D’art & Friends

My friend, Terrel Bailey, also know as  Lifted Spirit, has invited me to exhibit two images with him at the D’art & Friends Invitational Group Exhibition 11/25/22 – 12/24/22. Opening day will be the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 25, from Noon – 9pm.

D’art Gallery is a contemporary art exhibition space featuring 18 professional artists located in the Art District on Santa Fe, Denver Colorado at 900 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO.

The mission of D’Art Gallery is to provide a professional gallery experience for artists, collectors and the public at large. Member artists have the opportunity to advance their careers and pursue a high standard of professional development while following their personal vision in the fine arts.   The gallery strives to promote community awareness, and appreciation of contemporary fine arts.

 

“Sherri Mabe’s work has made a lasting impression on me since the first time I viewed one of her photographs.  She works primarily using Infrared photography, and almost exclusively in black and white.  Sherri spends much of her time photographing the plains or the desert – both areas that I deeply love.  She captures the solitude and loneliness of these places with a great intimacy.  Her use of shadow and the beautiful highlights that are often a result of capturing only a certain spectrum of infrared light, make for beautifully dramatic renditions of the scenes before her.  And her work always does what a good photographer should do – it transforms a simple, often overlooked scene into a scene of beauty.

As Sherri’s work is often about the simplicity of the prairie or of a pinon pine tree in the desert, so too are my photographs often about simplicity.  Just as her images often speak to the solitary nature of these places, so too do many of my pieces.  Her work and mine seem to mimic one another in many ways.  Although the content may differ in our photographs, the emotions felt are often very similar.  Given the similarities between her work and mine, it was an easy decision to ask her to exhibit alongside me.

Her photographs are not only exquisite, but her knowledge of the history of the places she photographs is fascinating.  She often shares tidbits on the history of the locations when she posts her photos on her website or social media, and it always makes for an interesting read.

It’s a pleasure and an honor to get to introduce my friend, Sherri Mabe, to the gallery, but also to have a piece of mine hanging next to hers.”

Terrel Bailey

D’art Gallery

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Category: Colorado, Digital Infrared Photography, Fine Art Photography, Landscape, Monochrome, Prairie

Valley of Light-Capitol Reef

The Photo Seen Podcast

Sherri Mabe, The Photo Seen Podcast

Such an incredible opportunity to speak with Kat. In these situations, I am often nervous, think too much and am struggling over words. Kat made me so very comfortable, and she is a delightful human being who has created an informative service, via her podcasts, for the “invisible light world” of photography.

 

Please check out the other photographers interviewed during her two seasons. There is some profound talent in the infrared photographic medium, and their sessions are availiable on her website link below. Thank you, Kat.

 

“Every now and then you meet a photographer who inspires, delights, and captivates you. Sherri Mabe, @starlitwaltz, was all of those during our conversation. Incredibly insightful and full of information and resources to fuel your creativity, Sherri shares her journey with ir photography and her passion for negative space”

 

Kat Shanahan

The Photo Seen Podcast 

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Category: Digital Infrared Photography, Kat Shanahan, Podcast

Trees, A Smith Gallery

I’m honored to have Nuclear Family accepted to this exhibit on “Trees.” Of the 1,093 submitted images, 55 were selected for the exhibit.

Juror | Kevin Tully Exhibition dates | April 29 to June 9, 2022

“Established in May, 2010, A Smith Gallery is located in Johnson City, Texas in the Nugent Avenue Arts District. The gallery exhibits the work of both amateur and professional photographers through juried and invitational exhibitions. A Smith Gallery along with the photography collective, Shootapalooza, created the world’s largest cyanotype in 2015.

Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully are the Gallery Directors. Izzie is the gallery cat.

Amanda has a thirty year background as a photographer. She was an active board member of the Texas Photographic Society for fifteen years. Her work is in institutional and private collections across the country.

Kevin is a photographer, designer and artist. He has over thirty-five years of experience as a landscape designer, furniture designer, fine art painter and photographer.”

ASmith Gallery, Trees

 

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Category: Digital Infrared Photography, Fine Art Photography, Monochrome

JTNP 5

Joshua Tree National Park, and the Truffula Trees

Thinking back to my Seuss days with young children, it occurs to me that Joshua Trees have a strong resemblance to the Truffula Trees in the Dr Seuss book, “The Lorax!”

“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.” 

― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

I made a visit to JTNP this past March. My first encounter with these trees was while driving across the Mojave Desert via Las Vegas. The trees appeared as I gained elevation, thriving at 4000-6000 feet. The drive was about 3.5 hours south of Las Vegas through the Mojave, and down into 29 Palms. Joshua Tree National Park is just a few miles out of town. Since it was early March, the park was fairly empty of crowds making photography easy. My daily schedule was to arrive in JTNP before dawn for the blue/golden hour, taking a break during the day, and then drive back into JTNP around 3 pm until sunset. The light was simply marvelous for infrared photography those few days.

JTNP 8

According to the National Park Service, there is a fascinating history behind these mythical Seuss like trees…

“Like the California fan palm, Washingtonia filifera, the Joshua tree is a monocot in the subgroup of flowering plants that also includes grasses and orchids. Don’t confuse the Joshua tree with the Mojave yucca, Yucca schidigera. This close relative can be distinguished by its longer, wider leaves and fibrous threads curling along leaf margins. The Joshua tree provides a good indicator that you are in the Mojave Desert, but you may also find it growing next to a saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert in western Arizona or mixed with pines in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Years ago, the Joshua tree was recognized by native people for its useful properties: tough leaves were worked into baskets and sandals, and flower buds and raw or roasted seeds made a healthy addition to the diet. The local Cahuilla have long referred to the tree as “hunuvat chiy’a” or “humwichawa;” both names are used by a few elders fluent in the language.

By the mid-19th century, Mormon immigrants had made their way across the Colorado River. Legend has it that these pioneers named the tree after the biblical figure, Joshua, seeing the limbs of the tree as outstretched in supplication, guiding the travelers westward. However, this tale is not substantiated in the historical record. Some evidence suggests that the biblical figure Joshua, and the Joshua trees, represented the Mormon conquest of the desert. Instead of the branches resembling outstretched arms in prayer, perhaps the tree’s sharp, blade-like leaves brought to mind the arrayed forces of Joshua’s army.

Concurrent with Mormon settlers, ranchers and miners arrived in the high desert with high hopes of raising cattle and digging for gold. These homesteaders used the Joshua tree’s limbs and trunks for fencing and corrals. Miners found a source of fuel for the steam engines used in processing ore.

Today we enjoy this yucca for its grotesque appearance, a surprising sight in the landscape of biological interest. The Joshua tree’s life cycle begins with the rare germination of a seed, its survival dependent upon well-timed rains. Look for sprouts growing up from within the protective branches of a shrub. Young sprouts may grow quickly in the first five years, then slow down considerably thereafter. The tallest Joshua trees in the park loom a whopping forty-plus feet high, a grand presence in the desert. Judging the age of a Joshua tree is challenging: these “trees” do not have growth rings like you would find in an oak or pine. You can make a rough estimate based on height, as Joshua trees grow at rates of one-half inch to three inches per year. Some researchers think an average lifespan for a Joshua tree is about 150 years, but some of our largest trees may be much older than that.”

If you decide to visit, I recommend autumn or spring for the best temperatures and less people visiting. This National Park is a jewel and a beautiful location for infrared photography.

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Category: Blog, Digital Infrared Photography, Fine Art Photography, Landscape, Monochrome

Caddo 1

Caddo Lake

“There’s a place in East Texas where time stops.

Off the shores of Uncertain, where the Big Cypress Bayou flows into Caddo Lake and the water is lined by moss-draped bald cypress trees, modernity has no place.

The lake’s surface is dotted with lily pads and coated with duckweed.

All around, brilliant water hyacinth blossoms. Along the shoreline a dense forest of hickory, ash, oak, pine and sweet gum trees grows.

Within the water and surrounding woods a menagerie of wildlife — including some endangered and threatened species — flourishes. Alligators and panthers add to the wild, remote ambience.”

Kelley Reese

North Texan Online

Photographing bald cypress trees has long been a dream of mine. My first introduction to these trees dates back to the beginning of my journey with infrared photography. I attended a swamp walk with Clyde Butcher one Saturday, while I was a student assistant to a photography professor at a local college in Tampa. It was love at first photograph with these magnificently mysterious trees.

Fast forward to to this past November, when I received an unexpected invitation to photograph cypress at Caddo Lake. I had recently met a photographer, Katherine, during a trip to Maine, and she extended an invitation to meet her in Uncertain, Texas to photograph the otherworldly bald cypress. It was impromptu, but I managed to arrive in a few short weeks after my visit in Acadia. I drove in at night to this mysterious land of the cypress. It was very dark and there were no cars on the road that Monday evening.

