New work and a sale at my gallery...

I am trying to keep up with my posting here at Artistic Balance.  The good news is I am busy with my camera and Gallery Meraki.  Below are some recent photographs.  These and others can be found at the  Gallery Meraki Website where we are running a framed print sale for the month of November.  Check it out.  You can find that perfect holiday gift or a gift for yourself.

Keep Makin' Art!

Carl

Cranberry Bog - Marshfield Ma.

Autumn Leaf and Running Water

Goosepond Mountain State Park / Infrared B&W

Sunrise Sesuit Creek / Cape Cod

Gallery Opening 9/27/2014

The long awaited opening of Gallery Meraki, the studio and gallery I share with Michael Malandra and Julie Scholz, was held on Saturday, September 27th.  It was a smash!  we had more people attend than we could possibly imagine.  My deepest thanks to everyone who attended the opening and helped get our gallery off on the right foot.  We will be open on weekends Fri - Sun starting October 10th.

Keep Makin' Art!

Carl

Gallery Meraki - Update

Here are my partners in Gallery Meraki Julie Scholz and Mike Malandra.  We made a shopping run to IKEA yesterday and got the furniture for the 'chill zone' in the gallery.  We even got it all assembled and in place without injury.  Next week I will post an update of what the space is looking like and what we will be doing next before our launch in September.

Keep Makin' Art!
Carl

The Best Comment Ever...

I just finished my second weekend of my show 'Close to Home' at the Piermont Flywheel Gallery.  Having a solo show at a gallery is a very interesting experience.  In general my shows are well received by the people see it and I get nice comments.  Sometimes my work will move somebody and that is really great.  Other times I end up having these amazing conversations.  Today I had a compliment that I will carry for a long time.  I'll think about it on those inevitable days when I question choice to follow my dream and pursue my art full time.  A gentleman took a while looking at my photos and not saying anything.  He kept coming back to this photos.  Finally he spoke and asked if I was the artist.  I said yes.  He was interested in how the photo came to be and had some technical questions and some nice comment.  The last thing he said, without knowing me and passion for the work of Edward Hopper and my deep connection to him, said "If Edward Hopper were a photographer this is the kind of photo he would have made."  It made my day to hear those words.  

Keep Makin' Art!

Carl

The adventures of Artistic Balance

Close to Home exhibit at Piermont Flywheel

So where did I leave off with the adventures of Artistic Balance.  Oh yeah... I remember.  I started this blog for two reasons.  the first was to show off the work I was doing.  The second was to have a place to talk about the work life balance of an artist with a full time corporate job.  In the 6 or so years I have had this blog I have grown in so many ways as an artist and a person.  I'm now convinced growing up is a process we do our entire lives.  I have had much success in these six years and have found the biggest struggle has been having enough time and energy to do everything I want to do and do it well.  I finally came to the decision this year, with my lovely Wenderina's help to pursue my art full time!  I am cutting back at my job to a per diem roll of two days a week.  That helps us pay the bills but gives me time to purse Artistic Balance as a business.  June 1st is when this took effect.  Since June 1st I have had a booth at a street fair, taught a nature photography workshop (with the excellent photographer and teacher Mike Malandra), opened my third solo show at the Piermont Flywheel Gallery. and signed the lease on an 800 ft studio  / gallery space I am opening this summer with Mike Malandra and the very talented photographer Julie Scholz.  The solo show is called close to home.  I have posted about that in recent posts.  The Studio / Gallery (we really need to figure out a name) will be a work space during the week where we can work, do shoots, teach classes and workshops and on weekends be converted to a gallery.  It is a very exciting time for me.  I will continue to use this blog for my photos as well as weekly updates about the things I learn about starting my own small art business for those that care about such things or are considering taking the same giant leap of faith I am taking.  I could not do this with out my amazing wife Wendy, our loving and supportive parents and our friends who are encouraging me on.  I am really excited to be starting the gallery with Mike and Julie.  They are both incredible artists but also and more importantly great people.  Wish me luck on this new, crazy adventure I am on!

Keep Makin' Art!
Carl

P.S. Thinking of my friend Dave King today.  He would have been cheering wildly and sending all sorts of greetings from England in that wonderful understated way he had.  I miss exchanging comments with you daily sir.

CS

Journeys - Setup Day 1

Ah the promise of blank gallery walls!  All of the B&W and Metal prints are at the gallery.  Tomorrow I will bring 8 20x40 canvases and play with the layout for a while until I am happy with how it all looks.  Then I will start hanging the photos.  It will take most of Tuesday night and Wednesday night to get the show hung.  I Can't wait for the start of the show on Thursday.

Keep Makin' Art!
Carl

Journeys Update No. 2

Hello friends!

