Celebrate the Underpass with Underground Art

It seems as if the 4th Avenue underpass has been under construction forever!

This Thursday, August 20, hundreds of Tucsonans will celebrate the opening of the wider, brighter underpass which will reconnect 4th Avenue and Congress Street.

The Central Arts Gallery invites everyone to celebrate the opening of the underpass with Underground Art.

Express yourself by creating your own underground art. Central Arts Gallery will set up tables on the sidewalk in front of the gallery at 274 E. Congress St. from 3:30 - 7 p.m. The gallery is providing paper, markers, crayons, poster paint, and sidewalk chalk; you provide your creativity and ideas.

How do you feel about the 4th Avenue underpass finally opening? How do you feel about downtown? About art downtown? About construction downtown? How is all of this change affecting your life? This is your opportunity to express your joy, sadness, frustration, fear, excitement, whatever in words or pictures.

Underground Art created at this event will be hung in a special display at Central Arts Gallery through September 5. It will be displayed concurrently with Erotic Stimulus Package, the gallery’s latest show. Underground Art created by Central Arts Gallery members also will be exhibited.

Trash Can in Paradise, Pahoa, Hawaii (above) is one of my photographs which will be in the Underground Art exhibit.

El Dia de los Muertos

One of the most unique holidays in Tucson is El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Historically, November 1, the Day of the Dead, has been a day where primarily Hispanics honor loved ones who have passed on. They bring food, drinks, music, flowers, and momentos to local cemetaries and have parties or picnics graveside.

Several years ago, a band of local artists started the All Souls Procession in Tucson to honor the dead. What was once a small rag-tag procession around downtown has turned into two weeks of events, with a huge procession as the finale. The link here goes to the main website and calendar for this year's events. The procession itself is November 9, 2008.

Last year, I walked in the procession (in costume, at right) and took tons of pictures with my Nikon Cool Pix. That camera has a "party" setting which allows for two flashes within one long time exposure. I used this setting for most of my procession pictures. At top is "Danny Boy, the Pipes Are Calling"; this photo will be hanging in the Go Boldly Exhibit at Central Arts Gallery in November. There are some here and more on my Flickr site. I'm looking forward to seeing how my new Nikon digital SLR does at the procession this year.

On the weekend, my daughter and I shopped around on 4th Avenue for costume accessories for this year's procession. I bought a red petticoat and long red satin elbow-length gloves. What fun! Stay tuned for 2008 DOD pictures.

Liquify

On January 31, 2006, I was pushed into digital photography. I had two digital cameras, but I primarily used my film cameras until dispicable burglers robbed by home and took almost all of my professional Nikon camera equipment-- two F2s, multiple Nikkor lenses, filters, flashes-- thousands of dollars worth of equipment. This was a very sad day. I had been an award-winning professional photographer from 1978 - 1996. The only film cameras that they didn't find and steal were my Nikormat (circa 1965) and my Mamaiya C3 2-1/4 (circa 1940s). I digress...

Thanks to the burglers I now primarily use my Nikon digital camera. The resolution and flexibility are not anywhere near as good as my old F2 and Fuji Film, but it's fun, simple to use, and light-weight. It's also much easier to use Adobe PhotoShop, a high-end photo editing software, with digital images. My favorite feature on PhotoShop is "liquify". Here is a liquified, cropped version of the bottles above.


The ice plant in my blog header has also been liquified. Here is the full pic.


Liquified barrel cacti...


As you can see, I've had loads of fun with liquify. It reminds me of the old Polaroid SX70 film from the 1970s. As this film was developing (before your eyes), you could alter the image with a blunt tool. (I used to use a wooden crochet hook.)