Artist Statement

I am an independent freelance photographer, third generation born in Washington, D.C. Until recently I lived in a rural community, on the edge of the Chesapeake Bay, enjoying the naturaI beauty and historical interest of Annapolis and DC. Now I live on the outskirts of Houston, another vibrant city.

My adventure these days is to explore cities finding examples of the development in the places we live. My focus is on creating an image with a strong use of light, line and color. My eye has drifted to capture reflected surfaces and the architecture naturally adds fabulous light and line.

My images are examples of the urban development. I want them to replicate the intensity inthe rhythms of the city. The structures are living, breathing environments and the interactive design to be an integration with nature. There is a balance, in the spaces, between stability and movement. I look for the transitions between the architecture and the relationship to the environment. I am excited to capture the energy of life in these spaces that is implied as much as seen.

Biography

I studied photography at local Art Centers while I was raising my family. I Studied at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts with Dick Bond. I also studied with Fine Art Photographer Don Kneessi for 4 years at Anne Arundel Community College. The historic alternative processes piqued my interests and inspired my approach to photography. I was challenged to push the boundaries of creating images. “Learn the rules then you can break them” Kneessi instructed. His other favorite expression was “ You have to get Your knees dirty”! That’s my favorite part of the process.

Memberships

Maryland Federation Art ; Exhibition Committee

Art Council for Anne Arundel County

Notable Exhibitions and Awards

7/2017 2 Artist Exhibition “Under One Sky” Chaney Gallery, Maryland Hall, MD

8/2016 3 Artist Exhibition “2 Carols and a Gail” Quiet Waters Garden Gallery MD

3/2016 River Gallery Juried Community Exhibition,MD

1/2016 Lowes State Office Building, Annapolis MD

12/2015 National Juried Exhibition “ Small Wonders” Honorable Mention, MdFedArt

12/2015 Annapolis Showcase Design House

5/2015 Maryland Artists Juried Exhibition “ Maryland Art @College Park” UMD

3/2015 National Juried Exhibition “Image & Imagination” Mitchell Gallery St John’s College

2/2015 Solo Exhibition “Pulsing Rythms, Views of the City” Maryland Federation of Art

1/2015  Celebrating Maryland Artists – Lowes State Office Building, Annapolis MD

6/2014  Maryland Artists Juried Exhibition “ Maryland Art @College Park” UMD

3/2014   River Gallery Juried Community Exhibition- Juror Merit Award

2/2014  6 Artists Group Exhibition “6 in the City” Circle Gallery

3/2013  River Gallery Juried Community Exhibition- 2^nd Place

1/2013  Annapolis Maritime Museum –Exhibition-“The War of 1812 -The Pride of Baltimore II”

8/2012   National Juried Exhibition “Terrain” Kiernan Gallery Lexington VA.

8/2012   National Juried Exhibition “American Landscapes” Maryland Federation of Art

5/2012   National Juried Exhibition “Image & Imagination” Mitchell Gallery

4/2012   Maryland Federation Art Spring Member Show-Third Place

3/2012   River Gallery Juried Community Show – Juror’s Choice Award

12/2011  National Juried Exhibition “Small Wonders” Maryland Federation of Art

10/2011 National Juried Exhibition “Toyed With” Open Shutter Gallery, Durango, CO

9/2011  National Juried Exhibition ´Through Many Lenses” Adirondack Center for the Arts, NY

Artist Statement

The many moods and motifs of New York City have long exerted a powerful attraction in my photographic activities. From the grit to the glamour, the beauty to the brawn, there is always a story to be told, and the “to-shoot” list is constantly growing.

A lifelong interest when it comes to NYC has been the city’s extensive network of subway lines, especially the elevated sections and the arterial function they serve in linking borough-to-borough, neighborhood-to-neighborhood. And when the elevated borough-to-borough connection involves a massive bridge soaring over a broad expanse of water, it becomes even more compelling for the chance to photograph the trains amidst the geometrically intricate patterns of girder-work.

Two East River spans fit that description: the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge, both massive, both intricate in their early twentieth century architecture. But after walking across both, I must give the nod to the “Willy-B,” the affectionate nickname New Yorkers have for the latter. Not that one cannot get close to the trains on both; but in comparison to its downriver mate, the Willy -B has the better sightlines for photography, both above and alongside the two tracks carrying J, M, and Z trains between Lower Manhattan and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

Last June was my time for getting to know the Willy-B, both at track level from the front ends of trains in both directions, and via a leisurely stroll with the cameras from Manhattan’s Lower East Side to Williamsburg, on a photo-inviting sunny Saturday afternoon.

The combination of intricate patterns of girders, the passage of trains rumbling below or beside, and the variety of fellow pedestrians made for many an interesting photo moment.

I created this impression from one such moment.

