Ken Wyner, Photographer, Tells His Story

I have been doing photography as a fine art since I was seventeen showing in group shows at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Of course, even before that I was shooting images. Photography gives me an excuse to slow down and commune with my life. The camera can be a shield that allows you to delve deeply yet be unseen.

At the present time I shoot architecture for clients like Jose Andres and Travis Price, as well as a broad spectrum of commercial clients including interior designers, architects, corporations, and lots of wonderful individuals who dream of being captured by top talent but at basement prices!

I love to shoot even when I am not being paid (most of the time these days)! But the project that my wife, Alice Ng, and I are working on, which has been a very meditative and cathartic process, has been the creation of a series of images called Paving Paradise. It is an idea I came up with as a way to empathize and immortalize the incredibly diverse and tranquil existence that hundreds of people are living in the projected, ugly and mean-spirited path of The Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

I thought the best thing I could do was to do what I do well -- to be a witness to events that are ugly and instead show the contrast of all that is beautiful. This is an ongoing project and just as it is, and will be, a very poignant message to those who would callously destroy so much land and gentle ways of being, these images also serve as a tonic to those caught up in this mess.

Most of participants live in the Nelson County area of Virginia, although we are slowly expanding. Our process consists of going into strangers homes and being with the families, animals, architecture, and nature. Weaving it all into a visual narrative, Alice created the website and I did the photography. Our intention is to send the site far and wide, eventually make a book, and to have an exhibition. We want to bring attention to this cause and, in the process, create positive mantras to dispel the negative energy.

Photographs have changed the world. They have changed us as individuals. They give us the opportunity to see who we are, where we are going, and where we have been.

This is Week 39 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Ken’s story today. You can connect with Ken on the following links:

www.kenwyner.com

www.kenwynerphotography.com

www.alicengdesign.com

https://www.facebook.com/kwyner

https://www.facebook.com/kenwynerphotography?fref=ts

Anita Parker, Raw Foods Chef & Nature Photographer, Tells Her Story

I became certified as a personal vegan raw food chef, as a way to be of service to the people in my community. Having lived a mostly vegetarian, holistic lifestyle for the past ten years, base, I committed to making choices for myself that would be in the highest consciousness, in all areas of my life. I studied at the Graff Academy of Raw Food Education in Roswell, Georgia and became a raw food chef in order to empower others to make choices to thrive on. I actually teach people how to make Kombucha that tastes good!

My decision was inspired by many people inquiring about my lifestyle, energy level, what I do, and how I do it so, Food To Thrive On, was born with a mission to educate people on how to have a dynamic, strong immune system.

I’m delighted to have the opportunity to teach our community members how to prepare antioxidant, anti-inflammatory food as well as other delicious medicinal foods.  I have dreams of traveling and offering workshops and retreats throughout the country so If you are interested in getting a group together and hosting me, please contact me through my website.

In addition to raw food workshops, I am a total nature lover. I spend every free moment capturing sunsets at Sarasota’s beach, photographing stunning birds and soaking up all that Florida’s sultry climate has to offer. Like most artists, I do other creative things to make ends meet such as hanging wallpaper for some cool companies.

Here's to your vibrant health and happiness!

This is week 38 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Anita’s post today!

Nancy Sausser, Ceramic Sculpture Artist, Tells Her Story

Glimpsing, ceramic, 16 x 12 x 3 inches

Like most artists, I fell into the process of making things early on.  I liked to make presents for people, and after my grandmother taught me to crochet, I started stitching things for family and friends.  I never liked rules or patterns, so I made those up too.  I felt the elation that comes from realizing an idea, from knowing the whole process.

Couplet, ceramic, 14 x 9 x 2 inches

I had a few art teachers along the way who saw my interest and singled me out.  Making things became second nature. A ceramics teacher in 10^th grade was special. She taught me how to think about what I made, to make my thoughts.  Now it was more than just making things for the joy of it, it was somehow wound up in who I was, who I wanted to be, what I had to say. 

Geometric Variations, ceramic,  50 x 50 x 5 inches

I was stuck on clay early on but somehow managed to go to a college that had no ceramics classes.  This turned out to be a good thing – it made me expand. There were fantastic art professors, as well as a renowned English department. I learned to write and I learned to work with wood, to weld steel, to make prints, to draw.  I leaned that the medium was in service of the idea and to articulate my ideas in words as well as in materials. 

A Small View In, ceramic, 13 x 18 x 3 inches

All this came in handy later on. Our experiences come together eventually, wind around each other and converse.  After earning an MFA in sculpture during a period where I was mostly excited about making drawings, I found myself in need of a job.  I started working for arts organizations.  This led to a long career as a curator.  I came to it through the back door, without planning it, but have found writing about art and organizing exhibitions of contemporary art to be tremendously creative.  It’s a collaboration between me, the artists, their work and the space.  Like making art, making an exhibit happen is creating something that wasn’t’ there before. And it reflects back on to my art in unexpected ways.

 Each One to the Other, ceramic 60 x 60 x 4 inches

In the meantime, in my studio, I have come back around to working with clay.  It’s my home base.  I make things that hang on the wall, mostly.  They’re usually about place, and space, about taking you somewhere else, somewhere imagined.  They usually involve repetition and the spark between the line and the curve, between freedom and control.  This work emerges slowly, but it is always there, waiting to happen, waiting to be made.

Moving Forward/Staying Put, ceramic, 21 x 21 x 5 inches

  

This is Week 37 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Nancy's story today!