For some reason new posts do not appear on this page! Please click on a portfolio to observe new work…
This is also reviewed in the Self-Portrait section…
Memories of 107 5th Avenue and my Mother’s encouragement to play in the Sunroom are totally responsible for this study… I was five years old and it never made sense to me that the room on the North East corner of the house was “The Sunroom”… the windows only caught the morning Sun…
Imaging the dog’s (dead) rabbit toy at the end of Route 64, where it intersects with 5 & 20 happened as I was in process, trying to comprehend a sunbeam as it became a totem like structure of some substance until one got close… sort of like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow… like the dog’s toy which was probably loved to death each day and then invisible as the dog moved on…
Once something becomes known, emotional attachments are stretched to encompass an additional something else… within the narrow framework of the concept of Sunroom the significance of each moment spent there and understanding provides a history for us to look back upon should we have need, or occasion, to do so… memories have edges and often they are apparent and pervasive… this imagery is how I now understand the Sunroom… these images were immediately artifacts of our process… mile markers of existence…
What might
may be
if…
John Kosboth, circa 1963
It is hard for me to know where to begin with this series of manipulated memory... so, this is as good a place as any
More narrative than ever, this series continues…
Coming of age turns Father's world upside down...
This poem is used by itself and, usually, as an end piece… this time it seemed fitting as the beginning/cover image… an introduction to life moments…
The original images have been in gallery shows, gallery catalogues and in various forms of leave-behind booklets which have puzzled all who have received them… the child is born looking back and with little knowledge of what possibilities are ahead…
This series of considerations lastly had father portrayed upside down as his child becomes a young adult… I feel this is a fuller awareness of roles and possibilities…
The chess/checkerboard series is large and complicated… here is a couple (or two individuals) with culture and life forces impeding, correcting, directing, challenging at every turn… steps to the Goddess include chaos and some kind of weather… folks in the background of everyday life are both influential and a burden…
It is hard when one’s love is elsewhere for whatever reason… today’s conflicts require Yankee Doodle Dandies… there a times during these absences that the colors can fade to black even tho the love is strong…
There is a wonderful tale about glass thru which light passes so slowly that one may sit on the outside and look in at what one’s love is doing years ago… then, one is never home, alone
Kathy, a woman in Lansing, Michigan, contacted me after viewing some of the work in NAMI… could I do something for her as the first anniversary of her father’s death was fast approaching… all she could recall of the relationship was him swinging her by her arms… I thought I could work with that…
Megan cut her father's hair, married and became a Mom... still stops back to visit her former boss at Eastview... complex and wonderful...
The joy and pain that carries us thru friendships and life…
Experiences seen in the rear view mirror are not behind us... for me, there is a persistence of vision which narrative expresses during the realization of these artifacts of our process…
In The White Album, Joan Didion notes that “We tell ourselves stories in order to live… We cling to symbols like cruel lovers or distant parents, hoping to discern the outlines of a compass in otherwise unyielding negatives of truth.”
We are the art. We are poetry…
This may be what occurs when I have a birthday and boredom is a challenge… sorry? Nope…
Fairly large series of images considering "night's flight" from an angle new to me... it still intrigues...
I revisited a house on Routes 5&20, then turned around… this (obviously) is not the resulting image but my take on it… an emotional landscape...
Most recent attempt to convey what my mind does…
2021 found me back in Portland, Oregon, after too long away and the amount of unexpected art was staggering… I had been aware, and was imaging it, but WOW! Now it is 2024 and I pulled up two images to work with… this is a combination of those… I may have been initially attracted to the chain shadow now running up the face/head to the right of center… I added the face just right of center because the narrative took me there… then, more space and a better aspect ratio was needed so I place the work over the first piece of this trips unexpected art…
Each of the past years Nancy Valle has generously shared her space for portraits by anyone who wishes to share… At present, this is my offering… number 24 and still under consideration!
