Drawn In | Drawn Out at The Grace Museum

title wall featuring Rusty Scruby's artwork

Yesterday was the closing for "Drawn in | Drawn Out" at The Grace Museum in Abilene, TX.

This exhibition featured the works of

 
ADELA ANDEA  |  VERNON FISHER  |  LINNEA GLATT  |  HOLLIS HAMMONDS  |  TIMOTHY HARDING  |  RUSTY SCRUBY

The museum's statement for the exhibition noted,
"Drawn In / Drawn Out is one exhibition in two locations – The Grace Museum in Abilene, Texas and The Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas – presenting art by contemporary artists who challenge traditional concepts of drawing. Drawing, released from a preparatory role since the 1960s, affords a myriad of options for contemporary artists to reinvigorate image-making and representation. Over the last decade drawing has become recognized as a stand-alone medium and like other art media in this age of cultural and technological flux and innovation, the definition of drawing has expanded to include 3-D and conceptual forms.  Drawn In / Drawn Out explores new drawing strategies that include site-specific installations, wall drawings, multilayered compositions and atypical approaches to the art of drawing."

We stopped in Albany first to view the works at The Old Jail Art Center, and then made our way to Abilene for the opening reception at The Grace. A bus shuttled people between the two opening receptions, so we were able to see some of the artists from the show in Albany later in the evening.

Here are some of the sights from Drawn In | Drawn Out at The Grace:

Rusty Scruby, "Branches", 2013, enamel on poplar wood construction

Rusty Scruby, "Rip Van Winkle #4", 2013, charcoal on paper construction

Rusty Scruby, "Hexagonal Gridwork Study", 2001, paper construction

Rusty giving his artist talk

Vernon Fisher

Vernon Fisher

 

Vernon Fisher giving his artist talk

Adela Andea

 

Adela Andea giving her artist talk

Linnea Glatt

detail of Linnea Glatt

Timothy Harding

Timothy Harding giving his artist talk

Hollis Hammonds

detail of Hollis Hammonds

The Art of Returning to Work

Alex Schaefer, Chase Wilshire, acrylic on canvas, plein air, 28" x 22", 2011

seen at Charlie James Gallery at the 2012 Dallas Art Fair

My last post was on March 11, 2012, the day before I started my new job.  I've now had a couple of months to traverse the "new job" learning curve and to acclimate to the 3rd shift hours - 11:30p to 8:00a, Sunday through Thursday.  I am still finding my way through to manage to make it to art openings on Saturday nights or at least visit art galleries after they open at 11:00a on Tuesdays through Saturdays.  But yes, I have seen quite a few art shows, as well as taken many pictures, since I started the job - I just haven't been in a frame of mind to blog about it.  Hopefully, I will break the writer's block soon and find my voice again.  This is a start. 

 

While I was off work for a year and a half I spent a great deal of time on the pc and, of course, on the internet.  It was the way I was accustomed to working when I had a job.  It was also necessary to search for jobs, submit resumes, and network with former coworkers, friends, and potential new employers.  I also read a great deal of news, and the Occupy Wall Street movement caught my attention when they burst onto the scene. The stories about plein air painter, Alex Schaefer, especially interested me. He stands across the street from Chase retail branches in cities across the U.S. and paints them, but then he adds his own imagined image of fire as if the buildings are engulfed in flames. His paintings are in protest of the damage the "too big to fail" banks have ravaged on the U.S. economy since the recession began in 2008. He focuses on Chase Bank, and he has been arrested on several occasions as he stands and paints on the sidewalk.  Interestingly, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank has been back in the news since before last weekend due to a recent $2 billion derivatives trading loss. I applaud the OWS movement for exercising their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom to assemble.  It has been a disappointment, though, to see that the movement is actually not well organized and most participants have no idea what they are actually protesting.

 

I don't miss the stress of the job I had at J.P. Morgan.  I can imagine that the team I once managed has been quite busy these past few months researching and readjusting the invoices directly and remotely associated with those ill faded derivatives trades.  My new job is with another major U.S. banking firm that is in competition with the retail business of Chase Bank. However, I now am able to exercise a bit more creativity in my daily job tasks as an individual contributor on the graveyard shift.  This is also a strict eight hour a day job. So I should have more time to pursue my interests in art and this blog. Though, unfortunately,  I won't have the income to pursue continued purchasing of art, at least in the short term future.  I am realigning my career and investment goals so that I am aiming to return to a higher paying job in the mid-range term.  After attending to several financial obligations, I did use a small percentage of recently liquidated investments to do my part to stimulate the local art economy:

