Local Artist Showcase: 1st Thursday Opening Reception

Each month, we feature a local artist on the walls of Vista's Tasting Room for a one month period, launched with a reception on the evening of the First Thursday from 6 to 8 pm.

April Artist Feature: Richard Poe

About Richard Poe's Photo Assemblages

This artwork is about a particular way of viewing the natural world, that is, through a series of photo assemblages that have their beginnings in a small slice of the Texas Hill Country, the place I know as Thursday Mountain. Nature is on vivid display there if you bother to look. I did. Soon, I began collecting some of the more unusual objects I came across: bird’s eggs, hummingbird nests, deer antlers. As the collection grew, I decided to preserve these fragile pieces of nature in photographs, individually and then in arrangements that evolved into something akin to abstract painting.

I consider the assemblages a modern form of printmaking. After collecting and photographing these natural objects, I cut up the photos and reassemble them in various combinations of form and color - a sort of cross between abstract painting and representational photography - then I scan the resulting assemblage, re-edit the image, and print in a variety of sizes.

Larger assemblages are stand alone originals and are not printed.