I almost don’t want to put this up as it is 44 x 80 inches with the Rift portion shrunk from 60” wide… clearly I do not listen well as here it is… The denseness leading to the conception, realization and birth… life lived and the loss of the husband added to the narrative of Spent… some motorcycle clubs carry the boots of a deceased member on trips taken, along with that member’s helmet, signed by all…
This is the latest image in a very old series… Time’s Champion is a fey, young lady…
Crows are my birds, but Ravens began to visit around the time I moved from our home… perhaps I may claim both are my birds! We do share worlds…
Life is a Dance Macabre and that is portrayed by the central element… an element used many times in the past 23 years…
After many years, I find myself back with the original image and additional understanding of how “Time” might be suggested… this consideration began in July of 2023
Was thinking, again, of two Aunts…
Here we go! I tried a couple of other folk’s eyes, but Corrine is still our go-to… an image of only 44” wide, but 7-8’ seems ideal… check out “Spent”… both are heavy emotional landscapes…
Why can’t things remain the same…
The narrative continues to draw me back… and, I love “out of frame” when it works…
The circles take me on journeys…. the title nudges are simple- BLAM- and there… I have no control over them… they often make sense to me… this may reference my Dad, Lyle…
And there she was again, in my thoughts… interesting next-door neighbor when growing up in Oswego, New York
This image has chased me for 20 years…
Final image for now… 64 images to understand this one…
Second to last image (to date) in this series… hoped to show that there is light beyond the storms of life… been criticized as the house being too sweet and too upright… this led to the next image…
So I thought to see how the image might be effected and affected with the addition of a couple…
One of the last images in this series of considerations… there used to be “a way to do things” … one way… HA
This series continues to play with my mind…
It’s complicated by us…
Just a simple wondering…
Good Morning Black & White #1
Considering life as taking place on a checkerboard… a few years ago, a charming young lady asked me about a piece I had in the show I was hanging… “you know, the chessboard.” I had not a clue! Stuck on Checkerboard/stuck… this piece is from 9APR23 so I appear to yet be stuck…
As a 40” x 96” canvas (digital print) this presents so well… have done smaller but this size is perfect…
From a small series of contemplations based on perception and expectations
Not certain this shouldn't be in the Detritus section, but it haunts me…
The 3rd consideration at this point, 1APR23
Too often the image narrative will not let go! Always a ride to and thru places and experiences previously not properly seen/understood.
One of seven or eight images which have brought viewers to tears…
This is a result of overthinking... one the one hand, it is solid but on the other, the seats, simply hanging, add more information and fill out the emotional aspects...
Nine or ten pieces in this study… each offers a different emotional detritus
Sold at 36” x 96”, canvas print… this is the 29th in a series of studies and the final version… if I print again it will be 2 of 2…
The title nudge of this series tells it all - there is a persistence of vision combined with an understanding that emotions seen in the rear view mirror are not behind us…
A series never hung because, you know, Rochester, New York... each image depicts humans present hang-up with skin color even tho we are all the same...
Ongoing self-reflection which does little to no good but…
Maybe the 331st in the series of consideration and study relying on Corrine's facial features as base...
1959 Chevrolet Fleetback found for sale on Route 104, outside of Martville, NY…
PDX baggage area and I was not alert to the possibility of the folks on the left representing (too closely?) those in the framed, warning poster… I just loved the composition and seem to recall wishing that there were no people in the seen! (Yes, “seen”…) Nope this is more impactful for me…
I love to shoot thru dirty glass…. Canandiagua, top of the hill, many years back…
Honeoye Falls, New York
Dan Neuberger loved this snapshot and asked where it was so he could shoot it… Canandaigua, but he could not shoot it… Why? The parking lot had been re-painted… Minor White noted something to the effect that an image waited for the artist it chose…
For me, the best cloud snapshot ever… still waiting for an explanation!
I had been talking with her husband and son when the Lady of the house drove up… I asked permission to shoot the clothesline and received same AFTER she took down her Bloomers… definitely a Lady!
Portland, Oregon, glass block sidewalk...
Part of the Garbage Dump in Mendon, New York… Surprise!
The venting as inadequate, but the results are intriguing…
Bloomfield, New York
It was as though stores and places could not be boarded up fast enough…
At the East end of Tobin Road where it butts into Clover Street.
