jamesadamtaylor

[jamesadamtaylor]

Photography/ Fine Art/ Exhibition/ Exploration

It's level. An excerpt from Moments of Contrast, a black and white photography show I installed last week.

It is aesthetically my favorite show to date. The gallery is a lovely modern building with very large windows and a high ceiling. I will make more photos and share them soon.

This was an interesting exhibition. I was extremely busy leading up to it including almost a week out of town before installation. But I had the gallery space in mind while envisioning the collection and building the frames. As a result everything fits together just so.

The work is a collection of black and white landscapes shot between here (Humboldt county California) in brief weather events, and through a short stop-over in Iceland quite some years ago.

[jamesadamtaylor]

Professional artist update:

I guess I'm a pro.

Anyway, through 22-23 I worked on a documentary art project about housing in my community. I've shown portions of the work a few times for one day, or weekend long events. The goal was always to show the work in a formal gallery setting. Unfortunately the gallery experienced a few delays and last October turned into this October.

But I finally have the show hung and there are just a few finishing touches before the opening reception.

[jamesadamtaylor]

The original Uncoded Studio is pretty much back to bare walls and piles of trash I'll bring to the dump this weekend.

This place never quite got to where I intended, but even so, I put a lot of work into it.

After about three years of "next month the construction project will start," next month is next week. I had 10 days notice. And it's taken every last minute of every one of those days to rush into projects that were planned for a month or two from now, deconstruct most of what I built, pack and move everything out of here.

I still have a few large items and some boxes to shuffle over to the new building.

The project should take "3 to 4 weeks" but knowing a little about construction I expect 6 to 8. I'm so grateful we were able to get our spot on 5th street before this all started. Even so, I'm leaving a fair amount of materials here to sort out after the construction is completed.

My understanding is that this space will still be available to me on the other end. I'm hoping I can hold onto it for a bit longer and transition it into a space used by more people. It would be a great spot to open up to other artists and vendors a few times a month. Particularly if I don't need to use it for my normal business activity pretty much every day.

[jamesadamtaylor]

Unseasonably rainy this weekend. It's helping us find where the roof leaks before the rainy season starts. One of the unique spots is in a large vent over our bed. It will be a unique fix for a unique situation.

[jamesadamtaylor]

Updates:

My mom and stepdad had a nice visit in early August. They stayed in the new building, my mom said she slept really well here. I was worried because you can hear certain people outside when they are loud and also the whole building rattles a little when large trucks drive by.

Today a friend helped me bring my flat file drawers over. Currently they are in the studio space in the middle of the room, but tomorrow I'll do my best to place them in a reasonably functional location. I brought my printer here on Sunday night (my birthday) we rented a U-haul truck with a ramp to make it a little easier. It did, but it was also an adventure. Thankfully my friend Erich is the Ultimate Buddy and helped with both brains and brawn.

Tomorrow I have some art copy jobs and it will be nice to do everything under one roof (After spending the morning getting the shop in order).

I'm majorly looking forward to having the majority of important items and tools under one roof. We are almost totally moved into the apartment too.

Important projects will still need to be addressed for the next year or more, but getting all the main functions into the space will be nice and I'm looking forward to it.

[jamesadamtaylor]

A couple snaps from the construction site.

Downstairs will be a small gallery space and a large photo studio and print shop with a smaller section for work shop projects.

Upstairs is a neat loft apartment. We have a whole bunch of skylights! It's going to take some work but we will eventually have a nice living space. My mom and stepdad will be here at the end of the month so I'm hustling to get upstairs ready for them to stay as the first guests.

[jamesadamtaylor]

Big life update:

We bought a building. It's a commercial building where I will be able to move my studio to the first floor and we can live in the apartment on the second floor.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to secure funding through an organization that helps regional small businesses. I was turned down by traditional lenders back in November, which opened up the pathway that ultimately worked out.

The building is unique, over 100 years old and moderatly well maintained. The floors are wildly uneven in some areas and I will have to consult with professionals over the years to repair some issues which will help prevent further settling.

But after getting booted from my apartment of many years for "remodeling" then living in an office for over a year, it's a very good feeling to "own" somewhere which has running water, a kitchen, and storage space. We have our own shower and bathroom!

I don't know exactly how long before we can move in, there are a fair number of projects I'm in the middle of attending to, but hopefully by the end of the month the majority will be taken care of and I'll have both the studio and living spaces ready.

I've done about two weeks of work in the last 7 days, so the progress is moving along a little quicker than expected. I'm sure the actual big projects won't feel so smooth or quick though. But I'm hoping I'll be able to get contractors scheduled out and everything will be underway for the big repairs.

If anyone is looking to buy, in some cities commercial mixed use properties are in less demand than single family homes, it might be worthwhile to look at that as an option. Our spot was for sale for a few years and the seller was ready to be done with it. In some instances the bubble is deflating if you get creative or think outside of the house box. Good luck everyone.

[jamesadamtaylor]

Explorations/ Redwood is funny, As an ancient conifer it has quite soft wood. You can scratch into fresh cut lumber easily with your fingernail. Like many "softwoods" the weight to volume ratio is very low, aka it's physically light.

However, this isn't always true. Redwoods are exceptionally long lived, trees aren't even considered mature until they are multiple hundreds of years old. Before colonization and mass logging, the number of mature tree in the 800-2000 year range would have been staggering.

One of the superpowers of the redwood is as a tree ages, protective compounds amas in the heartwood. These compounds make the heartwood nearly indestructible to insects and fungus. So as a tree ages, the wood inside can actually get heavier.

The reason I bring this up, is that while exploring I found a chunk of wood at the base of an ancient tree. It very clearly had been the very top. Old redwoods often have dead tops, and sometimes after decades, maybe centuries, portions break off in and tumble to earth after a windstorm. This was clearly the case with this find. The grain was grey and gnarled with little bits of lichen clinging to it. The chunk of wood was also exceptionally heavy, at least twice what I was expecting. That's it, thanks for reading.

[jamesadamtaylor]

Explorations/ Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Print Shop

[jamesadamtaylor]

Explorations/

Spring in the Redwoods can be fantastically green. Print Shop:

[jamesadamtaylor]

A place to be.

[jamesadamtaylor]

Windy Oaks and Stars.

[jamesadamtaylor]

[jamesadamtaylor]

Once upon a time in a forest not far away. Trunks and Stumps series.

[jamesadamtaylor]

Once upon a time in a forest not far away. Part of the Trunks and Stumps series.

[jamesadamtaylor]

It's me, from a year or more ago.

Thanks Bob!

I’m not sure if it was officially part on @ncopenstudios but I started my Open Studio tour last Saturday in #OldTown @uncoded.studio and @thestuudiio, the #artspace of @jamesadamtaylor and @raelinamarie, where Adam does photography and Raelina does graphic and other projects. Adam was doing #passportphotos (like mine) for @humboldtpassport, one of Raelina’s projects. I bought one and will get discounts on a bunch of #localbusinesses. Wahoo!! (at Eureka Old Town) https://www.instagram.com/p/CekXPouLTBQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jamesadamtaylor]

Over the last few years I have expanded into an area of specialty photography. I spend a fair amount of time photographing original works of art for artists. I make fine art reproduction prints too. It's supremely nerdy.

Anyway, yesterday I did a rough count of all the works I have worked on since 2020,

It's about 600.

I have 600 high resolution images that I have created and toiled over to do my best at ensuring artists original works are well represented as physical and digital reproductions.

I'm very proud of the artists I work with, and I suppose of myself too.