Ryder Richards, Spread Pattern, 2010, gold leaf, graphite, gunpowder on paper, 10" x 7"

 Terry Hays, Yellow Box with Miro Head - Woman in Front of the Sun, 7.75" x 4.5" x 3.75", mixed media, 2012

I grew attached to both of each of these works by artists Ryder Richards and Terry Hays while I interned at Ro2 Art.  These will remind me of the moments of time that I did actually enjoy during my time of unemployment.  I am hoping to intern at Ro2 Art again in the near future.  They consistently have had exciting art events and they receive much well deserved local media press. Both of these artists are just as energetic as the gallery itself, and I am excited to have these small representations of each of their overall oeuvres.

 Helen Altman, Shell Wren, wire and beehive shells, 4" x 6" x 5.5", 2012

 Forrest Middelton, Lidded Vessel, high fire reduction, wheel thrown and altered,11" x 6.5" x 6.5"

The Dallas Art Fair and the Dallas Pottery Invitational both occurred the same weekend, April 13 -15.  Rusty and I have wanted one of Helen Altman's bird sculptures for many years.  I saw this one at the Tally Dunn Gallery at the fair and knew that this time I had to have it. They told me that Altman only makes these little bird sculptures when she obtains an object that she finds special and worthy to be saved in this manner. I had the opportunity to listen while Forrest Middelton explained his Volumetric Image Transfer process to a group of admiring women at the invitational. This is the first piece of Middelton's that I have acquired.  I fell in love with his work while helping Ro2 Art curate the Defined Form/Refind Function exhibition. I also added additional ceramic works by Amy Halko and Brenda Lichman to my growing collection of each of their works, and it was great to visit with each of them at the invitational. 

I may post my recollections of the Dallas Art Fair and the Dallas Pottery Invitational.  I am about to go out for the day and explore this years' Oak Cliff Visual Speed Bump Art Studio Tour. Also coming up very soon, Rusty has a solo show at McMurtrey Gallery in Houston on June 2, and a two person show at Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe on June 15.  So I will have these and many other artists and art events that I hope to blog about soon.

Reflections on February

William Betts, Pines, Sun Valley, 2011

at Holly Johnson Gallery

(reflection of David Schulze and me far right two figures)

Wow, I didn't have one post throughout the month of February, but my blog still had an average of 37 pageviews per day.  There were 74 pageviews yesterday, February 29, alone.  So thank you for your continued readership.

It's not that I didn't have anything to write about, quite the contrary.  I attended over 20 art events from the last few days of January through the end of February. However, I also had more job interviews and follow up electronic forms to fill out during the month of February than I had through the whole year of 2011.  Also, February 16 marked the 20th anniversary of my first partner's, Dennis, passing.  I had been planning a single blog post as a tribute to his memory, but that along with my preparations for job interviews and follow ups caused me a bit of writer's block.  So I present here some reflections of February so that I can free my mind and spirit to move onward and refocus on posting meaningful art related topics.

Amazing isn't enough to describe some of the art events I attended or participated in during the month, while it is also a gross overstatement for a few.  One of the more truly amazing exhibits that we did view one last time before it closed on February 12th was the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the DMA. This exhibit is now traveling to San Francisco where it will open at the de Young Fine Arts Museum on March 24.  I urge all of my west coast readers to see this fabulous exhibit.

the table set in Rusty's studio

Cris Worley cooking in our kitchen

On January 28, Rusty and I opened his studio/our home for an event hosted by CADD, the Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas. Billed as a "Mystery Dinner", CADD hosted the event to raise funds for their scholarship and educational programs.  There were six different venues around the city in artists' studios, collectors' homes and gallery owners' homes.  Participants purchased tickets and then found out the day before where they were to show up for cocktails and dinner.  After dinner, all of the guests and hosts were to drive to the McKinney Avenue Contemporary for dessert and dancing and to share stories from each of their respective dinner adventures. It was great fun and I look forward to the next Mystery Dinner so that I may attend as a guest. (Though I admit it was a fantastic incentive to clean the studio/home!) Here is a link to the article Lucia Simek wrote on Glasstire about the event and her experience in our studio.

left to right, Ben Terry, White Denim, graphite, acrylic and latex, on wood panel, 2011

