On the eve of a new venue . . .
Welos Arts and Sciences is a new venue for sharing my art. I have thought about creating such a website for a long time, but it had always felt like just another way to eat up time on the web. I already spend too much time in cyberspace whether it’s FaceBook, Northern Stars Planetarium, my Fine Art America photography site, Dark Sky Maine, or Sandbox Atlas and Postcards from Gus. I have my hands involved in many spheres these days. Do I really need another? Yes.
I spend a lot of time creating art of numerous forms—photography, drawings, paintings, carvings, models, and occasionally waxing on with words. I’ve wanted my own place to share, I just needed some encouragement to do so. Then came a couple of collaborations with my friend Shawn Burke. He and I have been friends since high school, we’ve gone on wilderness canoe trips together, attended concerts, and shared holiday meals. On our first canoe trip together down the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in 1992, when my two oldest kids were pre-schoolers, the term Welos was born. Emily, almost 3 years old at the time, kept wondering if we were lost, she kept saying “we lost” but it sounded like welos. The two families decided by the end of the trip that we were the Welos Canoe Club. Shawn and I have used the name in various ways ever since, it felt like a natural fit for our joint website.
In 2017 I was working on a project called Perspectives, my first solo photography show, which would be hosted by the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine. It was a huge undertaking as it would encompass almost 60 photographs, all of which I would be matting and framing myself. It was a big deal for me. Shawn, who had been composing electronic music for some time, was always looking for new inspiration for creating his musical compositions, so I asked him if he’d like to use my photographs for inspiration and share his music at the photography opening in August that year. He jumped at the chance. We bounced photos and music back and forth all that spring, meeting up once to explore the physical space where the show would take place. By August he had composed an album’s worth of music and named the album Perspectives, which you can still purchase today. The opening night was a hit, we had over a hundred people come to the opening, I sold 13 photographs and Shawn presented his new album. We had a great time.
Fast forward to April 2020. The world is in quarantine. I haven’t worked with the planetarium (my real job) since mid-March, with no sign of any work in the foreseeable future. We had talked about making a Perspectives video featuring musical excerpts from Shawn’s compositions and my photographs, but it never happened. Actually, Shawn created the edited version of his music, but I had never found the time to mix the visuals with the soundtrack. During the quarantine I suddenly had the time. So I started playing with it, it was working. I had a lot of fun fitting the imagery with the soundtrack. I shared the first draft with Shawn, “What do you think?” “It’s great!” he replied. “Let me tweak the music." We worked up the credits we needed. After several iterations, it was done. 20 minutes of great music and photography.
So the question became, “What do we do with it? Share it on YouTube? Vimeo? FaceBook? What?” We also have other collaborations we’ve done and will probably do in the future. We should share them somehow. I mentioned to Shawn that I had been considering an arts website to share my work, would he like to join me for a joint website? Yes again. We both have muses that demand we create things, for better or worse. We both wanted a place to share our work, and we both really have enjoyed collaborating, it was obvious that this was to be our next collaboration. With that, Welos Arts and Sciences was born. Now, we have a place to share old pieces, and perhaps more importantly, new pieces—photographs, paintings, musical compositions, sketches, and who knows what else. We may also host occasional guests. We’re not sure where this is all going, and that’s part of what makes it fun for both of us, because it can go anywhere. Let’s see what happens.
Welcome to Welos Arts and Sciences.