The next morning before dawn we met up with, Mike Griffis, our tour guide for the duration of our trip. Mike is a local and grew up in the area. He has extensive knowledge of Caddo Lake and experience with photographers. Mike was incredible, he knows light, its direction, all the prime locations to seek out, at both dawn and dusk, for the best light. Mike also had his favorite locations and generously shared them with us. It was such a gift to see the sun rise and set over these ancient trees.

The Musician Connection

Long ago I read about Don Henley’s work to preserve an area in the East Texas wetlands, and also remember his video “Taking You Home,” which was partially filmed at Caddo Lake. In a “Texas Heritage For Living” article, by Peter Simek, he writes…

“Caddo Lake’s most famous protector is none other than the Eagles drummer and front man Don Henley. Henley grew up near the lake in Linden. When he was a boy, his father brought him to Caddo Lake and taught the future rock star how to fish. Those experiences helped instill in Henley a deep connection to Caddo Lake’s mysterious beauty.

Henley has continued to return to the lake throughout his life, bringing his own children to Caddo and teaching them to fish there, too. He has called Caddo Lake his church, a place where natural beauty and peaceful seclusion provide a refuge from the world and a site of spiritual nourishment. In the 1990s, Henley founded the Caddo Lake Institute to study the lake’s delicate ecosystem and help foster its conservation.” https://texasheritageforliving.com/texas-travel/caddo-lake/

Indigenous History

According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, “In the late 18th or early 19th century, Caddo Indians settled on this rich land, where according to tribal legend, ‘water thrown up into the drift along the shore by a wind’ formed Tso’to (Sodo) Lake. Legends tell of the formation of the lake and Sha’childi’ni (Timber Hill), the first and last known Caddo village in this area. People have lived in this area for at least 12,000 years. For centuries, they hunted and gathered among the wetlands, forests and broad floodplains. Then they began to settle in permanent villages. The Caddo hunted wild game with bows and arrows, fished, and farmed corn, beans and squash. They built ceremonial centers and maintained far-reaching trade routes.”

The rest of the story: In 1835 the land of and around present day Caddo Lake was purchased from the Indians for $80,000 by the U.S. government, and within a year the Caddo Indians were removed from this region. Via Indian Country Today

Someday soon, I will return to visit these hauntingly beautiful cypress, as they have so enchanted me.

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Category: Digital Infrared Photography

Along the Oregon Trail

“The first experience of the plains, like the first sail with a “cap” full of wind, is apt to be sickening. This once overcome, the nerves stiffen, the senses expand, and man begins to realize the magnificence of being.”-

Richard Irving Dodge, The Plains of the Great West (1877)

 

“Native Americans tolerated wagon trains passing through their territories. Many pioneers would not have made it if it had not been for trading with the tribes along the trail. There were conflicts between Native Americans and emigrants, yet, death by Indian attacks were very rare. Emigrants on the Oregon Trail suffered tremendous hardships.

Death was an ever-present companion. One in 10 emigrants died on the trail—between 20,000 and 30,000 people. The majority of fatalities on the Oregon Trail were a result of poor sanitation. Cholera and typhoid fever were the biggest killers. Falling off the wagon and getting run over was a common cause of death. Crossing “the great American desert” and the perceived dangers caused many people, who were not hunters or soldiers, to purchase firearms. Mishaps by people inexperienced with firearms caused many injuries and deaths. Other deaths on the trail are recorded in personal dairies, including stampeding livestock, attacks by emigrants on other emigrants, lightning strikes, gunpowder explosion, drowning at river crossings, and suicide.

An estimate of 20,000 fatalities during those years, means an average of ten graves per mile. The Oregon Trail served as a natural corridor for eight decades as the United States grew from the eastern half of the continent toward the west coast. The Oregon Trail ran approximately 2,000 miles west from Missouri toward the Rocky Mountains and ended in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The California Trail branched off in southern Idaho and brought miners to the gold fields of Sierra Nevada. The Mormon Trail paralleled much of the Oregon Trail, connecting Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City.”

 

Via the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Scottsbluff, NE

Category: Digital Infrared Photography

Going Home

“Children are not like us. They are beings apart: impenetrable, unapproachable. They inhabit not our world but a world we have lost and can never recover. We do not remember childhood — we imagine it. We search for it, in vain, through layers of obscuring dust, and recover some bedraggled shreds of what we think it was. And all the while the inhabitants of this world are among us, like aborigines, like Minoans, people from elsewhere safe in their own time-capsule.” 

― Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

Do you remember that place in nature where you could be alone in your own little biosphere of imagination…yes, well this was mine.

