*Photographer, Garin Horner (Photo by Colleen Small)*

A Photo-ethnographic Study of Personal Spiritual Shrines & Altars

Most people likely think of religion and spirituality in monolithic terms: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islamism, Judaism, etc., but by some estimates tally as many as 4,200 different religions existing in the world today. And spiritual practice is often a very individual and private action. Garin Horner seeks out and documents what he calls, “…intimate connections people have with places and objects that serve as focal points, where subjects feel strong links with transcendent beings, ethereal energies, and/or supernatural realities.”

‘The subjects I collaborate with are a combination of artists, actors, and spiritual practitioners who want to give voice to and celebrate their own distinct views as part of a multitude of spiritual beliefs. They are believers in a supernatural meta-ecology, or structure of subtle dimensions that co-exist with our reality comprised of various beings (or forces). Part of this view recognizes altars to be microcosms and/or nexuses of those subtle dimensions.”

"A Collection of 2016 Relics from the World's Religions" by Garin Horner, 24x30in, photography (2016), $450 | BUY NOW — *"A Collection of 2016 Relics from the World's Religions" by Garin Horner, 24x30in, photography (2016), $450 | BUY NOW*

It should come as no surprise that Horner sometimes encounters resistance from his subjects. He turns his lens on a topic that is sensitive even in the mainstream, so to ask people to reveal themselves in such specific, confessional terms requires delicacy.

“I contact my subjects through calls for collaboration and word of mouth. It’s a fairly complicated process that doesn't always work out. Whenever I am traveling to a city (for a conference or exhibition) I research spiritual organizations in the area and reach out to people. I also use a catalog from the Parliament for the World's Religions. Sometimes I get positive responses and people invite me to photograph them, but when I get there they have a change of heart.”

Horner keeps the identities and locations secret, and in some cases where the subject has refused to be photographed, Horner has, with permission, recreated what he has witnessed from detailed notes and sketches. So far, in the last 18 months he has produced about 25 separate images in the series.

"Ancestors Guide Us and Protect Us" by Garin Horner, 24x24in, photography (2017), $450 | BUY NOW — *"Ancestors Guide Us and Protect Us" by Garin Horner, 24x24in, photography (2017), $450 | BUY NOW*

“Most people don't want me to photograph them, but some do. Some are very excited to show other people their connection to their spiritual practices. Some are excited in the beginning and change their minds in the end. If someone goes as far as being photographed and signing a model release and then asks me to not show their photos - I don't.”

Horner exhibited photos in Louisville a few years ago as part of a show curated by the Midwest Society for Photographic Education. He was recently named Director of the Adrian College Center for Effective Teaching. Adrian College, Adrian, Michigan.

Horner’s newest exhibit, Otherworldly Signs / Unworldly Believers will be at the Prairie Center of the Arts, Peoria Ill, in October 2017.

Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Education: BFA, Sienna Heights University; MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art
Website: www.garinhorner.net
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garinhorner

"Calling the Spirits of the Fallen" by Garin Horner, 24x30in, photography (2017), $450 | BUY NOW — *"Calling the Spirits of the Fallen" by Garin Horner, 24x30in, photography (2017), $450 | BUY NOW*

"rive Deep the Magic Nail" by Garin Horner, 24x30in, photography (2016), $450 | BUY NOW — *"rive Deep the Magic Nail" by Garin Horner, 24x30in, photography (2016), $450 | BUY NOW*

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Photography

Vignette: Marcia Lamont Hopkins

Josh Jenkins · July 13, 2017

“Time, memory, and the natural world always play a key role in my work.” – Marcia Lamont Hopkins

By applying a poetic and often metaphorical language to her photographic images, Marcia Lamont Hopkins opens the door to the unknown, to multiple realities, both real and artificial, so that one questions what is really happening.