Humans are strange people… Culture bound, belief addicts, treasure boxes being filled and emptied 24/7… I am addicted…
Met Lee in McDonalds West, Henrietta, NY… it has been a while, but I think he lived on Genesee Street in Rochester, New York at the time… took a bus each day to the foot of Methodist Hill on West Henrietta, climbed the hill up and then walked down to McDonald’s West… unbelievable! Then moved to East Main Street and continued on… remarkable young man…
I was doing a show comparing country folk with City folk and imaged Sean near Salt Road, off Route 104… city folk think this is disgusting and horrible, country folk find it funny and amusing…
Jill asked me to photograph the play, How to Succeed in Business, and the student actors… it was a wonderful experience… each student received their portrait and she said, “I knew you would do it this way!” Still love this shot…
Her name is Amy and I met her as she handed me my ticket at the Little Theatre… Love this texture… really wonderful at 7’ wide…
We talked for 10-15 minutes and he summarized his existence… shared about existing in dumpsters to avoid being beat up… is this a great country…
This is a checkerboard series image, yet also about people…
At this moment, he was only the third photographer I had seen (let alone spoken with) in 20 years of visits to Portland, Oregon…
The first homeless person I met in Portland, Oregon… came up behind me while I was shooting images on Burnside and scared the heck out of me… I still forget everything when in the moments, but attempt to be more aware of my immediate surroundings…
The Doctor! Bob Marinetti at Edibles on University Avenue, Rochester, New York
Shot for the glasses! Love’em!
Met him at Starry Nites (now called Melissa’s (now Melo Coffee)) and he told jokes for a dollar a joke… nice guy, great scarf this day!
Immersed in his music, but we chatted for a bit…
Not his name, but imaged in McDonald’s East, Henrietta, New York, using an early iPhone… asked for permission and received same… damage took first place in Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, Florida, phone photo contest... the world is strange...
She’s yelling at him, “Why are you letting him take your picture?” He replied, “Everyone takes my picture! It’s a thing…” Portland, Oregon skateboarder…
There are many reasons I love this snapshot… taken in the Lake Avenue/RT 104 Tim Horton’s with a Ricoh GR… Leica Quality! His Mother loves this snapshot…
I was talking with Franky (an amazing homeless man) in the North Parks of Portland, Oregon, looked up and just had to ask permission to image him… intense soul…
He was on his was to Juilliard (the next day) and did reach back for a free print…
Protected on three sides, wonderful colors and the seen scene continues to pause me, wondering who this person is… I was approached in my favorite alleyway (Rochester, New York) by a homeless guy who was interested in hitting me with a weighted bag and taking the two cameras I was using at that time… we got into a conversation and he asked me to give him a moment… he walked back 30-40 feet to a dumpster and tossed the bag in… then, came back and we talked for another 10-15 minutes… he was skilled in many fields… it is always interesting…
Outside of Victor, New York
Never before had I seen this avenue with only one person and no traffic…
Shot this in an exercise club where images are not permitted… with a beard like this I just had to ask... Nice guy, knows my sister…
A wonderful person… Canandaigua, New York
Other sides of people…
He told me that they did not have any food so they fed him Oreos and that became his name… At the underground MAX Station, Portland, Oregon
NW 11th Avenue and Couch, Portland, Oregon
Love the experience and chat with him, but the Geek freaked as this (ISO 12500) is grainless/noiseless… okay, done freaking but not sorry!
This is from the only time I had a chance to chat and image him… have not seen him since and tho I understand he hung out at the Nordstrom’s on SW Broadway no one currently working security there recalls him… he did have a Facebook page someone had put up…
For twenty-two years Portland, Oregon, has enchanted me… recently there were hiccups and the homeless, homelessness, unsheltered folks have taken this beautiful creature (Portland) to its knees while exposing the wonder of the politician… I am still visiting, sharing with folks I meet, and our art has been impacted… when I challenge the state of things I hear “our invisible people” and “It’s complicated, John.”
It is not… it has brought me to consider life as taking place on a checkerboard/chessboard and a fair number of studies have resulted.
