Summer Abstraction

I was first introduced to algebra in the fourth grade. It was part of a larger program in math, but the idea that x could represent anything was troublesome. The variable was an abstraction that did not compute (no pun intended); I could not wrap my head around it. My mother, who had a natural knack for math and chemistry, I’m sure more than once wondered how I could be her child as we went over and over problems. Abstract art hit me roughly the same way. It wasn’t that I couldn’t appreciate artists like Picasso or Miro on a basic level, but I just didn’t get it. Artists like DeKooning and Rothko left me cold. It took a walk in the National Gallery staring at a Jackson Pollock many years down the line for that big  “aha!” thunderclap to hit.

Actually, I had my first dance with coming to terms with the abstract with a pretentious art clique in school. We felt that we were creating a new movement that could realize emotion via performance and visual art. The problem was that in our dreamy youth, it was

Love.

Hate.

Anger.

basic single emotions that we had only fleeting familiarity with. We just didn’t plumb the complexity of emotions that are part of a larger life like

desire,

repulsion,

love mixed with sorrow,

heartbreak coupled with rage,

joy and lust,

ennui.

It wasn’t in our vocabulary then.

Abstraction in photography is still a little difficult. It wasn’t what I got into photography for. But I’ve been working on it. Recent exposure to other abstract photographers has had me thinking.

I know; that could be dangerous…