Her images establish a link between the landscape’s reality and the artist’s imagination. While this could, to some extent, be said to be true of any artist using landscapes, Hopkins pushes the limits of our perception of what is real. Each object or environment seems entirely natural and plausible, yet the juxtaposition within the artist’s gauzy, dreamlike atmosphere creates an uneasy sense of mystery. Is our understanding shifting in relationship to time, memory, or some other reality that we can’t quite define?

"Casaubon" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW — *"Casaubon" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 |* *BUY NOW*

In her artist’s statement, Hopkins explains it this way: “The series, Causabon’s Illusion, crafts a series of metaphorical vignettes rooted in elements of magical realism and the mind’s tendency to search for all-inclusive answers. In George Elliot’s Middlemarch, Edward Causabon spends his life in a futile and absurd attempt to find a comprehensive explanation for the whole of civilization’s knowledge and mythologies. Deluded, he believes that he alone has the key to humanity’s searching, an illusion which may be reflected in our culture today.”

"The Beekeeper" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW — *"The Beekeeper" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW*

As part of her 60WRD/MIN project, Art Historian and Chicago Tribune art critic Lori Waxman wrote of Hopkin’s work: “We like to control animals and nature, but when they get beyond our understanding things tend to get interesting. Hopkins envisions overgrown forests, historic graveyards, farm animals, and occasionally people, often in combination, in impeccable digital prints that blend multiple shots into believable wholes. The weirder and more convincing, the better: a sheep enmeshed in a dense forest seems as if it and the trees are made of the same stuff, a lama in a rolling meadow becomes one with the horizon and the clouds.”

Hopkins currently has a solo exhibit at Gratz Park Inn in Lexington, KY.

*Burnaway: The Voice of Art In The South, March 27, 2017

Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky
Education: BFA in Film and Fine Art and a Ph.D. in Psychology.
Website: http://www.marcia-hopkins.squarespace.com/

"Cemetery Sheep" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW — *"Cemetery Sheep" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW*

"Wedding" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW — *"Wedding" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW*

"Pyramid" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW — *"Pyramid" by Marcia Hopkins, 17x22in, digital archival print (2017), $500 | BUY NOW*

Photography

Vignette: Sid Webb

Josh Jenkins · May 30, 2017

“I think of art as making a statement about the artist’s time and place and/or turning points in techniques and tools that give the next generation of artists a new outlook.” — Sid Webb

"Skipping" by Sid Webb, 10x27in, photograph (2011), $89 | BUY NOW — *"Skipping" by Sid Webb, 10x27in, photograph (2011), $89 | BUY NOW*

Sid Webb creates in a variety of mediums, and today we see some of his photographs. “I have taken nearly 100,000 photographs,” claims Webb, “and although I am tempted by beaches, mountains, sunsets, and sunrises and their breath-taking beauty as much as anyone, I rarely find lasting substance in such images. We can count the significant landscape photographers on one hand. Landscape painters fare a little better because technique and interpretation come into play.”

Webb prefers people as subjects for his camera. Here we see a young boy approaching a large 17th-century canon at Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine with appropriate trepidation, sheepishly inching his foot forward, a look eager anticipation mixed with supreme caution on his face. The shot is from a distant, raised point-of-view, and if the child had a clue he was being photographed, would he have been so expressive?

"Cigar Roller" by Sid Webb, 11x17in, photograph (2013), $45 | BUY NOW — *"Cigar Roller" by Sid Webb, 11x17in, photograph (2013), $45 | BUY NOW*

The locations here cover a range of territory, from Germany to Portugal, and Webb’s camera finds the ordinary, universal truths of people instead of the divisive artificial barriers that arise from nations and politicians. Webb sees people experiencing the wonders of the world as a respite from their normal, daily existence.

“It is my feeling that about 80 percent of creating art is the process of making it,” says Webb. “By which I mean just being focused and absorbed in the process of creation. Another 15 percent or so has to do with skill and craft, and 5 percent is drawn from our sensitivity to the world around us and how finely tuned we are to form and balance and color. Somewhere in this mix is a bit of rational thinking and reasoning that lead us in deciding subject matter and content. Generally, artists are thought of as being creative and original. And artists think of themselves in those terms, too.”