Val Curry, bloom, mixed media, 2012

detail of bloom and Ro2 Art UPTOWN in the background

I enjoyed my intern job at Ro2 Art during February while I also continued to search for a full time job that will pay a salary and provide health benefits. I've gained retail experience, as well as making a few sales, which I hope will help me find a job in retail banking after over 30 years of treasury services and securities services banking operations.  But more than just the retail experience, I've written press releases, assisted in exhibition installations and deinstalls, and throughout February I've assisted the gallery owners as they curated and installed a ceramics exhibition out of a private collection.  I have pieces by five of the eleven functional ceramic artists whose works were curated into the exhibition, and one of those is pictured front and center in my table setting photo above. This has all been very valuable hands-on experience that provides me further knowledge of the inner workings of the business of art, and I am very grateful to Jordan Roth and Susan Roth Romans for affording me this opportunity.

Ro2 Art

Mother-and-son partners Susan Roth Romans and Jordan Roth operate Ro2 Art, a full-service gallery and consultancy with spaces in the Uptown and Downtown areas of Dallas, working with a diverse group of contemporary artists, most with ties to the North Texas Region.  At present, Ro2 focuses on the exhibition and sale of work in all visual media, through a fine art gallery space in the West Village of Uptown Dallas, in addition to a progressive, intimate gallery in the historic Kirby Building in Downtown Dallas, and now introducing a new space just steps away named Ro2 Art Downtown COLLECTION at 1408 Elm St. at Akard. Ro2 Art is a member of the Dallas Art Dealers Association, The Uptown Association, and was named “Best Art Gallery” by The Dallas Observer.

David Schulze, Valentine's Day Card, 2012, acrylic on paper

I hope to write about a few of the 20 something art openings and artist talks I attended in the next few days and weeks. For now, I will wrap up with my homage to Dennis and his way of introducing me to art.

Dennis Acrea, lidded vessel, clay coil pot with celadon glaze, 1977

(lidded vessels in background by Amy Halko, Sally Campbell, James Watral)

Dennis and I became best friends when my family moved to Sachse, TX when I was in the sixth grade.  We were best friends through high school, and then we moved in together on July 20, 1978, a month before my family relocated to the Houston area.  We lived together for fourteen years starting off as "roommates" and after buying three homes together we realized we were actually life partners.  We enjoyed going to the symphony, ballet, theater, and musical theater.  But Dennis loved the visual arts as well, though try as he might, he was never able to entice me to join him.  I just didn't "get it" when it came to visual art.

 Dennis Acrea, Seagull, oil on canvas, 1975 - 1977(?)

This is the only decent photo I have that includes the painting Dennis did while in high school.  It now lives at his nephew's house somewhere in east Texas.  If I ever acquire a better photo I will edit it into this post. We stripped decades of paint off of that spool bed and stained the wood, and we covered the wall behind the painting with fabric because we were quite handy and artsy-craftsy back in those days.  Dennis was a commercial printer by trade.  He ran a Ryobi 4 color offset printer working for a commercial envelope and stationary company.  In his spare time, he was able to use the equipment in the shop to create his own prints.  Sadly, I do not have any of his prints because I did not see the intrinsic value in them at the time.  

Dennis also had a love for photography and spent many hours taking photos around the city.  He took the photo above of himself at Old City Park, now known as Dallas Heritage Village, which is just a couple of blocks away from where I live now.  Rusty and I walked over there last week so that Rusty could take pictures for an auction project he is working on for the benefit of the park.

Dennis napping on the loveseat with our cat, Chita, in 1986

R.C. Gorman print with rendering date of 1977

Dennis worked the night shift four days a week for many years.  When he did switch to the day shift, he worked half-days on Fridays.  This gave him the freedom to go to art gallery openings on Friday afternoons and evenings. While he did have a good job that would have afforded him the ability to buy real art, Dennis was quite frugal and chose to purchase prints instead.  I remember that he bought the Gorman print at Adams-Middleton Gallery which is now long gone from Dallas, even the building it was in was torn down and is now a parking lot.  I also remember that the framing for each of the Gorman and the Nagel prints shown above was much more expensive than the prints combined.  My lessons learned these twenty-five years later are: A) buy real art, B) buy art and prints that you really love, not necessarily for investment reason, and C) stay away from trendy 'what's hot now' art.  Both of these framed prints now live behind a sofa in my brother Ray's apartment as he prefers blank white walls lit by the glow of his computer screen.

a lovely view of the Neiman Marcus store at NorthPark Center through the trees from Dennis' grave site  

Someday I think I'll have "& faithful partner" added to the headstone.  My anticipated grave is to my left (the viewers right) in the picture above.  I'm not sure yet if I will use it, or decide to sell it, and choose a cremation instead with a garden burial at my church.  I had told Dennis that I never planned to visit his grave, it just seemed too morbid when I was 31, but I have done so at least once a year since that time, and I pass by all the time on my way to NorthPark Center.  Dennis told me a few days before he lost consciousness that I would find someone great and be happy again. And I have. Thanks Rusty Scruby!  I know that Dennis is looking down and loving Rusty's art and my almost total immersion in an artful way of life.

