John Smaby

I am a native Minnesotan, have lived and worked in New York and California, and currently live in St Paul.  I  recently returned to an old love, art, after a long career teaching philosophy and managing information technology.  I am a member of the AZ Gallery cooperative in Lowertown, St Paul, MN.  My work can be viewed at my website www.smabyart.com, ;  email me:  jwsmaby@comcast.net  .  or call  612-743-6826

 I use my digital photographs of the urban landscape as my primary source of material and ideas.  My artistic tools are a digital camera, computer, software, and an inkjet printer. These images began life as digital photographs of St Paul, Minneapolis, and other cities taken with a Canon 5D.  I upload the photos to my computer and use them as raw material for my creative explorations in Photoshop.

 For me, art is all about experimentation and exploration and discovery.  It's somewhat like playing jazz (or composing classical music for that matter)  I take a tune or theme and start playing with it, improvising, experimenting, and see what comes out.  Sometimes its good; much of the time not so good. But it is really really fun.  Its what gets me up in the morning.  Once I have something I like, I print it out on a large format inkjet printer.  The pictures can be hung "as is" or can be matted, framed and put under UV protective glass.  The inks, paper, and canvas are good for 100+ years when protected from UV rays and moisture.

 One last word about "meaning".  Don't look for deep conceptual, metaphysical, spiritual or symbolic significance.  My images don't "mean" anything.  This is visual art...its all about "seeing".  To look for "meaning" is to graft left brain verbal nonsense on top of what is a fundamental right brain activity.