Dave Martin
Hometown:
Houston, TX
Statement:
I have always love photography. I loved being able to capture a moment in time to preserve forever, even after that moment was gone forever.
In the early to mid-1980's, I took photos of Big Bend National Park, Enchanted Rock State Park, Inks Lake State Park, Sonora Caverns and the pictographs at Seminole Canyon State Historical Park. In 1984 I went with a former high school teacher and classmates to the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Grand Canyon and Zion Canyon. Cindy Radle, my teacher, had a tradition of taking photos of everybody's feet, just to prove you were there. I took one of my foot hanging off the edge of The Window in the basin of Big Bend, and one dangling off the high top of Angel's Landing in Zion.
In 1989 my partner and I went to Cozumel. Sadly, the beaches had been washed away by storms, so all we got there were sharp rocks filled with sea urchins. We did go to the Yucatan mainland to Xel-Ha, where I managed to get some snaps of the native lizards. I also was introduced to an ancient Mayan liquor, Xtabentun (pronounced shta-BIN-toon).
I took photos at the Texas Renaissance Festival, at Moody Gardens in Galveston, the San Antonio Zoo & Botanical Gardens in the 1990s.
Then came digital. No longer would I have to get my photos processed. I could let my creativity thrive. My best images were shot in 2004 during a two week trip to Italy, but I've also taken a great number of snaps around Austin and of wildflowers along the Texas roadways. I learned how to take macro shots, and began to get really close to all sorts of things -- insects, flowers, mushrooms, textures.
Not sure where all this is leading me, but I'm enjoying the ride!
Background:
It began as a child, drawing on walls with crayons. Yes, I got spanked, but what artist isn't slapped around a few times by critics?
When I was five years old, my grandmother entered me in a turkey-drawing contest in her subdivision on Galveston Island. Basically, trace your hand then make a turkey out of it. I won. My grandmother is still proud of it all these years (and decades) later.
In school, I doodled rather than take notes. I took architecture in high school and designed beautiful homes, but the teacher could only condemn how much they would cost to build (obviously upset that he'd never be able to afford them on a teacher's salary).
In college, more doodling. For my geology course, my cross-sections and topographic maps were always the best. For the field course, where we had to survey map an island on a small lake, I embellished the final map - adding the four winds to the corners, a fancy compass (based on really old seafaring maps), and for the final touch, drew a mermaid on the island. I got a -2 for "too chesty," but the bonus points I received for accuracy made up for that.
And then came the age of digital, and I was no longer limited by the availability of walls or the box of 32 colors...
Upcoming Events:
ArtErotica 2008 in Austin, Texas; April 19, 2008. "Men of Piazza della Signoria"
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