This exhibit contains images of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Still lifes fade in and out of fashion in art, much like the idea of beauty in art, and even when in fashion they occupy a lower station in the hierarchy promulgated by art scholars. All about simple surface beauty and not much more. Appropriate for popular consumption but not something that pushes, that challenges.

Perhaps. But maybe the subject matter can be more, without losing the power of its beauty. Perhaps there is more to beauty than a pleasant feeling between the eyes. The images here have been called beautiful, but I think of it as an honest beauty. My flowers are worn, aged. My vegetables show the marks and the imperfections of the tangible world in which they exist. It is a human beauty, a beauty of depth. It has been said that the images possess a presence, a "thereness" that goes beyond simple surface beauty. Many viewers point out the references to famous photographs, and some relish the full depth of my little "jokes."

Is beauty in or out this season? I'm afraid I've lost track. All I know is that this is an exhibit of images, of flowers, fruits, and vegetables--photographs that call upon the primal powers of art.

(Didn't care for that intro? Not your kind of thing? Too much of the usual "artist statement" talk? Then check out the real introduction to this work to learn of its true origins.)