Now I just need a good job to come along so that I can afford to buy art again!!

Pray

Big and Bright: New Work From Texas - Press Release

Thursday, January 26 at 11:00am at Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA

"Big and Bright: New Work from Texas" January 26, 2012- February 21, 2012 Southwestern College Art Gallery Opening Receptions Thursday January 26 11-1 & 6-8 SWC Art Gallery Artist Talks Sponsored by the SWC Foundation Thursday January 26 12 PM featuring Matthew Bourbon & Vincent Falsetta .

The Southwestern College Art Gallery presents "Big and Bright: New Work from Texas", curated by Jessica McCambly . With the title taken from the song, “Deep in the Heart of Texas”, this exhibition is a regional survey that highlights the diverse range of work being created in Texas today. Despite the massive size of the state of Texas, there is a close community that exists amongst the artists who live and work across the state. They know each other.. or of each other.. and are usually fans of each other. The strength of this community of artists and the scene that they contribute to seems to defy the obvious geography that physically isolates them from the LA/NY art centers. With the presence of strong academic programs along with the support of regional cultural institutions, artist-run spaces, commercial galleries and virtual, cultural outlets that bridge the distance, these artists work and interact within unique and fertile conditions. This, along with the prevailing ethos, results in a vibrant and important art scene filled with complex and distinct work that stretches across Texas.  

  

Featuring work by: 

John Adelman * Susan Barnett * Iris Bechtol * Christine Bisetto * Paul Booker * Matthew Bourbon * Candace Briceno * Jim Burton * Rodolfo Choperena * Matt Clark * Shelby Cunningham * C.J. Davis * Eric Eley * Vincent Falsetta * Thomas Feulmer * Garland Fielder * Anna Fritzel-Shows * John Frost * Lily Hanson * Stephen Lapthisophon * Annette Lawrence * Dameon Lester * M * Margaret Meehan * Renee Nunez * Kim Cadmus Owens * Harmony Padgett * John Pomara * Ryder Richards * Rusty Scruby * Noah Simblist * Charlotte Smith * Terri Thornton * David Willburn * Sarah WIlliams

 

Curated by:

Jessica McCambly A graduate of the University of North Texas, College of Visual Arts and Design and former Texas artist, Curator Jessica McCambly is an artist currently living and working in San Diego, California. She also serves as Assistant Professor of Art at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, California.   

Jessica McCambly: "Float" Interview from YouTube

This is an interview by The New Children's Museum with artist, and my friend, Jessica McCambly.  McCambly discusses her latest installation at the museum titled Float.  The overall installation is titled Trash and includes works by twelve artists.  In addition to McCambly's, there are also works by Ed Ruscha and Vic Muniz.

From the New Children's Museum's web page we learn this about Float:

"Finding complexity in simple material, Jessica McCambly transforms ubiquitous white plastic shopping bags into an ephemeral cloud of light and shadow. Created from bags collected from NCM visitors, the accumulated mass of delicate imperfect rings, floats mist-like overhead, mimicking the dynamic shape of a wave breaking against the shore. The uniformity and intricate alteration of material invites myriad associations to be projected onto the suspended formation. McCambly encourages visitors to slow down and observe the temporal shapes the light draws against the wall and to contemplate the quiet beauty in the subtle shifts the piece makes over time. The simple act of noticing is critical to the experience of this work. As McCambly states, “the fast pace and culture of convenience that necessitates these plastic bags is also the one that interferes with our ability to notice fleeting moments of visual, aesthetic pleasure.” By reducing the pace, McCambly offers an alternative, giving us an opportunity to breathe and find the magic in the mundane."

McCambly received her BFA and MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of North Texas.  I first came to know Jessica when she was a member of the art collective 500X. Jessica has curated an exhibition Big and Bright at Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA that opens January 26, 2012.  This exhibition includes one of Rusty Scruby's works. 

We visited with Jessica and her artist husband, John Oliver Lewis, last year while in LA.  John helped Rusty hang and light Rusty's gallery exhibition at PYO gallery, for which we are eternally grateful!

