Rebecca: Its been a while since my last sunday selection. I think not intentionally but my life has been slightly chaotic. I haven’t had the chance to really spend the time with images in my tag that I like. Last week Izzy and I ran a ‘blooms’ theme. It was there that I stumbled upon the work of Gary Blum. Wow is all I can say. He had 3 images posted. Each one spectacular. Love doesn’t come easily to me but there is no question that Gary’s blooms had me. The stunning quality of his posts sent me straight to his feed. All of it wonderful. I have a renewed excitement for seeking out new work thanks to Gary.
Take a moment and check out Gary on IG at @garyedwardblum and keep your eyes open for the unexpected everywhere!
Gary: I started IG back in November. As a fine artist, my intention was to post images of my studio, works in progress, etc. But as I began to discover apps and the amazing community of creative people, my focus became very, well, unfocused. With my love of photography and a background in graphic design, coupled with the discovery of apps, it led me to become obsessed with editing images. Because my paintings have an established style and focus, I found it very freeing to be able to post varying styles and approaches(as you’ll note in my feed) on IG.
My process is rather simple. In general, I don’t start with any premeditated ideas or plans, except to make a pleasing image. Of course I have inherent compositional and technical thoughts running through my head when I take pictures. This image was one of many “flower” pics I take obsessively. I did feel that I wanted detail(it was so delicate) and contrast, which is why I composed the shot close up with a dark background. I took maybe five different angles. After that, I brought one into Snapseed/PhotoForge and just started playing around. I accidentally hit “tilt-shift” in Snapseed and loved how the focus accentuated the detail, so I did it like 5 times. I shot a new texture I wanted to try, etc. I like to let process and accidents happen…they’re way more creative than me. 🙂 I’m never married to anything. It’s the same way I work with my paintings. Start with a sketch, then be open to chance. Sometimes I’ll purposely screw something up so I have to “fix” it. In this way, I’m building history into the work without it looking forced.
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Rebecca, I found Gary’s work thru your sundayblues tag recently, so thanks for introducing us to his beautiful work!
Congratulations, Gary! As you know, I love your images and your creativity and am so glad to see you featured here! Such a soft and compelling image.