images for android phones | a spiral inward | prelude to form and data
We can only be who we are, and at one point that has to be enough.
In delineated dreams, we search for that which is truly us. And find that we are only ourselves ….
Today I continued to work on my latest video piece entitled Into Abstraction | Form and Data. Hence, the mention of it as a prelude in this post. In the creative process there seems to be a continuing presence of form and the collection of data. Form and data that can be found in the complexity of thought, inspiration, and imagination. It propels us and shapes our day around it. Almost as if it has a will of its own. As it most certainly does: Shaping beauty from the shadows of our subconscious and giving light to our conscious ambitions, ideas, ambiguities, and dreams.
into abstraction | form and impermanence | what memories and karma may come | a maps, mountains, and trails, remix
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The complexity of the impermanence that fosters ambiguity in our lives. Everything changes except a persistent memory.
into abstraction | form and memories
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Into Abstraction | Form and Memories, the artist Walter Smith continues his exploration of field recordings translated into abstract constructs.
into abstraction | all the days are long | a we’ve come so far remix | a place of subtle nuance
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In life it seems, at times, that all the days are long. Caught in-between work, play, dreams, and aspirations. Those days can take the form of too many hours worked, too many hours away from home and loved ones, or too many memories and missed opportunities–taxing, struggling, pushing forward day after day. Sometimes we get a moment of reprieve; a day at the beach, a solitary place in time and space, the joining together of friends, family, and loved ones, or a beautiful hike on the summit of a mountain. Subtle nuances all converging in daily life, testing our resolve, our purpose, or giving pleasure and peace to our efforts.
into abstraction | a better place
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Sometimes in the waking the reality is more pressing than the dream. And the search for “a better place” takes me inside the abstract. It seems that for only a moment, when art becomes a reality, that I am free from the stress and trials of life. When burden by the complexity of life, I long for escape: Into the abstract. Into the meaning of what it is to be alive. To delineate the constraints of the mundane. To have passion. It is here, in the expression and story of my life through the process of creativity, that I encounter that which gives me any measurable sense of peace and self-awareness.
“Into Abstraction | A Better Place (a viable nuance remix)” continues the theme of the smallest of nuances being the focal point. Within those nuances, the layering of sound and imagery are explored through the digital process. Each film builds upon the vision and nuances of the previous films.
into abstraction | nuances – extended video remix | an abstract thought becomes reality
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Nuances, the extended video remix is a further working towards the abstract in form and complexity. Each element of the video is explored through various micro-tonal nuances via add-on effects. Through this process, I am gaining insight into the various visual options I have via the software and how to implement them to create a visual cohesive construct. The variations seem infinite indeed. Again I am using both my own film and stock film together. Musically I am continuing the theme of electronic ambience, through the use of sound samples, field recordings and piano phases. As I explore the makings of sound for my films, I will be utilizing various sound effects and recording techniques in the process. Slowly things will evolve, as the learning curve for both the visual and aural elements are investigated, manipulated and constructed.
into abstraction | nuances
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This is the first film of 2015 in my new series entitled: “Into Abstraction”. The piece is called “Nuances”. It is a short multi-layered video and electronic soundscapes. As the series implies, the idea is to progress towards a state of abstraction both psychologically and visually: An inward emotional journey; full of delineated thoughts, complex constructs and fused memories. Although this piece contains figurative images and landscapes, it is the nuances of the film that contain elements of the abstract. I hope to slowly evolve through the series to a more definitive state of abstraction. It is true that I often merge, both surrealism and the abstract to create my visual themes. I also will be experimenting to the best of my ability to create beautiful and challenging electronic soundscapes, full of sampled ambient drone, field recordings, glitch/IDM, and thematic sounds.
into abstraction | all these nights in blue are where our love use to be | rooms of indigo paintings | i dream dreams without you
My first piece of 2015 in the new series entitled: Into Abstraction ~
all these nights in blue are where our love use to be
rooms of indigo paintings
i dream dreams without you
your world beginning | piano and trails – day 9
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Day 9 in “Your World Beginning” is a multi-layered abstraction of landscape and portrait. Filmed in beautiful Haywood County, North Carolina during the Fall, while on the back roads to Waterrock Knob off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is my second video featuring the trail and summit of Waterrock Knob (see the post Maps Mountains and Trails – Day 7). This is the second video using my new Sony software, and I wanted to explore some layering effects with a colored pencil effect as well. And again, I am combining samples of piano and electronic field recordings for the soundtrack. Actually the audio composing, is a very exciting aspect of the video production. Especially when it is within the realm of ambient and electronic composition.