John and Jessica at dinner with us after installation and before the opening

I have three of McCambly's works in my collection including this one which reminds me of Float, and she tells me that it was one of the precursors to Float:

Swarm Colony Study 4, 2007
acrylic, powdered mica, sterling silver, cast shadows

Lost in the Desert

Today marks the first anniversary of the theft of Rusty Scruby's art work.  Quin Mathews and his crew at QMFILMS has told the story beautifully and I've attached the video above.  Rusty also has the story in his own words on his website. Both of these tellings of the events of January 10, 2011, the day and the week starting with that day, were recorded as soon as we returned home from LA on January 25, 2011.

Rusty's next exhibition was scheduled for March 12, 2011 in Miami at PanAmerican ArtProjects. Rusty had originally planned a new body of work for PanAm, but after the theft he decided to recreate some of the artworks that had been stolen and had never been seen by anyone but me and a few people in the Angel View Thrift Mart. Janda Wetherington, director of PanAmerican ArtProjects, gave Rusty a third 'project' gallery space to tell a visual story of the theft.  This was a cathartic project for Rusty:

Quin Mathews' film was projected on one wall of the PanAm Project gallery

Rusty installed images and recovered but ruined art works on the oppisite walls.

The installation took several days to print all of the images that Rusty then took several days to pin up on the two walls.  He had recovered Thanksgiving but it had a hole punched in it by an unknown source rendering it unsellable. Rusty used this piece and recreated one of the possible scenarios he imagined as the cause of the hole by pushing a broken stretcher frame through the hole to present in the installation. On the adjacent wall, Rusty pinned up dual images, one on top of the other.  The base image is an interior shot of the thrift store.  The outer image is a picture of the Angel View Thrift Mart as seen from across the street.  Rusty employed an oscillating fan on a stand to create wind that caused the outer images to lift and reveal the base image underneath.  This action represented a variety of stream of conscious thoughts. The desert winds eroding objects in the harsh elements. The temporal nature of art once it is released from the studio. The hidden truths of the seemingly shady business conducted at the Angel View Thrift Mart as well as by the many local police and sherrif departments that Rusty had to deal with in Palm Desert, Indio, and Palm Springs.  It also represented Rusty's fears and feeling of loss of control over the situation and his stolen art.

Since the theft, people have repeatedly asked Rusty questions such as "how will this change or inform your work?".  It will take longer than this one year to fully realize an accurate answer to these questions.  Grief over the loss of a loved one or one's work and livelihood can take years to heal, and grief continues to manifest in both positive as well as negative ways. I will say, however, that the work that Rusty created for his December show at Cris Worley Fine Art was a fresh realization of his knitted/woven photographs.  He used circles instead of the hexagons, squares, and rhomboids employed in the works stolen and the works recreated and shown at PanAmerican ArtProjects.  Also, the work at CWFA was not mounted on stretcher frames, instead it hung loosely in the way that tapestries are hung. In addition, Rusty acquired some wool yarn just before Christmas and pulled out all of his knitting needles and began re-exploring various knitting techniques.  He is allowing this process to inform his thoughts and ideas toward realizing fresh concepts and techniques for future works of fine art.

For myself, the theft came on the heals of my losing my job and career of the previous thirty-three years.  This blog has been one of my responses to those losses.  This blog has also been a means for me to stay busy, maintain my pc skills, and expound beyond my technical wirting skills.  Plus it allows me to talk about one of my favorite subjects - contemporary visual art and the people that create it.

Today marks the end of our official mourning period.  Together we are moving forward.  And to end, I use one of my favorite Friedrich Nietzche quotes:
"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

The Wedding Project (The Wedding of Ben + Carolyn)

I'm taking some time as 2011 winds down and the new year of 2012 begins to recall some of my favorite art of 2011 that I have not already posted.  In September, Rusty and I answered an open call from our friend Carolyn Sortor to participate in her wedding project.  We choose to be Ministers of Guidance which translates as 'ushers' in more traditional weddings.  Naturally, I took my camera to document my point of view.  I am very honored that Carolyn has chosen to use some of my photos, among many others, as documenation of the event on her website.  See photos on her website through this link.  I've been receiving visitors to my blog via Carolyn's website, www.c-cyte.com, and so I thank her for that!

me and Rusty at The Wedding Project, September 17, 2011

my camera, but photo taken by professional photographer Carolyn McGovern McWeeney

No, Rusty and I did not get married also.  You can clearly see the Dallas skyline in the background with the new Calatrava bridge under construction to the left of me, so you know this was certainly not a gay wedding! All participants and all guests were asked to wear white, extra points for an ill fitting wedding dress, so that video could be easily projected on all in attendance which was also being recorded on video. While we didn't get married, all guests were requested to kiss each other at the point in the ceremony when the minister invited the newly wedded couple to kiss each other.  Carolyn McGovern McWeeney did capture a pic of me and Rusty kissing with her camera before the festivities began.  That photo is in catalog on c-cyte.

