Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter came to mind as I shot my candle images. I love these candle paintings but not as much as the iceberg landscape painting. According the the sales history on the official Richter website, this painting "Candle", sold for $1,039,212 at Christie's London.

"Iceberg in Mist" is one of my all-time favorite paintings. I saw it in person in a vast retrospective at MOMA in NYC. This one was small, only 70 cm x 100 cm, but it had Presence. I stood in front of it sketching and staring, trying to put my finger on what I loved so much about it. It has something to do with mass and volume- and of course the fog that both defines and obscures. There was no sales history given for this painting, only its exhibition record.

Images courtesy of Gerhard Richter

Candle power

I shot quite a few images involving candles this past weekend. I started with the intention of making a photo of a candle flame burning in the sunlight. The idea was that you would barely see the flame, only after searching for it. I liked the notion of the futility of the candle against the sun. The candle itself has such an old world look, that it dignified almost any absurdity I could dream up. More to come.

Milky

I don't know if this is the right version of the milk photo I'm after, but I like it. Milk- the promised land, maternal plenty, nourishment..
According to this hilarious interpretation of dreams website

"If you dream of seeing milk in large containers you will have honor and riches, if your dream is of buying and selling milk commercially, you will have great business success. If you dream that you give your milk away, this denotes that you are too generous and could harm your own finances. If you spill milk, your friends will disappoint you, and if the milk is not pure, you will suffer many small aggravations. If you try to drink milk, and cannot swallow it, this denotes that you are in danger of losing the friendship of a person you have know for a long time."

Kat

My friend Kat came over this weekend and modeled for me in a slew of shots I had planned. It was great- I shot around 15 rolls of film, which for me is a kind of record. She was very kind and generous to give me so much time and effort- she endured standing on a table in three inch heels, having honey dripped on her, and lying on the hardwood floor wedged under furniture for the photos. My scary roommate finally has moved out, so I didn't have to worry about making a mess or any interruptions.

I tried doing some of these shots with a male friend modeling a while back, but it was not working at all. Turns out I really need a female model most of the time. Although I'd like to be able to include men in the work at some point.
This is one of the shots from this past weekend.