Hometown: Lexington, KY
Education: Majored in journalism and political science, University of Kentucky; Atlanta School of Art (High Museum)
Website: http://www.sidwebb.com/

"Boys and Guns" by Sid Webb, 11x17in, photograph (2014), $45 | BUY NOW — *"Boys and Guns" by Sid Webb, 11x17in, photograph (2014), $45 | BUY NOW*

"Fairy Dust" by Sid Webb, 11x17in, photograph (2013), $45 | BUY NOW — *"Fairy Dust" by Sid Webb, 11x17in, photograph (2013), $45 | BUY NOW*

Photography

Vignette: Ed Lawrence

Josh Jenkins · February 8, 2017

“There’s something magical about creeks for me.” — Ed Lawrence

The cold, slate gray form of dead branch isolated against the warm green tones of trees reflected in a creek; the deceptively abstract quality we find In a close up point-of-view of minnows swimming in the shallow water of a creek bed; the organic cathedral formation of trees lining both sides of a woodland stream. These are but three Ed Lawrence images that make him the epitome of a fine nature photographer. His work captures both the grandeur and the intimacy of the Kentucky landscape in a context that borders on sacred.

Lawrence has worked in various mediums, but he returned to his early love of photography after retiring, shooting alongside his oldest son, who had discovered one of his father’s old film single lens reflex cameras. The two of them traveled together shooting, the son on film and the father digitally, and Lawrence’s passion was renewed. He considers himself less of a technician, saying: “I could care less about the world of apertures, f-stops, ISOs and metering.” Ed Lawrence just uses a camera to paint what he sees.

"Beals Run, Woodford County, KY" by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2016) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW — *"Beals Run, Woodford County, KY"* *by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2016) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW*

“There’s something magical about creeks for me,” he explains. “When I am in a creek, I feel like I am in a world of my own with meandering paths of water and rock protected by canopies of trees. Surrounded by the beauty of wildflowers along the bank, the wonder of birds, fish and fascinating creeping crawling things and the dappling light make creeks my place of reflection both literally and figuratively.”

“All seasons appeal to me. The brilliant colors of autumn leaves falling and sinking beneath the water, the ice and snow formations of winter and the pinks and blues and greens of spring growth transform the same site on the same creek into a very different place. My favorite sensation is the coolness of the air drifting downstream when the summer heat is otherwise unbearable.”

"Benson Creek, Franklin County, KY" by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2016) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW — *"Benson Creek, Franklin County, KY"* *by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2016) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW*

Lawrence will be one of the photographers in a group show at the City Gallery at the Downtown Arts Center, Lexington Kentucky Creeks - paintings and photographs by four Kentucky artists, which will run February 10 through April 2, 2017. He also has published book of photographs, “Kentucky 120” A county-by-county portrait of Kentucky, published by Zedz Press.

Hometown: Frankfort, Kentucky
Age: 67
Education: Studied fine art at the University of South Florida and Communications at the University of Kentucky but do not have a degree. My photography is for the most part self-taught.
Website: www.edlawrencephotography.com

"Hal Bryan's Creek, Franklin County, KY" by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2016) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW — *"Hal Bryan's Creek, Franklin County, KY" by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2016) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW*

"Brighton Branch, Franklin County, KY" by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2014) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW — *"Brighton Branch, Franklin County, KY" by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2014) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW*

"Elkhorn Creek, Woodford County, KY" by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2016) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW — *"Elkhorn Creek, Woodford County, KY" by Ed Lawrence, 19 x 13 in, inkjet print on archival matte paper (2016) $200 / $300 framed (limited edition of 10) | BUY NOW*

Photography

Vignette: Patricia Brock

Josh Jenkins · November 22, 2016

“Bathed in Sunlight” by Patricia Brock, 20x20in, photography on brushed aluminum, $320 | BUY NOW — *“Bathed in Sunlight” by Patricia Brock, 20x20in, photography on brushed aluminum, $320 | BUY NOW*

In the work of Patricia Brock we see how versatile the camera can be as a creative tool. Brock shoots a broad range of images, including work of a distinctly commercial sensibility. The intimate close-ups of flora capture the grace and delicacy of nature in representational terms, yet “Bathed in Sunlight” also allows the recognizable forms of flower petals to begin a shift into abstraction. The overwhelming light of the sun subtly blinding the detail at the very moment it clarifies it.

