Working with artists inspires me. I adore their energy. I crave their passion. I am fascinated by the way they organize space; on a canvas, at home, or in their studios. This past year I’ve been working more closely with fellow creatives: collaborating, designing websites or photographing people, pieces and environments.

Currently, I’m in Black Mountain, North Carolina visiting artist Tamie Beldue, who is no exception to all of the feel-goods. The last time I saw her, we spent a few days in the subway system of New York City, documenting the underground for a massive multi-panel drawing project which is still in progress (below). It’s breathtaking to see how fragments of photographs are stitched together and paired in a way that completely envelopes you as you stand in front of it. It’s a project that is best seen from across the room– until you notice fine detail in the composition which pulls you in for a more intimate view.

The goal of this particular shoot was to create portraits with the essence of her artwork through a photographic medium. There is a gauzy, somber quality which emerges through her use of charcoal and encaustic which I aimed to mimic through motion blur, toning and various objects refracting light through the camera lens. You can visit her website at www.tamiebeldue.com to pore through her collection of work for comparison. It is difficult to share only three images here as, together, we were unable to cull our collection down to less than thirty images. Sessions like these are collaborative, with ideas and vision intertwined. One idea feeds another, and then another, and then another.

I wish I could share with you all of the things I heard and saw in the space. Small jewels of work pulled out from a massive file, covered with wax paper. She sorts through them and makes two stacks– “good, good, not this one, good…” These tiny previews are like splashes of the Western landscape I drove through earlier in the year. Color implies so much, regardless of its form.
And then the artist’s tools weigh equally in importance as the space, the work, the mood. Think of how tangible objects relate to an individual’s visual language. Collected bones. Rolls of paper. Bowls of ash from controlled burns. Glass bottles. Grandfather’s dentistry cabinet. A printing press from the studio where Andy Warhol once worked. Not shown here is a chair dotted with blue painters tape, securing the outline of a model so that her exact position can be maintained over multiple sittings. Even a rug on the floor and the easel position are masked out in such a way that it would make for an interesting installation on its own merit.

This has been an idea in the back of my mind for quite some time…bringing together an exhibition of artful supporting elements which most people never get the chance to see. For myself, there was rolling inspiration board that was absolutely heartbreaking to take down when I left an old studio in Rockland, Maine. It was a masterpiece seen only by four or five people, with notes and wings and stones and strings all pinned up and speaking to me whenever I lifted my camera.

If you have an interesting space, be it the corner of a room, an industrial warehouse, or even the pages of notebook, which you think are artful and intriguing in their own way, please feel free to share those with me. Write a few words and let me know how it speaks to your own work or process!