One gentleman in his 'ill fitting' wedding dress.

First duty as Ministers of Guidance was to direct guests to the veiling station where everyone was given a veil to wear.

After veils were in place, we directed the guests to stand in the area defined by a projected grid.  Once the ceremony began, video was projected on the screen behind the minister (seen in the middle background) as well as on the backs of the guests.  Video cameras were then recording all of the proceedings. 

Above: the bride dressed in black sits while reviewing project plans with one of the cameramen prior to the ceremony.

Carolyn quotes Andy Warhol for the beginning text on her More About the Wedding Project page, "I don't know where the artificial stops and the real starts."  Appropriate for any wedding ceremony, really, IMHO.

We didn't make it to the reception afterwards.  Frankly, we missed the info on the mailed announcement plus it was time to get our 'early bird' selves back to the studio once the wedding ceremony was over.  Continue to check in at Carolyn's website www.c-cyte.com for updates, more pictures, guest comments, and someday soon, the final edited video of the BEST ART WEDDING of 2011!



Rusty Scruby: "Memory Bytes" at Cris Worley Fine Arts

Self Portrait, photo reconstruction, 2011

^{Photography has allowed the average person to capture moments of their lives to hold as souvenirs or markers of important events. Some photos are intended to simply document a moment in time or the image of a loved one or even ones self. The understood application of capturing these images is to enable one to reconnect with that memory at a later date in time. The photographs are stored in albums, scrapbooks or digital files for future reference. This common practice of image capture, filing, and later recovery sets up the dynamic for Rusty Scruby's latest exhibition "Memory Bytes" at Cris Worley Fine Arts.}

^{Scruby delves into his family photo album once again to create new works that challenge the viewer to consider the loss and recovery of visual information. Prevalent thought claims that traditional photographs accurately depict reality. However, photographers such as Susan Sontag argue that a photograph fails to capture enough information about its subject to fully represent reality. Scruby takes Sontag's thought a step further as he utilizes processes which subtract visual details from the original photos.}

 Dad - River, photo reconstruction, 2011

Learning to Fish, photo reconstruction, 2011

^{Scruby does not attempt to present straight forward photographs. Rather, his images take a backseat to the mathematical and musical concepts he is portraying with each work. He chooses images that have a universal commonality, such as family members out for a day at the river and photos from school yearbooks. In doing so, he opens discussion regarding at what point is an image recognizable, to a degree, without being a literal representation.}

Dock Instalation detail

^{In "Memory Bytes" Scruby plays with the full range of scale that he has created to dissect these ideas. In "Dock Installation" Scruby utilizes specific selected sections of an in-focus photograph of a boat dock on the island of Kwajalein. The viewer can see the recognizable elements of the original photo - the horizon line, boats, the silhouettes of two people, and clouds - while the majority of the clouds and sparkling waves have been lost only to be recovered by the viewers subconscious.}

Diver, photo reconstruction, 2011

^{Scruby works the other end of the spectrum in "Diver". The original photo has been reduced to pixels approximating the average color for each facet that he then painstakingly handcuts and subsequently reassembles using his own simulated knitting process. The colors of the mid twentieth century objects reverberate in the hexs and circles that dominate the surface of the piece.}

 Mom, photo reconstruction, 2011

Dad, photo reconstruction, 2011

^{The same process rings true in pieces such as "Dad" and "Mom" even though the colors used in these works is only a range of sepia tones.} 

 Red Blouse with White Flowers, photo reconstruction, 2011

Lisa, photo reconstruction, 2011

^{Again, the viewer confronting "Red Blouse with White Flowers" or "Lisa" is left to their own devices to recover enough visual information to discern the image, which in turn sets up multiple paths of information recovery in the viewer's mind. The viewer may begin to believe that the original image was pulled from their own family album.}

Touch, photo reconstruction, 2011

"Memory Bytes" is on view at Cris Worley Fine Arts throught December 21.