And then the high contrast of her recent exploration of the newly opened Lincoln suspension bridge stands apart from the flowers; expansive in their composition, Brock pushes the color into extremes through digital manipulation, now emphasizing the geometric abstraction of the vertical cables through deliberate choice. The older bridge we see through those dissecting vertical elements establishing context and even further contrast.

*Patricia Brock taking a photo with her camera.*

Brock had used her mother’s box camera as a child, and returned to photography after retiring from teaching elementary school 18 years ago, embarking on a new career and opening her own photography business. She has printed on various materials such as photo paper, metallic papers, canvas and brushed aluminum recently introduced a new creative line for the home or garden with her photographs printed on brushed aluminum or acrylic, which can be used in outdoor spaces.

Brock is a juried participant of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Crafted Program, The Architectural Artists Directory, and a juried exhibiting member of The Louisville Artisans Guild. Her work is represented by KORE Gallery in Louisville, KY. Currently her work is on exhibit as a part of At the Rivers Bend: Our Place on the Ohio, at the Evansville Museum in Evansville, IN. It runs through November 27.

“Riveted (Big 4 Pedway Bridge)” by Patricia Brock, 16x20in, photography on brushed aluminum, $275 | BUY NOW — *“Riveted (Big 4 Pedway Bridge)” by Patricia Brock, 16x20in, photography on brushed aluminum, $275 | BUY NOW*

PUBLISHED WORKS
2015 BLINK, Art Design Consultants, Cincinnati, OH
2008 Kentucky Quilt Trails
2007 Saint Paul’s Art on The Parish Green, New Albany, IN, advertising material
2006 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, Vol. 72-4
2006 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, Vol. 72-3
2006 Promotional Materials, KY Crafted: The Market, KY
2004 Botanica Fleur de Lis Poster, Louisville, KY

COLLECTIONS
Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, KY
Saint Joseph Hospital, KY
Private collections, Louisville, KY
Private collections, The Villages, FL

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 68
Education: BS in Education, MA in Education from Eastern Kentucky University
Gallery Representation: KORE Gallery (Louisville)
Website: http://www.PatriciaBrockPhotography.com

“Suspension I (Lincoln Bridge)” by Patricia Brock, 36x22in, photography, triptych on acrylic, $575 | BUY NOW — *“Suspension I (Lincoln Bridge)” by Patricia Brock, 36x22in, photography, triptych on acrylic, $575 | BUY NOW*

“Bermuda Hibiscus” by Patricia Brock, 36x24in, photography on brushed aluminum, $454 | BUY NOW — *“Bermuda Hibiscus” by Patricia Brock, 36x24in, photography on brushed aluminum, $454 | BUY NOW*

“Suspension V (Lincoln Bridge)” by Patricia Brock, 16x20in, photography on archival photo paper (matted and framed), $225 | BUY NOW — *“Suspension V (Lincoln Bridge)” by Patricia Brock, 16x20in, photography on archival photo paper (matted and framed), $225 | BUY NOW*

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photo

Vignette: Garin Horner

Vignette: Marcia Lamont Hopkins

“Time, memory, and the natural world always play a key role in my work.” – Marcia Lamont Hopkins

Vignette: Sid Webb

“I think of art as making a statement about the artist’s time and place and/or turning points in techniques and tools that give the next generation of artists a new outlook.” — Sid Webb

Vignette: Ed Lawrence

“There’s something magical about creeks for me.” — Ed Lawrence

Vignette: Patricia Brock