Once again, my Muse surprises me with this title nudge and I love it… #16 in the series of efforts…
I am unable to presently say more about GDD… many years back, when this image began, artists who saw I would say, “GDD”… now with the obfuscation AI (inadvertently, of course) adds to the mix I have no information about the artist… all of that noted, I really like this effort…
Many years of understanding, being confused, and intrigued as the homeless folks took over the city and laws seemingly crafted to support chaos and deprive law enforcement of “common sense” response…. the past (left) has two children skipping (or attempting to skip) stones at the beach… before the after…
Biker on Ankeny
All Religions Reign and the USA now has the Supreme Church of the United States (SCOTUS) as a long term replacement for what was behind the curtain…
I may have mentioned elsewhere that I had looked forward to the Age of Aquarius and then realized I did not feel a bump when it occurred… thus, consideration of this aspect of my condition grew images and this is the latest effort…
=This is also an image within the persistence of vision narrative and concept… our being, our meaning is strongest in the small things of our existence... the wine glass contains the party, the friends and acquaintances complete with discomforts unique to each instance... doing the washing, hanging the washed clothes and letting that unique aroma found only in articles dried outside... individually momentous states of being...
Today, at this moment of understanding, the intersections of lives are elements of life… they are significant…
I do not accept that “It’s complicated…”
There is a phrase, "What does that even mean?" which seems applicable here, with this emotional state of being... she was asleep and I never wake those sleeping... there is not much time which separates us...
The title nudge assumes the viewer is thinking, “That ain’t right…” Being unsheltered and/or homeless ain’t right…
Not Portland! McDonald reaching for the same emotional moment is another image in this section which uses some of these elements…
A modest series of studies considering life as a checkerboard… as of 28MAR21, this is the latest piece in the series…
East Avenue before the Wegman's After...
A homeless young woman had just narrowly escaped being struck by a car… she was in a state of rage, daring me to look away while she shouted, “That’s my life…”
If you take snapshots of buildings you almost have to work at it to have a “bad” shot result… the art of the architect may be challenging but one is considering an artful, balanced, carefully considered composition which has already been rendered in three dimensions… then there is the play of light and aging which moves texture and invitation around…
I like to emphasize that this is the NEW York which followed NEW Amsterdam… Words are concepts in “shorthand” and while NY kinda sorta makes a modicum of sense for the postal service it robs and blinds us even more than our baby AI’s do.
Portland has great respect for their architecture… that building cannot come down!
Was located in Walworth, New York… a mill and store… gone now, 2022
This is a door at Equal Grounds, South Avenue, Rochester, New York… simply love the simplicity… too much?
I have become intrigued and fascinated with the shadows found in this place… this will be a huge study!
Portland, Oregon
Used to have the very vest hot dogs and used so much mustard that they bought it in RR tanker cars which were parked behind this building… those were some days…
Portland, Oregon
RT 250, Webster, New York
Protected on three sides with wonderful colors pauses me to wonder who this person has been and now is…
Rose , NY
The interior is beautiful wood slats, vertical! This is now a before the after shot…
Portrait, gotta be upper torso, lighting which enhances, etc… sure… and then there is everything which one does while living which is my favorite form of self portrait…
All of these portfolios are self-portraits…
This narrative has run for some time… I like this phrase…
I was so excited to stumble on the manner in which pixel blocks might be used! So, this shot is a few years old, over a painting I did 60 plus years back… extending your arm if using a phone (of course you are) or stepping back six feet should work the majik…
Selfie imaged in Portland, Oregon
Another for the self-portrait call for work two years ago…
This image is part of my initial foray into gallery calls for work… the Albright-Knox called for work which included electricity… this and the other pieces I entered were not quite what they had in mind! Fortunately, this continues to be the response to my submissions across the country!
