Sunday, March 4, 2007

Patrick Kelly talk...

I was able to both have breakfast with Patrick, and attend his talk afterwards. He is one of the professor candidates for next year to help fill the digital media section of the art department.

his talk focused around the evolution of his work, and how he developed as a digital artist. His photography started very young, and was centered around his living environment which was pretty much wilderness. Patrick loves the winter, and much of his early photo revolve around snow, and are absolutely stunning. He originally focused around undisturbed nature scenes, but gradually became encouraged to mess with the pictures he was taking.

his impact on the photos could be as simple as a stick laid at an artificial angle to the rest of the environment, so a complex pattern formed with natural ingredients. Even though Patrick was physically interfering with the environment, all of his alterations were very organic in their forms. the geometric patterns flow into the rest of the subject of the pattern, and there are times when it is difficult to tell what part of the photo Patrick has altered.

we didn't get to see a lot of Patrick's animation work. one piece he did show us was about the natural movement of a rock rolling to a standstill after being lifted up. the piece had video and sound of the rock's movement, but randomly the video clip would be an animated one, that had the shape of the rock, but the texture of the wood. the piece was very lateral, moving from left to right in terms of displays, and culminated in the actual rock sitting on a little stand, that you could lift, and watch the rolling movement in person.

overall i really enjoyed Patrick's work. his eye for natural photography is amazing, and his pictures of the rural environment really jived with my outdoor side.

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