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but Nature’s sources never fail” ~ John Muir
your world beginning | to the distant fir tree
toward a place of subtle things
through fallen leaves
and barren trees
with maps and moments
along the mountain ridge …
your world beginning | maps, mountains, and trails – day 7
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Day 7 finds “Your World Beginning”, on the trail to the summit of Waterrock Knob. In search of a transitional ambience of Fall colors, fog, and rain. This is an incredible location here at the summit. There is always a constant or intermittent wind blowing. The clouds shift quickly above, or as today, the fog can be seen everywhere.
Waterrock Knob is a mountain peak in the state of North Carolina. It is the highest peak in the Plott Balsams and is the 16th highest mountain in the Eastern United States. It is the 15th highest of the 40 mountains in North Carolina over 6000 feet.
The mountain is split by both Haywood and Jackson counties in the western part of the state. It is located in the Plott Balsams mountain chain between the Great Smoky Mountains and the Great Balsam Mountains. The mountain’s summit is located within the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park Service unit.
The mountain is a popular destination with tourists and amateur hikers as it is easily accessible from the Parkway. A visitors center is located near its summit and a hiking trail leads to its top. The hiking trail and visitors center are manned and maintained by the National Park Service, part of the United States Department of the Interior.
your world beginning | the beauty of untangled things
an emerging light
left over from a shadowed memory
your world disappearing ….
Ending
and now
your world beginning
with the beauty of untangled things
So it is time to move beyond “Your World Disappearing.” Time to discover the light that heals, that gives beauty and peace; a place to evolve, a future of untangled things … until the cycle repeats itself.
My latest post, from my new series entitled “Your World Beginning.” A series that will consist of video art and digital collage. An evolution of beauty emerging from the ambiguity of my previous series entitled “Your World Disappearing.”
your world disappearing | high definition video art
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A short film of ambient minimalism. Exploring the theme of “through art I feel like subtracting” i.e. Memories fading, dreams ending and your world disappearing.
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waiting for summer, and a bridge to cross | unpublished works
Summer from afar
under the sun and stars
longing for a bridge to cross
a blast from the past | unpublished works
A landscape can have its own surreal moment. And your memories can often be found there.
a polar vortex heading south
snow
wind
cold
and ice
even here in the deep south; what a week it has been.
holding your absence
To a place too far
without the heart of here and now;
i hold onto your absence
we remember it all
Life like history
bound in timelessness;
and etched in collective memory ….
a tomorrow that never comes | a two ships passing, remix
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an ocean of dreams;
outside my window
with two ships passing …
and a tomorrow that never comes
sunrise under water | a minimalism remix
I worked on this for over two hours last night after midnight. The piece kept pulling me back into my previous series “Variations”. I moved through various visual drafts trying to remember that the idea is to achieve a sense of visual minimalism. For me at times it is hard to say ‘enough’, its finished. I am slowly learning that a work of art can, in its minimalism, stand on its own.
Through Art …
I Feel like subtracting.
minimalism | mirror and reflection
Minimal constructs are inviting …
This past year I have been creating work in a series entitled “Variations”. I just completed the series with a published art book through Blurb publishing. I will post a link to the book store in an upcoming post. It was quite exhausting producing the book. A total of 138 pages. So now 2014 is quickly approaching. I have some tentative ideas for projects. Both in video and print. And I hope to reconnect once again with my fellow bloggers and be inspired.
Through art,
I feel like subtracting …
experiment: data complex 9 | a world inside (a zen nature remix) | video art in HD
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“A World Inside (A Zen Nature Remix)” is an audio and visual remix of the video piece I composed a few months back entitled “Zen Nature | Landscapes for Well being”. In this remix I added the spinning globe, which I have been featuring in my two previous videos. The emerging global image represents the continuous complexity of societal and existential relationships: In “Data complex 7”, the focused was on social, civil, and political entities. In “Data Complex 8”, I explored emotional ambiguities, abstract thought, and memory attachments as it pertains to the individual. In this piece, “Data Complex 9”, I draw attention to the Earth itself, as a landscape for well-being and Spiritual connection. In the remix, small distinct sound samples were added to the soundtrack, along with poetic thought to the visual construct. The actual visual and aural part of the video ends around the 5 minute mark, with an additional 1:46 seconds of a black screen and silence. “Into creation, into silence”. A moment for the viewer to explore his or her own meditative recollection.
n e w d i g i t a l s c a p e s 