Abstraction Born from Elemental Shapes and Forms: Imprints of a Circuit Board

I love learning. And experimenting with art tools. Perhaps playing is a better term. Found inspiration in a book bequeathed to me by my art loving and collecting parents: Abstract Art by Gerhard Gollwitzer

Abstract Art by Gerhard Gollwitzer

Spheres - Same Shape, Different Sizes

Cylinders - Same Shape, Different Forms

Squeeze in the Sides of a Sphere to Make a Cube

Circuit Board Imprinted on a Flat Piece of Clay Rolled into a Cylinder

Circuit Board - Making Good Use of an Obsolete Computer's Innards

Circuit Board Imprinted on a Flat Piece of Clay 

Crayola Clay - Stale Yet Charming

Professor John Nordell teaches courses in the Arts, Media, and Design Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com. Instagram: create.look.enjoy

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A Day at the Beach

The heat of the semester often leaves scant time for my own artistic pursuits. However, this holiday weekend opened up a free day for me. I started off at The Coastal Center at Milford Point, a Connecticut Audubon Society bird sanctuary, and finished a few miles down the road at Silver Sands State Park. My students and the content I teach were with me, inspiring and pushing my explorations. Aside from the horseshoe crab shot, the other images were digital in-camera multiple exposures, as I overlaid 2, 4, 6, 8 or 9 exposures into a single file.

Sea and Sky - After Mondrian

Ocean Aperture
A digital evocation of the Kodak Projection Print Scale I used years ago in my darkroom.

Older Than Dinosaurs (Deceased Horseshoe Crab)

Ocean Cosmos

Boardwalk and Park Place!

Do you see rabbits or rocks?

Professor John Nordell teaches courses in the Arts, Media, and Design Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com. Instagram: create.look.enjoy

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Chasing Berenice Abbott's Light in Boston's South End

Planting inspirational seeds in advance of my students taking images on the topic of “Cities”, l showed them photographs of New York City, including “New York Stock Exchange, New York”, 1933, by Berenice Abbott.

Stepping Out - Or Was It In?

Today, l chased her light, taking pictures in Boston’s South End. These images are interspersed with photographs l shot in 1977, at age 18, living in the same South End, studying the city and its people.

Alley Tree

Back then I shot with a Nikomat, developed and printed the work myself, and then glued the images into a photo journal.

Contrails Can Suppress Daylight

Today, I used an iPhone from my pocket and posted here and on Instagram.

Shadowy Alley

It is so fun to still be exploring the world, chasing light and shadow, regardless of the capture device and method of presentation.

Echoes of Japan

They say the best way to learn is to teach.

Sunny Day

So glad that planting city seed images for my students reawakened an exploratory mindset for me.

Professor John Nordell teaches courses in the Arts, Media, and Design Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com. Instagram: create.look.enjoy

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"Dynamic Legacy Ladder" Chosen for F-Stop Magazine's Group Exhibition on Color

So excited to be rubbing virtual shoulders with photographers from 33 countries as my image Dynamic Legacy Ladder was included in F-Stop Magazine's Color themed issue.

F-Stop Editor Christy Karpinski told me that there were probably 2500 images submitted from around 330 different photographers.

Dynamic Legacy Ladder

I strongly urge you to visit the exhibit and engage with the diverse approaches that employ a single medium to interpret the theme of color.  It is a honor to join this legion of creatives.

You can find my image if you scroll halfway down the exhibit.

View the Exhibit

I have been working on a series of digital in-camera multiple exposures since 2007.  See these Reality-Based Abstractions.

I broke new ground with Dynamic Legacy Ladder by choosing to make one exposure in color and the other in black and white.  This new direction can be traced directly to my recent collaborations with photographer Jaypix Belmer.  Big thanks to Jaypix for the inspiration!

Dynamic Legacy Ladder in F-Stop Magazine

Big thanks as well to F-Stop Magazine's Editor Christy Karpinski for providing a showcase that unifies humanity through art.

Professor John Nordell teaches courses in the Arts, Media, and Design Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com. Instagram: create.look.enjoy

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On Mentors and Black & White Images Published in F-Stop Magazine

Two images I submitted for the F-Stop Magazine 2023 Black & White Group Exhibition were selected for the February-March publication.  Magazine Founder and Editor Christy Karpinski said that 530 people submitted a total of 3800 images.  She chose to exhibit 250.  I am thrilled and honored to be included in this stunning exhibition.  I highly recommend that you view the entire show.

Both images are from my Reality-Based Abstraction series, which are digital in-camera multiple exposures.

Bridge to Somewhere, 2022

I photographed Bridge to Somewhere on a frigid January morning in Boston.  View more images from this shoot.  

Bridge to Somewhere, published in F-Stop Magazine 

Black Sheep (Snow, Sun, Trees), 2021

You can learn more about the context of creating Black Sheep(Snow, Sun, Trees) in my blog post "The Glory of Mistakes". 

Black Sheep (Snow, Sun, Trees), published in F-Stop Magazine

Along with the above selected digital offerings, I submitted other black and white images, including some shot on 120 film using a cheap plastic toy camera called a Holga.  More on this camera and my explorations with shooting film.

Neither of these images were selected for publication.  I still love them.  And I am fond of the way the rough, soulful, earthy feel of film contrasts with controlled digital sharpness and precision.

Connecting to Spirit, 2022

Speaking of soulful, one of my early mentors, Jerry Berndt, encouraged me to use different kinds of cameras to struggle with adjusting back and forth between different gear with different controls to combat complacency and routine ways of capturing images.

