There was a day, not long ago, where artists had to make slides of their work. That could sometimes be an expensive proposition as duplicates were always required. I'd shoot about 9-10 images of the same work, each viewpoint would have its own 8-10 images for sculptures.

We'd send off a submission, or application, and include a s.a.s.e. but wouldn't always have the images returned.

However, I am certainly glad I took extensive images of my work because many of them were ephemeral, or comprised ephemeral materials or materials that I could not transport when my studio was relocated.

Mining the past as I move my studio to a new location. When I see people having the opportunity to have an exhibition that incorporates guano, it is frustrating and pisses me off that I've never had such an opportunity.

Still, in 1988 I don't know of where I could have possibly exhibited other than the Miami-Dade Library system, and only in a group show of other African diasporan artists. That's the sad reality.

Even in the library I know I didn't have enough clout to be given such an opportunity to share my explorations and investigations into the vulture with a solo exhibition project. Maybe 2013 is different. I would hope so.

Working toward a realism that ultimately isn't a significant part of my art practice today. Once a specific hand/eye/body relationship was intuitively felt, or understood, my art practice turned to more photographic issues. Afterall, I was working toward a degree in photography at the time.

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, mule deer such as black-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Cervidae

Rank: Family

Higher classification: Pecora

Lower classifications: Capreolinae, Cervinae, Megaloceros, Muntiacinae

Looking into the past for any verifiable data, personal or otherwise, can sometimes prove tricky. Take the case of the above map. In 2013 some of the named streets have been renamed. I have not asked anyone currently living in Fort Pierce about the name changes and why they happened. I know those streets were renamed long before I moved to Fort Pierce (1976). Actually, it was a few years before I was told Zora Neale Hurston had lived there. I was shocked because I had read some of her work years before moving to Fort Pierce. Anyway, the entire city now embraces her outstanding legacy. I am very happy about that. Next trip up I have to stop and put an offering on her grave, along with the many others.

(Note: Orange Ave. goes east / west, with the part on view a few blocks from downtown (east).

"To celebrate its 15th anniversary, friends of MOCA donate works to expand its permanent collection. You can see them now.

By Anne Tschida

Special to The Miami Herald

Walk into the first installation that greets visitors to Pivot Points: 15 Years and Counting at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miam and you will see a room plastered over in psychedelic imagery that is splashed across the floor and covers the ceiling. The hyper collage includes paint, photography, film, a stairwell, flashing lights and music, and comes from the collective duo who go by the name assume vivid astro focus (avaf). This piece shot them to fame when it premièred at the 2004 Whitney Biennial.

It’s a good introduction: The rest of the exhibit is happily chaotic as well, if not as crazy.

Pivot Points is not a curated show, it’s a collection of more than 50 works — most of which have recently been donated to MOCA from artists the museum has featured — in honor of its 15th year anniversary. That means it is filled with cutting-edge work from very contemporary artists, the basis for MOCA’s collection. Various disciplines are represented, from sculpture and installation to painting, drawing and video. While we’ve seen these artists before here, most pieces are newly acquired...

Then there are the samplings of local artists, some of the best of which are videos strung out on the last wall. There is a disturbing yet gorgeous video from Juan Carlos Zaldivar that was the 2012 winner of MOCA’s Optic Nerve experimental and art film festival. And there is a short video that demands you listen to the whole thing, from Onajide Shabaka. Called Total Disappearance, a voice-over tells us, it shows a mangrove swamp in rural Florida from which a naked woman emerged and then disappeared into the muck in the beginning of the 20th century."

(Via MiamiHerald.com: Visual Arts & Architecture.)

Mobile phone cameras and lenses have definitely improved in the past five to eight years. I've used some of my phone's images in an exhibition, printed in drawing paper, not glossy photographic paper. I have always disliked glossy paper for my images. I used to use a Dupont black & white paper (wet photography) that was a cold black (Kodak's blacks were warm) and a very matte gravure surface. No gloss there. The various mobile phone camera apps with filters give some interesting and fun options at the image's exposure, or post exposure. I also made a device that allows me to attach my phone to a tripod. It works well.

"Cite, if you will, the gifts that will become inheritage. Say so, firmly."
Poem by Steven Caldwell Wright
drawing on found metal (updated March, 2013)
(detail view)

Figurative work encaustic on paper on wood. I have a few figurative pieces that I have started but not finished. This is finished but not prepped for exhibition, which I haven't worked out yet.