Welcome to My Virtual Studio

Launch Time!

The World as Seen & The World Reimagined

The Moment the Magic Began

I had been thinking about launching a Substack publication for some time. And here it is! Here’s the backstory about love affair with photography. It dates back to my childhood, when my father taught me how to process film and make prints. The first time I watched an image slowly appear in the developer tray it felt like magic, and that moment has stayed with me.

During my college and graduate school years, followed by stints as an author, journalist, and communications consultant, photography moved to the back burner. Then, in the late 90s, an opportunity to help promote Hewlett-Packard’s new digital camera rekindled that early spark. Curiosity quickly turned into obsession, and photography stepped forward again as a central part of my life. (See About for more details.)

What I’m Creating These Days

Today, my visual art practice spans two realms. The first comprises traditional photography (macro, street, found still-life compositions and landscapes). I call these images “the world as seen.” The second, abstract composites, includes photographs of nature, technology, and infrastructure digitally blended into alternate realities. I refer to these works as “the world reimagined.”

“Plurality, A street image taken in Cambridge, MA)

“Interlude” A composite from my “Urban Reimagination” series

From Studio Conversations to Substack

The idea for this Substack grew out of numerous conversations with visitors to my studio in SoWa, the South of Washington [Street] art district in Boston. Sales are wonderful, of course, but what I value most are the discussions. I enjoy hearing about what people notice, how the work makes them feel, and where their eyes travel across an image. Some pieces invite immediate questions: what, why, where, and how? Others seem straightforward until you learn how they were made. Either way, I appreciate the chance to pull back the curtain and share a bit of the process.

The Eyes Have It: Yours, Mine, and the Machine’s extends those studio encounters into a new space. Think of it as a conversation that begins with curiosity and ends, hopefully, with surprise.

What’s Inside Each Post

As I currently envision them, most of the posts will have three parts. I may occasionally post a long-form essay based on what I’ve learned from readers.

Your Eye: What Do You See?

Every post begins with an image, followed by questions for you, the viewer. Take a moment to really look. What’s the first thing that pulls you in? Where does your eye go next? What emotions surface—calm, tension, wonder, or curiosity? Does the image remind you of a place, a feeling, or a memory? There are no right answers. This part is about slowing down, noticing what you notice, and seeing how your perception changes as you stay with the image a little longer.

My Eye: Behind the Image

Next, I’ll tell you what I saw and what my vision was for the final piece. I’ll share notes about the origins, what decisions shaped my editing process, and what surprised me along the way. For me, making art is part plan and part discovery and the result lies at the intersection of intention and accident. Gerhard Richter once likened painting to a chess game, a back-and-forth between artist and work until the artist calls checkmate. That feels true for me. Each image pushes back during development, asking to be seen in a new way. This section is my chance to describe the strategies and tactics behind my moves as well as what I learned from the game.

The Eye of the Machine

Finally, I’ll bring in a third voice: artificial intelligence. I’ve always been an early adopter of technology. In the 80s, my house was filled with personal computers that sported 5.25” floppy drives. (My first hard disk, with a whopping 10 megabytes of storage, was housed in an enormous steel case. That was a good thing, because smoke started billowing out the back the first time I booted up.)

In the 90s, I was hooked on the web as it evolved from green-screen to a graphical interface. (Anyone remember Mosaic and Netscape?) I’ve lived through Web 1, 2, and 3. I dove into NFTs during the pandemic—sold some, bought some, and came out roughly even (which required spending four hours a day participating and hosting Twitter Spaces).

So here we are in the Age of AI!

I’ve been having a blast playing with ChatGPT and other AI platforms. So it’s only natural for me to explore how AI explains my artwork and include its commentary as a postscript to the conversation between you and me. Whatever AI spits out, it often makes me think about how my work might affect viewers, and what questions I might ask when people visit my studio. That to me has value.

Your Turn!

In the posts to follow, please answer any questions that speak to you by adding a comment. You’re always welcome to ask your own questions, too.

If the whole “Machine Eye” thing doesn’t appeal, skip it: two eyes, yours and mine, still have it!

Let’s start looking together.