This small Colorado reservoir is about half a mile from my childhood home on rural high plains farmland. It was my oasis many summer afternoons as a 13 year-old girl. I would take long rides with a horse named Rebel, usually ending up at this small lake. The name was suitable for the nine year-old gelding as he followed his own inner drum. Rebel often jumped the corral fence during thunderstorms racing down to the next farmhouse to visit the resident mares! Also, he would only allow females to ride him, tossing men off his back in an instant. I could ride him bareback and feel completely protected by the gentleness of his strength and size.

A side note, this guy was an incredible barrel racer, and together we won a few ribbons in local gymkhanas back in the day.

During our rides I often carried a pencil and pad for thoughts and prose. I would sit under the sheltering cottonwoods for hours lost in my imagination, while my friend grazed a variety of tasty lakeside grasses. Back then summers were hot and peaceful in the northern Colorado farmland. There was no noise from oil trucks or the pumping stations. No traffic from commuters to Denver. Just farmers going about their daily lives changing irrigation pipes, baling alfalfa or chatting along the roadside with neighbors in the summer sun. 

Next to this body of water was a small house for seasonal workers who arrived each summer to work in the fields. The children were often outside playing in the summer heat as their mothers hung laundry on the clothesline. The small home was surrounded by fields of growing corn or beets. The crop irrigation cooled the dry air those summer days in the rural countryside, as did the daily afternoon thunderstorms. 

Last summer I took a drive up to visit our old home. Afterwards, I went over to reminisce at the small reservoir. It was still peaceful though had noticeably less trees surrounding her edges, and as magically serene as my memories reflected. The small house was gone, replaced by a large oil pumping station—a sign of the times.

As for our old farmhouse it is now just the house, beautifully renovated, but the lush garden and cottonwoods are gone. The large barn was also torn down. There were two large iMac computers sitting inside the glassed-in porch with top-end SUV’s in the dirt drive. The residents are probably not local, but commuters to cities close by.

Farming still exists, though not as prolific as all those years ago…but still beautifully pristine as always in June. And my childhood view of Longs and Meeker Peaks, often referred to as Twin Peaks, is still gloriously prominent reminding me how lucky I was to grow up in this magnificently stunning landscape.

“There is no land like the land of your childhood.”

Michael Powell

Nostalgia and the Summer Days of Childhood

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Category: Digital Infrared Photography

Canyons and Plains

“He had seen the end of an era, the sunset of the pioneer. He had come upon it when already its glory was nearly spent. So in the buffalo times a traveller used to come upon the embers of a hunter’s fire on the prairie, after the hunter was up and gone; the coals would be trampled out, but the ground was warm, and the flattened grass where he had slept and where his pony had grazed, told the story.

This was the very end of the road-making West; the men who had put plains and mountains under the iron harness were old; some were poor, and even the successful ones were hunting for a rest and a brief reprieve from death.

It was already gone, that age; nothing could ever bring it back. The taste and smell and song of it, the visions those men had seen in the air and followed, – these he had caught in a kind of afterglow in their own faces, – and this would always be his.”

― Willa Cather, A Lost Lady

In the late 1800’s, my mother’s family moved to Bristol, Colorado. As with many other families, it was a gradual family migration westward over a period of one hundred years. My great grandfather was a Wright and my great grandmother a Lewis. Both families immigrated to the United States in the 1600’s from Great Britain. The Lewis family fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, on the Union side. At the same time, the Wrights were also making their way westward. After landing in southern Colorado the Wrights endured the Dust Bowl, The Great Depression and both world wars.

When my dear friend, Priscilla Waggoner, the editor of the Kiowa County Independent,  asked me to do a photo shoot of Bents Fort for a Colorado tourism website called, Canyons and Plains. I was thrilled for the opportunity to head south and retrace a piece of my family history.

An excerpt from the website from Ms. Waggoner:

History literally comes alive at Bent’s Fort on the Arkansas River near La Junta. Painstakingly reconstructed, this impressive, two-story adobe fort gives real time experience of 1840s life at this famous trading post on the Santa Fe Trail. Visitors are free to roam from room to room while interpretive guides provide details, demonstrations and memorable stories about the extraordinary people who lived and traded at this amazing place. Bent’s Fort is a national historic site operated by the National Park Service.

