Elliot Crowley

    I have photographed cactus before so when Ken challenged me with his barrel cactus I knew exactly where to go to find some fine specimens of Agave Americana. Today was overcast, perfect for my painting with light technique to find just the right areas of the agave to highlight. I love how these plants send up a thick stalk of new leaves and then unfold leaving impressions on the skin of the neighboring leaf of the thorns. These are magnificent plants. At the end of their life they send up a giant flower. This process takes about a year to accomplish. After that the plant dies. One chance at reproduction. What I was interested in seeing when I went to make this image was the way the light would play off of the glossy thorns and the matte skin of the leaves. Beyond that the built in layering of the way this plant grows adds to the mystery of where we are and just how did that light find those parts of the plant.

I have always been attracted to the walls of Montecito. I have made photographs to document the patina created by the years of their existence. Until now my wall images have been of flat smooth walls, never the stone-walls that are prolific. I believe the stone ones would not show the patina since they were already a natural substance. Ken’s photograph of a building’s façade with all of its repetitive patterns and visual chaos was a wonderful dance for my eyes to move around. Which one of those balconies will be the unique one? Which is the outlier? It was difficult to notice just one which is what made the image translate into this rock wall for my response. Each of these rocks is unique, yet when they are all held in the frame it is difficult to notice just one. Which one is the keystone? Which stone is important? They all participate in the chaos our mind is willing to accept as the background. I think this image also speaks to the flatness theme we have seen recently. Clearly, Ken’s image of the building has texture to it and certainly isn’t flat except for the flattening effect of photography. I have written about this intrinsic part of photography before for the APA and that can be seen at http://searchapa.us/wordpress/wordpress/?p=7 The same can be said about my photograph of the rock wall. It too has texture and the rocks are not truly flat but because of the two-dimensional rendering inherent to photography it becomes just as flat. There is no real narrative portion to my photograph. This is one of those to be enjoyed on a purely depictive level.