathe.  I heaved instead and exhaled shallowly and with a force I'd never used before.  

With that force, I turned on my stomach and held onto the bars of my bed.  I held on tight but was transported, like through a fiber optic line.  Then I could hear I had screamed, blowing through billions of neurons, inside my head.  

My head wills itself to feel without my consent.  It tracks itself easy into anger and hurling towards camps of loneliness inside myself, inside my bed, keeping quiet on the outside so as she'd not hear me suffering.  

For minutes on end, like the ebbs and flows within a dendrite tree, I dwell on the billions of images racing through my head, all with the same synapse, instantly dismissing my existence, as though I was never here.  I wail.

Then I relax as I wake. Reality stops overwhelming me for now.  I lie exhausted, mostly inside my head.

# # #

The artwork entitled The Tree of Pain is reminiscent of Edvard Munch's The Scream of Nature With a macabre view of the world via dramatic colorations, impulses can be felt any place where life has just been.

El Flamboyan de Puerto Rico

Old San Juan.  2012

Puerto Rico.  2012

Hands down, the "flamboyant" tree is the world's most colorful.  With waterfalls of flowers that -- up close -- look like expensive bouquets of orchids, the Flamboyan, pronounced with its accent on the last syllable, takes a striking pose against the pastels of old San Juan's buildings and skyline.  The entire island of Puerto Rico is pleasantly dotted with Flamboyans, a subject of much of their art.

Better than Stock

Art Photos

Stock photography doesn't have to mean a stocky look.  In fact, the best stock photos are of the same of quality and content as high art.  It shows feeling, anger or excitement, like the photo below, Fire Tops the Grass.  It can also evoke a sense of serenity in its audience, such as what might happen if you put a poster of the the Fish Hatchery, below, in an office waiting area.

Auburndale, FL, 
Fish Hatchery. 
2012.

Swamped Lilies.  Mackay
Park, Lake Alfred. 2012.

Fire Tops the Grass.  Mackay
Park, Lake Alfred  2012.

GDG III Photos sells high resolution, stock photos for use on book covers, added on sidelines or headers for web sites, mags and newspapers, or, in poster form, for your own private, home collection of photo art.

Call George D. Gordon, III, at 813-900-0950 for more information.

En Mi Viejo San Juan

An old Spanish bolero starts with the words, "En mi viejo San Juan."  It is a love song to the oldness of this fortress city.  Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, doesn't need the faux paint jobs to get the look of age.  It's a natural part of all the old areas of Puerto Rico.

Nothing whitewashed.  History maintained.

Jail

Alley

Cemetery

Small-town Ingenuity

Faces of Old-Fashion Towers

The Water Tower Should Come Down, reported The NewsChief  about how local commissioners felt towards their $56,000, annual golden egg, but now they want to give it away.  What led the commissioners to consider this unfortunate path?

2013

The commissioners lack of oversight of the tower for over a decade?  The city manager's neglect towards its maintenance during that same period of time?  The simple desire for new over old?  (Need we keep going?)

Regardless of the reason, the town of Davenport will likely soon be losing its iconic tower through all faults of their own.  Without real time to consider the future of the tower, commissioners have painted themselves into a corner and now have to deal with the tower "as soon as possible."

Given this scenario, they may be unable to consider building a replica, keeping the income it generates and pouring that income back into this little town.  But no!  Commissioners are considering replacing the landscape with something that will no longer speak of Davenport's history.

What was long ago a symbol of newness to Davenport will once again give way to a new newness in the form of a "monopole."  Pause.  Rewind.

2013

You see, it might not always be good to be new, especially if your an old place, like the historic area of Davenport.  (Historic Davenport is old, at least by Florida standards.)

2012 - Downtown Disney

With any future demolition, these images of the tower will be one of the last few to represent a bygone era, when Historic Davenport was the place to be, a heyday that can't be replaced by demolishing all of the old and bringing in the new ~ with all its lack of character ~ and foisting it on a landscape that will say, well, say nothing.  It would be wise for commissioners to re-consider their opinions and not allow for anymore of Davenport's history to be lost to lack of maintenance.

For re-print rights to these images, please contact GDG III Photo at 813-900-0950.  Ask for the Davenport images, as there're more.

Reference:  Commission: Water Tower Should Come Down,  The NewsChief. 

Dandelion of Light

2012

July Fourth

This is energy mimicking life.  It's the short-lived life of energy produced by a dandelion-shaped firework.

If we could only recognize the energy in the average dandelion just like we recognize the energy in this spectacular blast, we may be able appreciate better the other things in life that are as important as life itself. Such things may include friendships, or animal pals, a hobby or volunteer work, and, yes, the energy produced by the average dandelion.

While we, at GDG III Photo, had a good Fourth this year, it was preceded by the untimely death of my brother-in-law, Walter Louis Zeanwick.  As we recover, stay in touch and we will too.  We will be back again soon with another post and another thought.



Your Friend in Artful Life,

George D. Gordon, III

Twisted Metal

Standup Trees

Photos of the aftermath of tornadoes usually show images of downed homes and industry with trees flattened on landscapes like so much Pick Up Sticks.  Here are captured standing trees with manmade materials wrapped around them in a mess, all done by the hands of tornadoes.  (Click on a photo to enlarge it.)

Royal Sunset

Sita & the Fence

In Sita Sings the Blues,  Sita is taken from Mother Earth in an epic ending to a life of giving all to her mate.  We imagine a small girl, little Sita, walking underneath a fence with her future demise written in the skies.  A sense of innocence and hell are contrasted in the story of Sita, as it is in this photograph, taken in Lake Alfred, Florida, in 2011.

Homeless with Dog & Sunglasses

Mutt of Shame

The Great Depression of the 21st Century will be remembered most by its dogged contrasts.  It's irony.  It's revelations of modern inhumanity in the U.S.A.

In Tampa, Florida, those who need money are forced to wear orange suits while soliciting in traffic.  In nearby Polk County, incarcerated prisoners wear blue outfits while working in traffic.  (Photo of the blues coming soon.)