Artist Spotlight – Walt Stricklin, Photography
Artist Spotlight Interview
Walt Stricklin
Medium
Photography
During Moss Rock Festival, you’ll find Walt at Booth 419.
Check out Walt’s artist page on our website
What influenced your career path as a visual artist?
I have been a photojournalist for over 35 years and only went back to my college roots in fine arts 4 years ago. As a photojournalist, if 100 people see my photographs, I want them to come away with the same message and meaning. But, as a fine arts photographer, I do not get to put the symbolism and meaning on my pictures. I offer them to a world of viewers who will see them through different eyes than I do, they will overlay them with different experiences and add their own significances. My composite panorama pictures are just a starting place – for me and my viewers.
What kind of work will you be exhibiting for sale at Moss Rock Festival?
I will be bringing my composite panorama photographs. These landscapes are meant to be more than homogenized, super wide angle images produced by a computer stitch program. I hand craft them in Photoshop, I am not looking for perfection when I put them together; I leave the all the imperfections to celebrate both my humanity and the enjoyment of discovery for the viewer.
Tell us a little bit about your creative process.
All of my pictures are planned so I can go beyond the predetermined proportions of a camera’s frame. I want to get rid of the limiting walls of that rectangle and let my compositions take me where ever they lead. It also allows me more freedom for expression, showing what is just around the corner or what is just outside the normal frame. I want my pictures to have visual movement inside and outside of its borders.
How is your work inspired by nature?
With the idea that our environment shapes us as much as we shape our surroundings, I look to record everyday places and events that represent the universal truths of shared locations, experiences and emotions. I strive to make my images a connection between what is literally true and my interpretation of a given location. They are meant to celebrate the shared characteristics of people and places, while recognizing and respecting their unique qualities.
How can people find out more about you?
Current shows:
thru December 2011
Jill Celeste Gallery – Atlanta – Past and Present, 4 pieces in group show
Decatur, Ga (Atlanta Metro)
thru Novermer 2011
Durbin Gallery of the Doris Wainwright Kennedy Art Center and Azar
Art Studios at Birmingham-Southern College – All in Focus, 4 pieces in group show
Coming Shows:
December 2011 thru March 2012
– Nashville International Airport – Flying Solo, 10 pieces in solo show
Website:
waltstricklin.com
Image courtesy of Artist.
