the top photo i found on Congress Street, Portsmouth NH, in some bushes. the bottom postcard is for a new gallery opening up one block away.
oh, art. we like surfaces so much in the art world. looking cool or beautiful, seeing value in design. there is a lot about america that would reject this celebration of surface as shallowness. “fancy” is almost a bad word around here.
that photo up top was garbage because it no longer worked as well as other family photos in its ability to show the mans face clearly. someone outside the family who has no investment in preserving the mans image can appreciate the human face obscured.
there is something about layering that creates mystery in our mind. Ello Gallery’s promotion does the same. lot’s of layers, a blue filter run thinly across the top, the random design of fabric scraps over the photo. we can’t say for sure what any one thing is doing on its own.
so while art is concerned with surfaces, it also seems to be concerned with layers. next time someone says art is shallow, remind them of the deeper things going on at ello gallery, the seacoast UNDERCURRENT!
Ello’s grand opening sept 7th 6 -10 pm
110 state street portsmouth nh
ellogallery.com