SHAPLEIGH SMITH
The Space In Between
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Having lived my entire life in rural environments where the spaces in between structures are filled with rewarding visual delights, I am fascinated with the opposite being true when I travel to modern cities.
In these urban settings I am drawn to the various structures and what they are able to produce with their reflections, absorption of light and shadows from the spaces around and in between them.
The displays are rarely static, changing as the day progresses, as the light source moves. Magic happens. Change is constant. Visual rewards are vast. The connected spaces and the ones in between become one.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Shapleigh was surrounded with photographs while he was growing up as his father and grandfather were both avid amateur photographers. Many of the black and white photos that Shapleigh’s grandfather captured were of people, buildings or landscapes in New England, Europe and the Caribbean in the latter part of the 19th century. These were fascinating shots of a time when travel was by horse, carriage, train or boat; a time when everyone dressed as if going to a Sunday service; a time when cities where filled with soot from wood or coal fires, dirt streets were a dangerous place with droppings from the horses, the countryside a place of quiet beauty as well as industrious hillside farms and their families.
Shapleigh’s father, and later his step-father, were also great travelers consuming the sights from even further afield than the grandfather. The photos that they each shot in the mid to late 20th century evolved into color transparencies of great clarity and beauty peaking Shapleigh’s interest in the art of photography.
So it is not surprising that Shapleigh would continue the curiosity his forefathers had. Without a formal, structured education in the world of photography Shapleigh has always been able to explore the various means of capturing images – be they film, transparencies, transfers or digital. Once again returning to the black and white of his youth for the special qualities of timeliness and light, Shapleigh has been focusing on portraits of people with the hopes of capturing the owner’s particular emotions of the moment.
All artwork is available for sale.
For pricing information contact
Shap Smith:
ss@pattersonandsmith.com