Moses Makes Pictures

Artist Talk at the UNH Museum of Art Scott Schnepf: Four Decades of Printmaking Wednesday November 8 Scott Schnepf gave a talk on his career and practice as a printmaker and professor of art this past Wednesday. The show of his prints filled the upper floor of the museum and they had been hung for a while before the talk, so that I was already somewhat familiar with them, it being my habit to observe the art in the museum on a regular basis. Before the talk Iwas duly impressed with Schnepf’s work, and hearing the artist speak only broadened my admiration for him as a maker. Schnepf is a printmaker and a painter. He began making prints when he was pursuing his BA at Augusta College, and by his telling he has found in this medium an artistic process which fits well with his temperament and approach to creating an image. He also spoke about how making prints is a complementary process to making paintings, and that he finds it informative to toggle between the two. Schnepf

I was out with two good friends in the field of rough stubble which rolls down from the wagon on wagon hill. I was trying to take portraits of Lansing and Moriah, ala Mr. Dirado, and I was failing miserably. I couldn’t find the words to say to make my subjects take the form of the portrait that I wanted to make. The mix of humour and impassioned authenticity that Dirado strikes when he makes a picture eluded me entirely. I am very aware that he has been doing this a long time and I am a novice, and that to expect any kind of greatness from my first serious foray into portraiture is a fool’s hope. This was not my first attempt at “Dirado type” pictures either, I had tried four times before in interior settings, and each time the pictures I took did not satisfy. I found that having a camera in hand made my interactions with my subjects rather awkward, and that the best photos I took were candid ones, which was not the way Dirado worked. I had hoped that taking on this project

I met Stephan Dirado last fall here at UNH when his some of his photographs were in the museum. He gave a talk in the big lecture hall, and it was probably the most well attended artist talk that I’ve been to here. I was struck right away his easy manner, he seemed utterly comfortable in his skin, and when he talked to the room about his life as a photographer, it was like he was talking to a room full of old friends. This easy and comfortable way of being made an impression on me, and when I saw Dirado in Philbrook dining hall after his talk I approached him to thank him for the talk and express my enthusiasm for his photographs. When I introduced myself he made me feel as if it was an honor for him to meet me , as if I was the accomplished artist and he the doting college art student. It was quite remarkable, and I went away from the conversation feeling uplifted. Dirado must have this effect on many people, for most of his photographs are very intimate portraits which would

Parameters Use 50mm lens Use artificial lighting  Pose subject in in space intentionally 

I took a trip to Pawtuckaway State park this past Monday to wrestle some rocks and take photos. I became interested in the compositional possibilities of rock as "figure" and sky/trees as "ground." I also took some pictures where the rock fills the entire frame, and the focus of the image is the texture and features of the rock. I like the flatness of these photos in particular. I'm thinking that my typology project will be comprised of a set of four photos, now i just have to choose, edit, and print! 

        My un-made photo graph is of my friend Joe and I running to catch our flight from Tasmania back to Melbourne. We are both in high toped hiking boots smeared with mud and we are carrying large back-packs with sleeping roles tied to the bottom and flip-flops hanging off the sides. We had spent the last many hours in the Museum of Modern and New Art in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. We had become so engrossed in our experience there that we had only remembered to leave for our flight with a half hour to spare. This museum remains the most engaging modern art museum I have ever set foot it. When we finally got out of the museum and got a taxi to the airport, we could see our plane on the runway, and we made a futile attempt to catch.        I would like to have this photo because it was a deeply funny situation once we had gotten over the shock of our very expensive mistake. We had become so enthralled by the art in the museum that we lost track of time, and by consequence we ha