www.firetender.org www.thestoryofthis.net
www.artforhealers.com www.mauihealingartist.com
| (MOST of the images you see on this website can be found in larger format in the Art for Healers Gallery Pages and are available for purchase in the STORE) |
| HOME |
| Acknowledging MAUI |
| Some
Background firetender? There's Something Here for You... Expand Your Vision of Healing This Started in an Ambulance Biography |
| What This Site's About |
| Articles on the Healing Arts |
| A Most Unusual Rejection Letter |
|
************ ************** ************* *************** |
Art For Healers Galleries - intro Images for Healing Dalai Lama Comes A-Callin'! (slideshow) |
| Music
and Videos |
|
Moments
in a Paramedic's Journey |
| The heART of the Healer Workshop |
| Counseling and Creative Services |
|
portal to Blog, Forums |
| Links |
| STORE |
|
|
Talk Story About Process
Giclée (zhee-klay)
The French word "giclée" is a feminine noun that roughly means a spray or a spurt of liquid. Even more roughly, I've heard it referred to like the spray of a cat. It is the bastard of the art world. I've been told that, and also
been told that I'd attain no Caché in
"real" art circles by using it as my primary medium!
Essentially, as utilized today, an artist does an original work -- in any two-dimensional medium -- digitally photographs it, and then has it reproduced.
Just like what you do at home, the process involves inputting digital information into a computer, and then printing out the result. In this case,
it's with a HUGE printer, most
typically on a medium like canvas.
The printer is usually
some form of ink-jet device,
thus "spraying" the canvas.
The "process" until now, has been simple reproduction.
This allows artists to do original oils, for example, sell them for tons of money and then make Giclée reproductions available at lesser cost for more common folk.
To sidestep the onus of "cheap reproduction" some artists produce Giclées and then add on layers,
or accent what's there, with
paints or other media.
What makes my work unique is that I use the Giclée process as a tool, almost like a different kind of paintbrush, to achieve the otherworldly effects in the images. I DO NOT MANIPULATE MY IMAGES with PhotoShop (TM) or
any other computer program!
These images, when produced
on canvas, are incredibly alive!
I choose to offer them in
Giclée only, to help them fulfill
their mission.
Are you a Collector or Dealer of Art? I followed some bad advice when I first started. But that may be a good thing for both of us! I was told to produce limited editions of the images from thestoryofthis..., to set a cap for the images (280 prints each), to produce one image each of that run of Giclées (16 of them), sign them, pick a random number from the 280 and write, for example, 16/280 on the canvas. That's what I did to each. That's not how I want to sell this series. Everyone who wants to get one should be able to get one, and what I produce from here on out will be slightly different. I've been dragging these around the island from gallery to gallery, (outdoor!) art show to art show. Some are a touch weather-worn, but distinctive because of it. I'm declaring that first run of 16 as First Edition, one of a kind Giclées, identified by those bogus print numbers and with a statement of authenticity. (How's that for a paradox, I love it!). Those to whom I've already sold Giclées, will get such a document from me. If one or more Giclées from this edition are of interest to you, please e-mail me! Mahalo! |
"You have developed a brand new kind of art, one that is reflective of the healing work that you've been called upon to do."
Hana Coast Gallery, Maui, HI
In Hawaii, it's called Talk Story!
Thanks for coming!
Pull up a chair and sit a minute. I want to share something with you. Can I get you something to drink, or...? Great...let's just chat for a minute then...
This whole photography thing has turned my life upside down!
I've been a photographer since my mid-twenties; a personal pleasure and joy sorta thing, some press exposure. Had a darkroom for a while. Loved the process!
When I moved to Maui, I was focused on the communicating and teaching end of the healing arts. While on Oahu, I had polished my book about my experiences as a paramedic, and then I moved to Maui specifically with the intent of setting up a counseling practice and my workshop, The heART of the Healer , here.
That was not to be quite yet because, as you'll soon learn here and in the galleries, my photography took a bounce into the Twilight Zone!
For a while there, I thought I was an Artiste. WHEW! that was a close call!
It could be that after so many years in the healing arts, I have trouble interpreting anything that comes through me as other than a gift to be used as a tool for healing.
So, when it came to going out there and selling my images, I was a total failure! I gave away hundreds of prints to subjects that I photographed at public gatherings for the joy of sharing the spirits in them that I was so priveleged to capture.
If you haven't yet, check out the full e-mail Patrick Robinson, Curator/Director of Hawaii's most prestigious art gallery sent me regarding my art. He articulated clearly my dilemma while both praising my work and rejecting it at the same time. Go figure!
I literally spent the next two years of my life re-working my understanding of who I am as a healer. My task was to integrate what came through me in these images into the larger picture of my work in the healing arts. This website is the result!
And after all the gyrations, I ended up looking at what was really happening with my relationship with my artwork.
After two years of showings in a number of island galleries I pulled all my work out, built a
gallery/studio/treatment room in my home and then began using my
Giclées from thestoryofthis... almost exclusively
for counseling sessions. I would only sell the art from that series to
people to whom they were meaningful and to those in need, or those who
would use them as much more than decoration.They are not decoration; they are
healers in their own way.
These images were not designed by me. They appeared by a fortuitous, accidental, mechanical screw-up of my printer. I really didn't know what I was doing at the time I "shot" thestoryofthis... I had no idea how to anticipate, let alone plan the effects that I ended up getting.
In working with them as counseling tools, I am clear that the images fulfill their role: to be metaphoric mirrors of what is living inside of the viewer in the moment. I did not create that role, I only recognized that's what was happening.
So I built a website around them to make this first series available to anyone who wishes to use them as a tool to explore their inner territory -- without me or anyone else getting in the way!
YES! I believe these images know
what they're doing! (Primarily because YOU know what you're doing!)
In the process of learning (by reverse-engineering) what I had done with that series, I became aware of the technique necessary -- in choice of light, composition, and production to produce images that conveyed a "here/not here" quality.
I then learned how to sharpen "all" my eyes to recognize the right moments
to
photograph and began building another series, now called Images for HealingThat series is evocative too, but because I knew better what I was doing, I won't present them as the clear channel that I recognize thestoryoifthis... to be. In this very moment, I'm going to tag another descriptor onto the Images for Healing; they are Inspirational as well, and that may very well be an expression of my own more conscious orientation as a healer!
But there's not a one of them that is not infused with my primary tool as a healer -- the Intent that they be vehicles of healing.
So, that's what they are, that's what they
do! I have no doubt that they'll work as hard for you and the people
with whom you connect as they do for me and mine!
Please consider a purchase of one or more of these images as an investment. Here are more tools that will help you and the people with whom you are in connection have better access to the still-small voices that guide you.
You just watch the
people moving from your waiting room, where the images are displayed,
into your treatment room.
They'll bring in curiosities or insights to you just as if they had engaged in stimulating conversation with other people waiting with them.
They'll bring in curiosities or insights to you just as if they had engaged in stimulating conversation with other people waiting with them.
And you'll chuckle to
yourself because you know the waiting room was empty -- except for them!
For all of us, in support of health and happiness,
Mitakuye Oyasin!
Russ Reina,
a firetender
"...your work doesn't fit comfortably within the "standard" mix.
As an artist who is pioneering a new dimension in photography,
that should be music to your ears."
Patrick
Robinson
(full text here!)
(full text here!)