Described as a castle or a “merchant ship on the High Plains,” Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site features a remarkable, large two story adobe fort reconstructed from drawings, letters, surveys of the historic site and other extensive methods, all compiled to recreate the famous 1840s fur trading post on the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail. For the years it was in operation, Bent’s Fort was a flourishing trade center and gathering place where traders, trappers, travelers, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes came together in peaceful terms for trade. It was years ahead of its time, not only in the integrity of its architecture and location as the tallest building between Missouri and the Pacific Ocean but also in the cultural diversity and enrichment promoted on a daily basis

Today, living historians recreate the sights, sounds, and smells of the past with guided tours, demonstrations and special events like the “Living Encampment” where visitors can learn from site interpreters about trading sessions, Indian sign language, freighting with oxen, carpentry, and blacksmithing, making of adobe bricks, cooking over an open hearth, historic gardening, bullet making, or hide skinning. Visitors are also invited to browse from room to room as they get a feel, first hand, of life at the fort in the 1840s. A store is also on site where books, common products, and goods appropriate to the time are sold to the public.

The website address is: Canyons and Plains, Bents Fort

*Note, the first image of the front view of Bents Fort is not mine..and there seems to be some confusion under gallery- photographers concerning designated images…some of my photos are listed under the other photographers.

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Category: Colorado History, Digital Infrared Photography

Cigars and Baths

Craft and Vision Magazine Interview

In September I did an interview on infrared photography with Cynthia Haynes, the editor of David duChemin’s  Craft and Vision Magazine….I’m so honored.

“Infrared photography adores the austere ruggedness of western scenes,” says Sherri Mabe. “The West is my muse.” Never more at home than when she’s wandering the vast Colorado prairie that lies beyond her front door, Mabe creates dreamlike photographs using an infrared (IR) camera, which sees and records light that is beyond the visible spectrum. She finds that IR accentuates the silence found in the wide open spaces and the sacredness of the Great Plains she calls home. Where so many other photographers see colour filled mountain views, Mabe sees the invisible light of the prairies and deserts in monochrome and uses IR to accentuate the silence she finds in this series, called Eventide. The result? Ethereal, otherworldly photographs that feel timeless. “IR lets me create how I want the world to look, because the reality of this world is pretty harsh.” -Cynthia Haynes

C&VMag_05_PDF_MABE

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Category: Digital Infrared Photography, Fine Art Photography

Awards for Monochrome Show

 

 

The Goblins-1st Place, Technical Excellence “Elegant use of the entire frame rather that a single focal point. Beautiful range of tonalities. You could teach a class on the use of tonal range to guide the viewer’s eye with this photo

 

Last Glimmer-2nd Place, Technical Excellence “This piece illustrates the use of light to do three things: separate subject and background elements, draw the eye to the focal point, and enhance the important characteristics of the subject, in this case the texture of the plants.”

 

The TLCA Proudly Presents
2019 MONOCHROME EXHIBITION
This past Saturday’s opening reception was fantastic.
Show Continues Through November 1st.
www.trilakesarts.org * 719-481-0475
Monochrome Photography Show – vision, interpretation and use of monochromatic LIGHT!

Special thanks to Cynthia Holling- Morris, our amazing Monochrome judge.

Congratulations to these award-winning photographers.
Best of Show – Reynalda by Kathie C. Ballah
1st Place Originality – Feeling Small by Sara Hagedorn
2nd Place Originality – Reflections of the Future by Sally Maddocks
1st Place Technical Excellence – The Goblins by Sherri Mabe
2nd Place Technical Excellence – Last Glimmer by Sherri Mabe
1st Place Composition – The Story is in His Eyes by Sally Maddocks
2nd Place Composition – Layers of Fallen Snow by Wendy Gedack
1st Place Overall Impact – Eclipse by John Reinhart
2nd Place Overall Impact – Box Springs and Chest by Anthony J. Crumpton
1st Place Artistic Merit – Killer Mermaid by Sally Maddocks
2nd Place Artistic Merit – Love on the Lava Rocks by Lois Lake

MONOCHROME features 66 outstanding images from the following artists: Kathie C. Ballah; Lea Hope Bonzer; Gene Carlon; J. Anthony Crumpton; Dana Gautschi; Wendy Gedack; Sara Hagedorn; Marti Harvey; Liz Johnson; Lois Lake; Sherri Mabe; Sally Maddocks; Nancy E. Myer; Rose Ann Ost; Maureen Ravnik; John Reinhard; Sandy Rich; Lynn Roth; Michael Ryno; Darcy Schoening; Jerilyn Spink; Tobias Steeves; Allison Towe; & Mark Webb.

The TLCA is located at 304 Hwy. 105, Palmer Lake, CO 80133.

Category: Digital Infrared Photography, Monochrome, Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts