The Lardner Report

Unleash your creative superpowers!

Getting Close

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(Pic #1) Close-up, peeling paper and paint on newspaper box, Santa Barbara, California. Lonnie Lardner photo.

“Show me something I’ve never seen before, or something I know well – in a way I’ve never seen it.”

  — Mike Dressler, Photographer, Time Magazine

My favorite moment when capturing an image comes when I spot something interesting within a larger scene. On a run through the streets of Santa Barbara I recently I spotted this old metal newspaper box with a patch of sea green shapes on its bottom panel (Pics #1 and #2). The ripped white paper poster seems to have been sprayed by a local tagger.

(Pic #2) Wide-shot, old newspaper box, State Street, Santa Barbara.

Blown up, it became a sweet abstraction that reminds me of a pattern that might make a cool background for a comic diflucan super-hero or villain like video designer Mike Henry’s take on Batman’s nemesis, Mr. Freeze (Pic #3).

Then, near the iconic Santa Barbara pier, I saw an awful over-ground pipeline stretching out over the beach, and zoomed in there too. As I moved in closer, I could see black and white striations that turned out to be bird poop. Again, close-up, it turned out to make a really nice vertical pattern (Pics #4 and #5). Even when nature “unloads” on us, it can be a beautiful thing.

(Pic #3) Left: close-up, news-box papered front panel. Right: Batman's nemesis, Mr. Freeze, illustration by Mike Henry.

(Pic #4) Close-up, Bird poop on Santa Barbara beach pipe

(Pic #5) Wide-shot, Santa Barbara beach pipe

(Pic #6) Contemporary painting, poop-inspired?

Art Imitates Junk

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Left: (Pic #1a) Close-up, distressed trash bin. Right: (Pic #1b) Original hand-crafted glassware by Dale Chihuly

Finding art in the strangest places

You’d think my GPS would know by now. Most of my unannounced stops can’t be programmed in. They’re not even on the map. My greatest joy is to veer off the freeway toward the parts of town most people blitz past:  salvage yards, construction sites, or industrial plants. To me they represent a treasure trove of sweet images and exciting visual possibilities.  The dirtier, the better.

Last week on a little photo safari with my husband, we veered off Highway 126 in Saticoy, migraine California — 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles  — and bumped head on into an extraordinary municipal dump.

I spotted a worn, scratched, large red trash bin and grabbed a shot. (Pic #2) From a distance it appeared to just be a well-used metal waste container with no other particular value. But close-up, it emerged into a lovely pattern of scarlets, rusts and whites — just like the delicate hand-blown Dale Chihuly glass vessel seen above (Pic #1b).

Take the time to look. I promise these little prizes are everywhere.

(Pic #2) Saticoy dumpster: diamond in the rough

 

 

London Art: Inside and Out (Part 1)

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(Pic #1) London: Art in the alley

“Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it–creative observation–creative viewing.”     –William S. Burroughs

Art is everywhere—if you’re open to it. This week, I have the opportunity to explore the theory further—in Northern Russia, and the UK. My head won’t stop spinning over the onslaught of images bombarding me, not only inside the hallowed halls of historic institutions, but virtually everywhere on the street.

(Pic #2) Edge of London: Abstraction on the streets

I have 24 hours in London before flying to St. Petersburg and  the minute I leave the Northolt Jet Centre I’m assaulted by  an explosion of abstractions. I couldn’t resist documenting some of them. These funky street level bridge panels (Pic #2 left) were diazepam begging me to make them famous.

On my walk over to the Tate Modern, I take a short cut through Blackfriars Road, and slip into an alley to find this (Pic #1 top) quirky old basket by a gorgeous red wall with cerulean blue doors.

(Pic #3) London: Pacs in the Park

Then, across from Buckingham Palace, in Green Park, I discover a few of the 258 elaborately painted pacaderms–public art benefiting endangered Asian elephants and their habitat–sponsored by  elephantfamily.org.

Finally, I spot some new construction, adjacent to the Tate Modern that mystified me. (Pic # 4 – below)  Those massive crossbars that stretch across and block the windows on both sides of the structure, are apparently intended to be architecturally “decorative.” That cracked up one of the workmen, who told me the new owners of these exclusive 750K condos are investing in “rooms without a view.”

(Pic #4) London: Rooms without a view