More of my NYC images can be viewed at:

https://500px.com/steveember/galleries/new-york-city

http://www.fotocommunity.com/user_photos/1571414 -Use pull-down menu under black stripe to access “New York City”

Biography

Steve Ember is a Washington-based photographer, writer, and voice actor/narrator. His areas of photography, in addition to his signature New York cityscapes and Alpine landscapes, encompass European and American motifs, including night scenes, as well as railroad and aviation subjects, and aerial photography. His work has been honored with selection in numerous juried exhibits at galleries in the greater Washington area. His photographs appear regularly at the Maryland Federation of Art’s Circle Gallery in Annapolis, Maryland.

His photographs have appeared on covers and within magazines and corporate publications. An extensive selection of Steve’s current and legacy images can be viewed on the web site Foto-Community by clicking on the Photography button at SteveEmber.com and by visiting his catalog on 500px (link below). Steve’s work is also represented on Alamy stock.

Steve shoots both in color and black and white, including infra-red, and he remains committed to using film, alongside of digital. Alpine locations, large cities, and industrial motifs strongly appeal to his aesthetic sense. He also is attracted to the character inherent in old buildings, including in European villages. In exhibiting his work, Steve derives special pleasure in sharing with others the fruits of those otherwise private moments of looking through the viewfinder. He also shares the experience and adventures behind certain of his photographs in a series of “Photo-Moments” audio podcasts. Some of these can be heard on Steve’s SoundCloud page, linked below.

Steve’s work has been seen in solo and group shows at galleries, restaurants, and other venues in the metropolitan Washington D.C. and Baltimore areas, as well as in Annapolis, Maryland and Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. He was commissioned for a series of black and white Washington scenes for the Scitor Corp. office building along the Dulles Corridor. Three of Steve’s Manhattan impressions were purchased for the lobby of The Landmark Building in New York City. Others of his photographs are in private collections.

Steve shares his home with Scamper the Wookie Cat, a lively and very talkative little combination of tabby-stripes and bunny-rabbit white, who hops bunny-like up stairs and supervises the design and production of a line of custom printed photo greeting/note cards.

Steve Ember is available for commissions and select assignments.

Links to Steve’s work on-line: http://steveember.com/ (Click on “Photography”) https://500px.com/steveember https://medium.com/@emberphoto/ https://soundcloud.com/steve-ember https://www.facebook.com/photographybySteveEmber/

Artist Statement

Influences and Inspirations – Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Gerhard Richter. Winslow Homer. Picasso. Bill Watterson. Berkeley Breathed. Vaughn Bode. And all the velvet Elvises that ever were.

Awakening (or whatever you want to call it) – Until the age of 63 I had zero interest in painting of any kind, much less abstract. The reason I began sounds like an outtake from “The Sixth Sense”. My wife and I bought a unique little house formerly owned by a woman named Adele Erisman, who had been a painter and who had died there. I do not believe In the afterlife, ghosts, or little green men, but shortly after moving in I awoke one morning certain that I had to paint. Perhaps Ms. Erisman whispered in my ear; perhaps it was just time for me to move into this new and sublimely beautiful phase of my life. In any case, Adele is my official muse, and I am reassessing my preconceptions about the supernatural.

Education – I am a self taught (or uneducated, take your pick; Adele doesn’t provide instruction, only impetus) abstract artist, working in acrylic on paper, panel and canvas.  I occasionally use paintbrushes, but most of the time my equipment of choice is a plastic putty knife or a strip of plexiglass (in the manner of Gerhard Richter). Or a strong right arm (splat).

Process – Jackson Pollock, or one of his chroniclers, allegedly coined the term “action painting”, which I have roughly translated to mean, “I’m making this up as I go”. I generally use cheap plastic putty knives and house paint, which makes the material cost of a screw up more acceptable. Someone asked me what I think about when I paint. Answer: I don’t know. Painting is for me such an intense, immersive, and subconscious experience that all I can say is that I work until I’m done, or at least until I come up for air. In the end, I throw paint on a surface and push it around until I get something I like.

Resume

Street Fairs, etc.

2017

Art Within Reach, Collingswood, NJ

Smithville Art Walk, Smithville, NJ

Collingswood Night Market, Collingswood, NJ

Collingswood, NJ Second Saturday (twice)

Brick and mortar group shows:

2017

Artists of Yardley Sixth Annual Juried Show, Yardley, PA

Color of Energy exhibition at the Valley Arts Firehouse Gallery in Orange, NJ

Works on Paper exhibition at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA

2016:

Maryland Federation of Art, Strokes of Genius

Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, 21st Art Ability Exhibition

Philadelphia Sketch Club, Absolutely Abstract exhibition

Mystic Museum of Art, 37th Annual Exhibition, Mystic, CT

The Artists of Yardley, Fifth annual juried exhibition

Online group shows:

2016:

Light, Space and Time – Cityscapes (https://www.lightspacetime.art/cityscapes-2016-art-exhibition-painting-category/)

Colors of Humanity – Open (http://www.colorsofhumanityartgallery.com/Open-2016/Blue-2015-Show/n-n2pqdT)

2015:

Fusion Art – Colorful Abstractions (http://fusionartps.com/colorful-abstractions-exhibition/)

Artist Statement

“Time and Tide Wait For No Man”

This is a quote by Geoffrey Chaucer, and comes from a proverb used by Saint Marher in 1225. The meaning of this quilt is to show that time and tides are such powerful forces, which cannot be stopped by man or God, that they are both essentially out of our control. The numerous images of clocks and timepieces floating in the tides are overcome by the waves and wash up on shore, abandoned by the tide.  The strength in the waves indicates that we are helpless in preventing their destruction to whatever they touch, particularly time. There is no way to prevent either.

