A rather pompous title, huh?
I amuse myself that way sometimes. This painting is a tattoo. There is a before and after forever after in my style, and it has a timestamp right here, right now, with this painting.
In the old days, a “Master Piece” was your submission to the guild to show you had mastered the crafts associated with your art. The “guild,” might be the shop foreman; it might be a a vote of three thousand. But it was never simply your own declaration.
If you are an artist of any kind, you know the wonderful feeling of public applause. You KNOW when your work hits, and you KNOW how hard it hits.
Whether playing a glorious aria on your brash saxophone or pulling a bouquet of irises from the sky in a flash of dashing magic, you know when you have pleased the people.
I have been working my whole life to find something beyond technical skill, a way of seeing if you will, a kind of Sharp Impressionism.
And here it is.
There is a great story about getting this shot.
I was camped on the other side of the river in a discrete location, and I had the afternoon before scouted the shore up and down. The river broadens and runs shallow through that section. There is one deep channel, perhaps seven feet, yet only twenty across. This I swam sidestroke while with the left hand holding my plastic bag encased camera in the air.
There were people watching. I only knew this as I emerged on the far bank, and because sound carries oddly across water, heard a man saying, “He made it!”
I have this super slow swimming style. I used the current to push my body across, starting from way upstream. It might have looked daring to them, but it was a totally chill move, much practiced in much tougher waters.
But when I stood on the bank looking at the exact view you see, I saw I was EXACTLY where my great learned beloved Ansel Adams placed HIS tripod and took this exact same shot on a hot, sweaty, bland, boring day just like this. He focused on the dappled light in the foreground. Mine came out like there was a fire in mountains somewhere, and maybe there was.
But, you see? That was a cool story.