Myles Standish Above the Sea, 2022

I miss you Jerry.

Professor John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program that he created at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com and teaches online Zentangle drawing workshops.  

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On Emojis and Jin Shin Jyutsu: Seeing With the Hands of Prayer

A slash of sun glanced off Our Lady of Lourdes in Northampton, Mass.

Grotto

As I got closer, a person's belongings became visible.  At first I wondered if the owner was present.

Refuge

Friend and creative spirit Melly Mel liberally uses emojis in ingenious ways.  The gratitude he often expresses inspired me to focus just on her hands.

Namaste

I then shot an in-camera multiple exposure, layering images.

Seeing With the Hands of Prayer

In the healing system of Jin Shin Jyutsu, likened by some to acupuncture without needles, placing fingers at specific different places on the body can balance energy, thereby unifying a person with the universe and generating health.  Pressing your thumb into the palm of your other hand is one recommended technique. According to The Touch of Healing, a book about Jin Shin Jyutsu, this approach is akin to joining hands in prayer.  

"The ancients knew that this was no mere symbolic gesture but a practical, hands-on way of achieving harmony with the universe."

The next time I use the prayer hands emoji to communicate gratitude or thanks, I will strike the pose as well.

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program that he created at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com   Instagram: @john.nordell

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Patterns and Possibility - Reuse Before Recycling

Trash day and I hustled to flatten boxes and set out the bins before heading to teach at American International College.  The day before I had spontaneously decided to teach an introductory block print lesson to my History of Art class.

Trash Can Packing Box Trash

I had chosen a simple pattern to teach.  However, I fell in love with this gorgeous cardboard nest for my recently purchased cylindrical trash can.

Patterned Seat

Within hours of this discovery, I had deconstructed the pattern into elemental shapes and taught a one hour introduction to block printing.  As I Certified Zentangle Teacher, I am familiar with this process of noticing patterns in the world and then teaching workshop participants how to draw them.

The Prof's Show and Tell

As students printed their carved blocks, I inked the bottom of the cardboard packaging and pushed it down on paper.

Not a Deep Impression

After this first iteration, I refined my creative process by applying more ink...

Packaging Totem

... and this time pressing the paper down onto the upturned inked cardboard.

That's What I am Talking About

Here are some results from students:

A Complement to Looking at Art

A novice printer "accidentally" moved his block while printing, laying down two slightly offset impressions, creating this lovely, energized offering.  Where would we be without mistakes?

Only Way to Learn is to Live (Chapter Title from The Midnight Library)

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program that he created at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com 

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Ants = Cooperative Work + Collective Sustainability. Emergent Strategy + Zentangle Drawing = Connective Tissue

The interplay of light, shadow, wind, water and tidal currents at Crane Beach in Ipswich, Mass. were enthralling. Noting the patterns, l thought: l feel a Zentangle drawing workshop coming on. 

Fractal Life

Oh yeah. Nothing like lesson planning.  The basis of Zentangle is awareness of patterns, so I strive to connect my real world pattern observation with artistic practice.  

Human Impact

The day after the beach I noticed a human footprint on a sidewalk anthill.  Waves, ants, footprints (carbon or otherwise) led me to create a theme for the workshop based on the ideas presented in Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown's book that provokes to us unite, learn from the natural world (biomimicry) and create a just and healthy future for all.

Just a Start

adrienne maree brown encourages us to understand that in the way one dandelion seed can create a meadow of beauty, a single positive idea for change can spread far and wide.

Bird's Eye

Here is the collection of patterns I wound up teaching at the workshop.  Various dots within circles echo the eye of the gull.

Fountain of Hope

The morning after the workshop, I was delighted to notice a trio of ant hills that evoked the central pattern in the drawing.

What's Going On?

Then l went to photograph the ant reference in Emergent Strategy and found three more circles, circled in black, like we drew. 

Ants:  Cooperative Work.  Collective Sustainability.

No accidents!  Thank you adrienne maree brown for provoking thought.

More on the Emergent Strategy from Akpress:

Emergent StrategyShaping Change, Changing Worlds

adrienne maree brown (Author)

Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program that he created at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com   Instagram: @john.nordell

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Breaking out of a Photographic Rut by Creating Art Led to a Porcupine Breakthrough

Feeling restless, like l keep taking the same pictures, seeing the same light and thinking the same thoughts. To change this up, I brought my bag of art supplies to a nearby stream.

I dipped my watercolor brush in the stream for, well, water. Also dipped it in this unnatural liquid, sometimes catching a little mud in the process.

On another day, I continued with getting tactile, moving away from the digital life. The health of getting one’s hands dirty.

 

Using pastels and dropping rocks in a stream to create ripples.

I began taking pictures as a boy 5 decades ago. Not surprising that I might find myself in a rut photographically, especially with the pandemic limiting movement and human interaction.  How many pictures can I take in my house?

Last weekend I brought my DSLR with a long lens on a hike near the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.  I spotted an animal scampering through the woods and then it began climbing a tree.  A porcupine!

I have photographed presidents in the White House and worn a gas mask and helmet covering riots in South Korea.  However, I am so excited with this image as I have never intimately documented wildlife.  I keep pinching myself, "I photographed a porcupine!"

Perhaps taking an artistic tactile break from photography led to this breakthrough.

John Nordell teaches courses in the Visual and Digital Arts Program at American International College in Springfield, Mass. He blogs about the creative process at CreateLookEnjoy.com  Instagram: @john.nordell

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