WALL ABSTRACTS
BY KIP HARRIS
Kip Harris is a retired architect with degrees in English literature, humanities, and architecture. For nearly 30 years, he was a principal of FFKR Architects in Salt Lake City, Utah focusing on university / K-12 school buildings and Native American gaming projects. The last of these was Talking Stick Resort / Casino in Scottsdale, Arizona. His interest in public art has lead him to a three year membership of the Art Design Board of Salt Lake City and to extensive use of Tribal art in Native American casinos.
His photographic work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in the US, Canada, and Europe and on a variety of photographic websites. He now lives in a small fishing village on Nova Scotia’s South Shore in a heavy timber cape originally built in 1823.
synopsis
“... the canvas began to appear ... as an arena in which to act. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event."
Harold Rosenberg
Brightly painted walls in sunlight have the power to stop me in my tracks. It may be the surprise of something novel or the accidental harmony of the color combinations. I have felt this surprise when confronted with the deep blue of Giotto’s Upper Chapel at San Francesco in Assisi or seeing Blaue Reiter or Fauvist paintings or opening a new box of Color Aid. Often the best color combinations occur as part of a repair effort that wasn’t quite finished, leaving it in a state of unresolved tension like the best abstract expressionist paintings. These painted walls can create an immediate connection between the observer and the painter - a dialogue too often missing from our streets and buildings.
The images in this portfolio come from hours of wandering through poorer parts of cities looking at collapsing walls using a camera instead of a brush to capture what caught my eye. Trying to convey this evanescent quality is slippery. It can pass by your eyes like water.
editor's note
Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.