Amateurs 176
©2003 Craig Ashby
4.5″ x 3.373″
Digital Art

Amateurs 176 continues the same thread seen in the five previous amateur pieces. I would call the whole set Amateur, but I think I might be overlooking that many of these men are professionals.

It also doesn’t help that I am not showing the entire series that each of these comes from. Well over fifty pieces from this same series of experiments. As usual the photo editor in me distills that set down into these gems that I feel hold up after all these years.

This one references an art installation that seems overly familiar and then some european painting I can’t recall. Oh sampling, how you smear an already smudgy series of complex memories.

It doesn’t bother me at all. What I love is the end result. The perfect/imperfect placement of objects and overall composition. The color scheme. The feeling that somehow conveys colonial Africa. It all speaks to me on some level beyond the obvious.

Maybe someday, if I am bored and hard drive failure doesn’t ruin me I will show everything. Put it up with no filter. Maybe that is the key, to remove the filter. I would be less filtered if the world hadn’t shown me time and again that it will silence and shun me if I don’t filter.