I am still very new on the Art Scene, so much so that I still classify my work as a hobby. My day job has sent me all over the US and I always enjoy checking out the local art scene. Based on what I've seen, I believe that Asheville has a world class art community, with a few stand-out talents. Perhaps it's because of all the natural beauty in the region, or maybe it's the open and welcoming social environment, or the fact that good art inspires more art. Whatever the reason, I find myself wondering what could the Asheville art community do to stand out and shine even brighter. This line of thinking lead me to consider that collaboration within a community can lead to far greater things than any collection of individual accomplishments, and so I started to promote the idea of collaborative art projects.
My first such collaboration has been months in the making so far, and we have yet to shoot a single frame together, but I'm more excited about this project than I have been about anything I've ever done. The whole process started with finding another artist whose work I admired, and who found my work at least interesting. Micah Mackenzie was defiantly that artist for me. His work has inspired me from my earliest experiments with photography in Asheville, and he has always encouraged me in my efforts to improve. When my son sent me some examples of landscapes double-exposed with models I knew that I wanted to create some of these prints using my own landscape backgrounds and Micah's beautiful portraiture work. I approached him with the idea and he showed enough interest that I started to see his work super-imposed on the landscapes I was looking at everywhere I went. In the time since that first discussion we have gone out on one scouting expedition, and we are in the process of scheduling shoots.
Look for some exciting new prints, just in time for Christmas - and follow me on Facebook for updates on the project.