The Compartmentalized Man is a substantial series of considerations about Man and his compartmentalization of self, consequences, impact on life. This one made it into a local call for self-portraits…
The Sunroom-
Memories of 107 5th Avenue and my Mother’s encouragement to play in the Sunroom are totally responsible for this study… I was five years old and it never made sense to me that the room on the North East corner of the house was “The Sunroom”… the windows only caught the morning Sun…
Imaging the dog’s (dead) rabbit toy at the end of Route 64, where it intersects with 5 & 20 happened as I was in process, trying to comprehend a sunbeam as it became a totem like structure of some substance until one got close… sort of like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow… like the dog’s toy which was probably loved to death each day and then invisible as the dog moved on…
Once something becomes known, emotional attachments are stretched to encompass an additional something else… within the narrow framework of the concept of Sunroom the significance of each moment spent there and understanding provides a history for us to look back upon should we have need, or occasion, to do so… memories have edges and often they are apparent and pervasive… this imagery is how I now understand the Sunroom… these images were immediately artifacts of our process… mile markers of existence…
What might
may be
if…
John Kosboth, circa 1963
The dead toy, neglected in the rush of being…
Just the color…
This was a requested image… mostly I relate to Blue…
Art galleries are about standardization, profit and control… labels (helpful form of “Taboo-ization” and identification) are useful place holders until they are not… “freedom from representational qualities in art”… “the process of considering something independently of its associations, attributes, or concrete accompaniments” just sounds like “art” to me! And then, there are the degrees of abstraction… on our computer is a folder titled “Art as I see it today” and the contents are acceptable as they stand at the moment… the work in this Portfolio is, for me, indeterminate but solid…
I exemplify “Too soon olde, too slow smart…”
I was on a plane to Frobisher Bay and the Crypto Sgt and I got talking about art… I told him I was frustrated that I could not do a face full-on… he then told me everything that others had told me and I guess I was ready to understand! Did this on isolated duty 300 miles below the Arctic Circle… Baffin Island.
My amusement continues…
A re-imagining of old and new... concepts and narrative finding a path… at the moment it amuses me and prompts thought…
As usual, I am trying for the emotion I felt upon viewing and taking a snapshot… it often seems a dance with slides, glances, and not always graceful posturing… perfect…
Just an image that felt right… seemed a correct expression…
Perhaps a refrain for this age of Aquarius… the narrative for this piece first revolved around the composition…. this is number four of a 20 year old beginning piece… then the striding, reaching figure entered the scene… striven…
This one has messed with me for a bit and appears to have come to terms with itself... An image is never done, so…
Last in a very small series of efforts to get this one just so…
Life… where does the time go?
Abandoned Lehigh Valley Roundhouse in Manchester, New York
This narrative seemed to have reached an end point when, BLAM… the Prowler changed the whole scene… check that image out in Transportation…
It all began around 2002, Route 64, near Bloomfield, New York when I saw the Dead Toy on the lawn of a home with a half-acre pond, complete with boat… the toys had been loved to death by two Black Labs...
As matted at my request… Fathers world is turned upside down and this matting was done to acknowledge this shift….
I suppose this is no longer a Japanese or Chinese Lantern but… an image from a small study of Mental Health, imaged
This is the first study using Corrine’s face…
Commissioned piece and not the one chosen by the client, but my favorite…
I accidentally learned how to present images which are not clear unless one moves back some distance… perfect for our studies about the homeless/shelterless people!
I do sketch, just very infrequently… a friend in Buffalo likes to paint our work (and win Best of Show!) and asked me to Kosbothian a Raven… I know he will use marbles within his work so I played a bit…
I have never been satisfied with this which may underscore that an image is never done…
The adult children rioting, damaged this sculpture… sorry, I cannot value your ignorance …
This combination of different images was suggested to me… tried it and like it!
There are a few places in Portland, Oregon which I image over and over… these chairs are one such draw for me… composition and the challenge to recognize the sweet spots…
Maybe 48 years ago…
I love all clotheslines! If you have never experienced hang clothes on one, smelling the aroma of the dried clothes, sheets, whatever, then you are left with this image…
CHOO CHOO CHOO choochoochoo Choo
Since I became aware of this being in Victor, NY, the piano has been replaced at least four times… the piano image is from my first visit…
This may be our first effort at pairing imagery with poetry…
Viewed and felt, emotional, impactful, necessary and so open to artful interpretation and presentation…
I love to image backyards… was enthralled with a blue house to the left of this image and then BLAM!
Still thinking about a 6th machine…
Shot in the Middle of Victor, New York, during traffic… Drivers were very considerate…
Just now realized that this flow might be drawn from the van’s rear image…
This page has taken a moment… at first I found myself considering the homeless folks I have met over 23 years of visiting Portland, Oregon. But, people are people and two of the first homeless I met had been sheltered for many years a day or so previous to our meeting. I am now offering street level emotional landscapes.
I was talking with Tammy and Abby dog (dog stuffed into her coat) when this young man stopped by to join us for a moment. One of the best images from 23 years visiting Portland, Oregon.
He followed me for 2-3 days, seeming as intrigued with me as I was with him… he refused my offer for meals with me saying, “I would prefer not...” Portlanders have assured me that he is, indeed, a gentle soul…
I later got to know this gentle soul as the “Blanket Man”… at the moment of this image and while pondering my discomfort a young lady brought him a meal… I never wake a sleeper but will hang out for a bit in case they awaken… she was not charmed with me!
Eric T. Kunsman has an ongoing study of the pay phone and the necessity for same. Check out Felicific Calculus.
Life is a Dance Macabre and seldom more so than in the street life…
Talking with folks, sharing with folks, I find they are all interesting and being their best self at the moment.
I have no idea what a “Militant Satanist” is, but I like her… this is not the image I wanted! Her back was towards me and she was talking to a young couple… they saw me so I did not get the “shot” and approached to ask permission… she may well be the driver of a horse and buggy in Omaha’s Old town… did take that image and it looks like her! Connections real or imagined inform our process.
I do not think I have ever seen someone so thin…
He was willing to pose and we both chatted thru the frequent shutter clicks… in general, I do not like posed images as the humanity is too frequently replaced by presentation… that noted, I still feel this is real…
After 10-15 minutes I needed to move on and he was shaking with the cold… I asked him his name at this moment captured… I felt he had forgotten that he was someone…
NW 3rd Avenue, Portland, Oregon… tore my heart…
So many layers of emotion…
A young woman, homeless crossing the street… apparently, a person has the right of way over traffic unless one is homeless…
This short series of images (from a slightly larger group) happened and a security guard came by, gently assisting this person to somewhere else… I learn something each time these come to my attention…
This bus station near Union Station, Portland, Oregon, has been moved but was functioning when these weary travelers came into view… I have noted elsewhere, I do not wake folks to ask permission to image them…
The first time I was informed of this it was difficult to comprehend… this lead to a series which is still developing about this attitude which permits avoiding the problems… I stumbled over this means of making folks hard to discern unless from a “safe” distance… so move back to view!
This image is from early in my efforts to both comprehend and share attitudes about folks…
“They” were never invisible…
…
The child grows up in a seemingly normal home, same daytime, same nighttime, steps into their future possibilities and ends up on a street corner… ?
In this imagery we have populated the edges… the additional backstory helps me not at all…
She pulled up in a larger Mercedes sedan, parked and made a bee line to me… just back from London, England, as a mental health expert… just needed to share her world… 15-20 minutes…
I approached Robert Selby in the Portland Art Museum and asked if I might image him… he thought about this request, asked if I knew who he was (No…) and gave permission. His image lends such strength and dignity to Whitman’s work…
At one time my wife, Ange, and I planned the location of our forever home and family… this series reflects some of that and much of what friends, colleagues and students shared over time… at present, we have considered a tad more than fifty presentations of our awarenesses and misapprehensions…
Much of the foreplay has been imagining, daydreaming about the future of everything, in increments open to adjustments and maybe’s…
Perhaps you recall that with some degree of understanding, some of those moments which were so dominant become less so…
I have mentioned elsewhere that I missed the bump when we entered the Age of Aquarius… it may well have been masked by mis-apprehensions and mis-directions also associated with being…
And, mis-direction…
It’s personal…
First pregnancy…
We were, and are, still what we are…
Sometimes awareness removes the colors from our moments….
…sometimes a glance removes the colors within our moments; then instances begin, again, to become more defined as our awareness returns at its own pace…
Awareness and implications are darkest before going totally black… what was I thinking… (not a question!)
Colors do still exist… there is light…
The numbering, yes… this is as much about my development as the translator/facilitator for my Muse as it is about the subject matter under consideration…
Color abounds and some of the sequencing of events is clearer (?)