The days are falling off the calendar.  My solo photography show 'Journeys' will be here before I know it.  All of the B&W prints arrived along with 9 20x40 inch canvas prints in float frames that look just stunning!  Postcards are ordered.  The big metal prints should be here this week.  I'll be hanging the show before I know it.  I feel really great about the work I have produced this year and can't really believe how much great stuff I was able to shoot this year.  It has been a crazy, busy year and at first I did not feel like I had photographed that much, but when I sat down to select images for the show I was blown away by how much great stuff I had to choose from. 

I hope you all can stop in to see the show at the Flywheel Gallery in Piermont NY.  The show runs from July 18th to August 4th.

Gallery Hours:

Thursday 1-6pm

Friday 1-9pm

Saturday 1-9pm

Sunday 1-6pm

I will be at the gallery Friday nights and all day Saturday and Sunday for the length of the show.  

Keep Makin' Art!

Carl

Journeys update

Time for 'Journeys', my solo show at the Flywheel Gallery is drawing near.  The black and white prints arrived just the other day.  I will be framing them this weekend.  Canvas prints arrive on Friday and the metal prints should arrive next week.  I am very proud of the work I have done this year and it will be a great show.  If you are in the Hudson Valley area of New York stop in and see the show. July 18th thru August 4th at the Flywheel Gallery in Piermont, NY.

Keep Makin' Art!
Carl

Infrared - Color or Black and White.

Depending on how you deal with your Infra-Red images they can be color or B&W.  To this point I have been a purist and prefer the B&W images, but here are color versions of some of the images from last week.  What are your thoughts?  Color or B&W?

Keep Makin' Art!
Carl

Solo Show - Progress Update

The UPS and Fed EX guys will be happy to know all of the big packages for my solo show have arrived.  They only have a couple more boxes to deliver.  We have been opening boxes all week and oohing and ahhing over the wonderful job done by my labs.  The prints on canvas and aluminum are just amazing to see.  The storage unit is filling up with prints ready to hang in the show.  to date 26 prints have arrived.
Next up sending out some more postcards and signing and getting the limited edition Grand Central prints into mats and bags.  The next two weeks leading up to hanging the show will just fly by.

Keep Making Art!
Carl

Tools of the Trade...

I photographed my watercolor brushes in front of my late Father-In-law's toolbox.  I call this series Tools of the trade.  These are just trial shots to see if the idea could work.  I think I am onto something here and may try this again in a more series attempt.

Keep Makin' Art!
Carl

Sunday...

Heading back out to the woods with my Mom for some more hiking and photos at Harriman State Park.  Stay tuned.  I'll have something posted by Sunday night.

Keep Makin' Art!

Moodna Viaduct - HDR

I revisited a favorite spot... The Trestle Bridge at Moodna Viaduct in Cornwall, NY. An interesting side note. My high school photo teacher had seen so many pictures of this scene he warned us on day one of class handing in a photo of the trestle was an automatic 'F'. Thanks Mr Mahar. I have been photographing the trestle ever since.

Keep Makin' Art!

Carl

Bear Mountain Bridge at Sunrise

I captured this shot of Bear Mountain Bridge at sunrise in the snow. The snow on the mountains really sets off the bridge nicely. Later today some more of the cardinal. With any luck i will start painting the cardinal today.

Keep Makin' Art!

Carl

Offline - Travel

Friends-

I will be offline for the next two weeks travelling with Wenderina and two of our dearest friends. I promise great photos and watercolors upon my return.

Keep Makin' Art

Carl

Bermuda

It was just a year ago that we were here in Bermuda. I can not believe how quickly the past year has gone by! I don't know about you, but time just seems to be speeding up as I get older.

The photo above is of Horseshoe Beach in Bermuda. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Keep Makin' Art

Carl

Morning Light San Francisco

Has it really been almost a week since I posted?

I almost never do that. Work and other commitments have been pretty busy lately. We did take some time this week to put some finishing touches on our home office that W re-modeled. It looks awesome. We had a wall that needed some art, but did not want to put up more of the same of my art as in the other rooms. So together we went through some of my images and came up with this series of six shots I took early one morning in San Francisco. We started by chucking the normal tourist shots and started to look at the things that catch my eye when I am out with my camera in a city. We decided to print them as a series in black frames in two rows of three shots. We decided to print them in color because there is enough to tie them together that way, but they would be pretty cool as black and whites too.

What do you think?

I found out this week that I did not get any images into Photography now 2010 at Center for Photography in Woodstock. there were 300 entries and only 20 made the cut so I do not feel bad. Also I don't think Nature photography is what they really wanted. Some of these shots may have done better though. Do they still look like my work even though the subject is totally different. I can not decide.

Thanks to the wonderful Wendy for helping me edit my photos.

Keep Makin' Art

Carl