Biography

Having never sewn before and continuing to grow her art from mural painting, Carol began to create scenes with fabric – transforming her visions into art quilts. Using scraps of fabric samples from a local upholsterer, a $50 sewing machine, she began to create with cloth as she did with paint, blending and layering to fashion landscapes, abstracts and city scenes. Her work encourages one to reach out and touch the work and become part of it.

Advancing to a more sophisticated machine and exploring ideas, she has created a collection of fabric art quilts. Her Night and Day series explores the juxtaposition of red, white, black and gold, against the shadows of the moon and the sun. Her Harbor Sights series depicts different scenes of boats and harbors. The Michigan Landscape series includes a summer sunflower field, a winter beach scene, a lakeside cabin in autumn, a snowy forest night, a pumpkin field in autumn, the grape vineyards, the Michigan rolling hills of the Grand Traverse Bay; and of course, the sunset. Her quilts “Red Sky at Night” and “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” clearly demonstrate how different the skies change and are never the same.   Her abstracts are simply delightful in their whimsical display of shapes and colors as seen in My Rescue, The Women Series, and Time and Tide Wait for No Man.

“I call my technique painting with fabric. There’s nothing “set in stone” about my art style.   It’s my perspective of textile art – not a quilt, not appliqué, not just a sewing project –but a form of painting. Being a painter and pastel artist, I just substitute my paint brush for a sewing machine – and fabric for the paint. There are no solid, opaque colors in nature. There are no flat surfaces.   There are only shadows, lines, color variations, shape and dimension.   The more bits of fabric I use, the more intense the blending of colors.   The more layers I sew, the more depth and dimension.   By using fabric as my tool, I can imitate nature’s texture, patterns, colors and shapes:   the veritable layers of the natural beauty that surrounds us.”

Her work has been exhibited at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids; Daybreak Gallery in Manistee, Three Pines Studio in Cross Village, the Manistee Art Institute, Synchronicity Gallery in Glen Arbor, The Oliver Art Center, Pentwater, The Fiber Festival in the Old Art Building in Leland; The Fiber Art Almanac: Essays from the American Midwest; and on the on line galleries –  Bauhaus Prairie Art Gallery and Light and Space Gallery. Her “Kaleidoscope” art quilt has been published in “1000 Quilts Inspirations” by Sandra Sider and in the Midwest Fiber Arts Trails print version of “Essays from the Midwest – The Quilt Maker’s Story”. She has taught classes in Manistee, the Ghost Ranch in Abiqui, New Mexico and the Oliver Art Center in Frankfort, Michigan.

Carol also paints murals in private and commercial establishments. Her most recent commission being the Children’s Room in the Manistee Public Library – a 140 foot mural surrounding the reading room depicting images of Manistee County and the joy of reading.

Artist Statement

Visual reality is an ever-shifting, highly individualized experience. In any given moment, what we see reflects both our inner state and a synthesis of outer qualities—light, color, movement, space. My exploration in dimensional photographic art represents an attempt to recreate the perceptual experience, with its dynamic nature and hidden complexities. In my patented process I use photographic constructions, a single, often abstracted image is layered over itself on clear acrylic surfaces and superimposed on a subtle grid. The resulting visual phenomenon infuses the image with a sense of dimensionality and fluidity affected by such changes as the angle of viewing and light. The enhanced visual experience Yet perceptual mechanics are only part of the equation. Equally essential are universal principles of design that produce qualities we perceive as beauty. This is my aim: to skillfully combine technology and aesthetics in a way that expands the viewer’s experience of photographic art.

Biography

Howard studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and Pratt Institute. He shows throughout the US and is represented by galleries in Chelsea New York, Santa Fe NM and Lisbon Portugal. Harris gives his images a sculptural effect, layering the work using clear acrylic surfaces superimposed with a subtle grid. The images gain dimension and the viewing experience shifts depending on the angle. The process Harris uses was granted a United States Patent, affirming the uniqueness and inventiveness of his works.

Harris has been honored with being on the board of Trustees at the Kansas City Art Institute, Who’s Who Worldwide Lifetime Achievement, Small Business Person of the Year – U.S. Small Business Administration, Design Professional of the Year in the Presidential Who’s Who Marketing, National Association of Print Leadership – Board of Trustees and the Printing Industries Association, Rocky Mountains – Board of Directors.