Fohoco, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
One of the gifts I received this holiday season was a collection of hundreds (thousands, actually!) of digital photographs by my youngest brother, Dan. Dan lives in the Mojave Desert area, and regularly goes hiking in the canyons, hills, and valleys of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and California, with his partner Jill, their dogs, and his camera. All of the photos seen here were taken within 90 minutes drive from his house. Dan has a great eye for the abstract patterns of nature. I’m devoting this last post of 2011 to sharing Dan’s vision with the readers of Drawing Life. The vortex of color below is a close-up detail of a living tree.
Votr, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Dan rarely prints his photos, and prefers that they be viewed as digital slide shows, full screen on a large monitor in a dark room, as sequences. The more abstract series are quite hypnotic seen in that way, and I hope Dan will soon put some of his photos on line for full-screen slide show viewing. For the format of this blog, I’ve selected a few of my favorites, reduced them in size, and mixed them up. (Apologies, Dan!) The originals have extremely fine textural details that are lost in the smaller images here, but the smaller size seems to emphasize the compositional qualities of the images.
Sheep Mountains, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Some of these close-up studies of rocks, trees and metal remind me of some of the images of the planet Mars that we have seen recently from the HiRISE camera launched by NASA and the University of Arizona.
Fohoco, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
You can also look at these pictures as though they were abstract expressionist paintings. To my eye, the subtlety of the colors and the variety and complexity of the patterns surpass the masters of the New York School.
Sheep Mountains, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
The desert mountains and canyons are famous for their grand vistas, but Dan looks closely at details one might easily overlook, seeing the beauty of all phases of the cycles of nature, including erosion and decay.
Tree, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
These markings remind me of petroglyphs. This is another close textural examination of a tree.
Noba, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
The landscape in Dan’s area is arid and much of it is dominated by bare stone. That doesn’t mean it isn’t wildly colorful. Look at these rocks streaked in white and red.
Buffington Pockets, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
In the picture below, the sun shines through the grass from behind, making the clumps shine like Fourth of July sparklers all around the jagged branches of a dead tree.
Sheep Mountains, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
This is another detail of the tree seen in the second picture in this post. I wonder how it gets all these colors!
Votr, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
The landscape in wet places tends to have a lot of soft shapes and vivid greens. The landscape in the desert leans more towards the spiky and the reddish.
Buffington Pockets, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Time is an artist!
Fohoco, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Sometimes the long view is just as much an abstract pattern as the close view.
Spring Mountains, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Organic growth, the cycles of the seasons, and the ravages of time all go into creating these expressions of vitality and struggle. Dan’s art is to find and isolate them, and to share them with those who can’t be there, or wouldn’t notice these details if they were.
Cluptr, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Who says death is not a creative force?
Buffington Pockets, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Growth and destruction, all of it is part of the eternal process of change, and it all coexists as layers settle upon layers and surfaces scratch and peel.
Sheep Mountains, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Noba, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Fohoco, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
No architect’s dream of clean lines and noble geometry can compare to the fractal magic of living chaos!
Spring Mountains, 2011, photo by Dan Fen
Thanks, Dan, for sharing your photos with me and for allowing me to share them with my readers.
