ALTERED REALITIES

Sheila N Markowitz

October 14—December 8

Kendal at Oberlin’s Community Gallery: Access from 9:00am to 5:00pm daily by checking in at a screening kiosk at main entrance.

Presented by Kendal at Oberlin Art Committee, Mary Behm curator of the Community Gallery in collaboration with FAVA

Artist Statement

Long before “fake news” and the wizardry of Photoshop, the myth that photographs represented objective, unvarnished truth was just that—pure myth. Matthew Brady posed dead soldiers in his documentary civil war photographs. Ansel Adams enhanced the drama of his black and white paeans to nature by mastering ordinary darkroom techniques.

Even with no intent to alter reality, a photographer can only present a subjective truth that depends on where he or she stands physically and psychologically. (And viewers alter that “reality” still further by their own subjectivity.)

I substitute digital manipulation for many traditional darkroom tools and use it to enhance my final product. But the altered reality I am most interested in exploring is more basic than that. It starts with the recognition that over time, the human mind quietly, subtly, involuntarily adds to and subtracts from experience as it exists in memory. It may conflate several experiences which have only tangential connections and synthesize them into a new whole. It may drop out parts of the experience that were or have become less relevant. Or emphasize an aspect that went almost unnoticed at first.

My work is essentially a metaphor for that phenomenon. The French Master photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson was interested in the “decisive moment.” I am interested the moments long after that. To that end, I combine photographs (and/or scans of other material). Some source material becomes distorted or reproportioned as I blend, alter, and re-blend the original images. Ultimately, I arrive at a satisfying new “reality,” with ambiguities enough to leave room for viewers to add their own narrative.

My digital montages (Imagiscapes) are one-of-a kind, though I often produce a small number of variations of ones I especially like. The altered photographs (Transformations) are offered as limited editions of 10 or fewer. All are printed with fade resistant or archival inks on museum quality paper and framed with acid-free conservation grade mats.

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"Behind From Where We Came", 18" x 18", $400

"A View From the Bridge", 28" x 22", $500

"A Hot Time in the Old Town", 16" x 16", $350

"Illumination Composite 1 ", 14" x 14", $325

"Hanging At the Gauguin Café #1", 18" x 18", $400

“Hanging At the Gauguin Café--Serendipity”, 28" x 22", $500

“The Face In the Window”, 8" x 10", $125

“Morning From the Blind Side”, 16" x 12", $300

“Then, If Ever, Come Perfect Days”, 11" x 14", $300

"Can't Help But Wonder Where We're Bound #4", 30" x 24", $750

“Echoes of New Orleans”, 11" x 14", $300

"Charlotte in the Garden", 2/10, 8" x 10", $150

"On the Pleasure Path", 3/10, 10" x 8", $125

"Is This The Way The World Ends", 12" x 16", $350

"Things Are Seldom What They Seem", 16" x 20", $375

Artist Bio

Sheila N Markowitz

When I was 67, a chance discovery changed my career trajectory. Until then I'd never considered using my computer as a vehicle for making fine art. I began working in the visual arts in the early 1970s. When a class at a local art center introduced me to the joy of creating with clay, I phased out my clients and closed my PR office to pursue my newfound passion for pottery. Within a year, I had set up a home studio, sold work, won my first award in a juried show, and begun teaching an excited class of eight-year-olds that Included my younger daughter. During the 16 years I made one-of-a-kind clay pieces and taught adults and children to appreciate the material and their own creativity, my work garnered more than 24 awards.

Largely self-taught as a potter, I'm entirely self-taught on the computer. I began honing those skills in 1986. Spurred by a desire to make a souvenir magazine for a daughter's wedding, I taught myself to use a succession of graphics programs. An early version of Paint Shop Pro has turned out to be the best fit for the way I like to work.

In 2004, trying a graphics tool I hadn't used before, I found I could merge images in myriad and subtle ways. That struck me as metaphor for how the mind overlays experiences, how it blurs them in memory, how it reconciles different points of view to create coherence. I was already exploring those subjects in writing and traditional photography. Now I had versatile tools to use in new ways to expand that exploration. That process can still get my creative juices flowing,

Held in public and corporate as well as private collections, my digital work has appeared in four invitationals, 18 juried shows and six previous solo exhibitions. Awards include a first place in the "digital professional" category, three other first place honors and a special award for photography.

More about me: I graduated from Antioch College in 1958 with a degree in English and married a reporter I had met my sophomore year, when I interned at the Cleveland Press. I've been widowed for many years, but I have two grown daughters, five grandchildren, and twin brothers I'm close to even though we live miles apart. In 2016, I moved from my home In Orange Village to an apartment In Shaker Heights. There, with the help of Kendal at Home, I am aging in place alongside some terrific neighbors.

I wrote, designed, and illustrated five books which are available on Amazon. “Accidental Artist" describes my art journey, offers commentary on media I have tried, explains various techniques, and provides glimpses into personal experiences that have influenced my art or may yet do so.