Most people looking at microscopic bio-organic molecules or discarded aluminum cans may see otherworldly orbs connected in web-like chains or shiny silver cylinders headed for recycling bins. Paul Bartlett sees possibilities.
“I’ve always had a three-dimensional, constructivist angle,” the former UC Berkeley chemistry professor says from his home in the Oakland hills’ Montclair district. “People are often surprised, but science is like art. It’s visualizing things that don’t exist and taking them into reality.
“When I was a kid, it was erector sets, then chemistry sets. I’ve designed and made furniture we have in our home. The branch of chemistry I was in took simple or complex molecules synthesized in nature and figured out how to make them in the lab; leading to new pharmaceutical discoveries, for example.”
These days, Bartlett’s previous preoccupations have been replaced by 3D artwork he calls “Xtra-Dimensions” (xtra-dimensions.com). Having developed a unique way to render movement and dimensionality to the experience of viewing 2D photographic images, a special exhibit at the Piedmont Center for the Arts on Saturdays and Sundays now through Aug. 25 introduces visitors to the process and showcases 32 pieces of original art (piedmontcenterforthearts.org).
Bartlett plans to be at the gallery each day, along with notebooks and photographs available for anyone curious about the tools and techniques that result in colorful, multi-layered, animated depictions of forests, cityscapes, ocean waves or abstract shapes.
“There are two basic tools I use,” Bartlett says in an effort to simplify a process that can sound intimidating if explained in detail. “The first is my computer and graphic software mapping out what parts will print and in what way. That creates the patterns and files I send to a photo printer shop. The second primary tools are pairs of scissors. I have left-handed and right-handed ones for cutting out the shapes.”
There’s also adhesive for affixing templates to metal sheets, out-of-ink pens used for scoring shapes on the aluminum can components and table edges used to create curved pieces of the overall “puzzle” he eventually assembles.
“It’s all pretty low-tech,” he says.
To the extent that it’s low-tech, it mirrors the impetus that launched him into the hobby-turned-passionate pursuit of transforming still photographs to images that appear to shift and move as people viewing them pass by.
“What got me going was taking pictures from my kayak in (Lake) Tahoe. There were light rays and reflected light in the water, but when I printed the pictures, they didn’t capture the movement I remembered. I thought of maybe molding huge pieces of ripply plastic to overlay on the art like a lens. Then I thought of breaking up the images into shapes.”
His first attempts began with rigid, rectilinear squares, then evolved into also using curved forms and organic shapes such as leaves. Bartlett says the more he looked at the world around him, the more he saw patterns and opportunities for experimentation.
At the Piedmont arts center, the artwork is presented in series that fall under categories such as “Colorful Forest,” “Cityscapes,” “The Active Ocean,” “Abstract Images” and more. In the “Active Ocean” sequence, two dramatic images of ocean waves made by Australian photographer Russell Ord gain heightened energy and momentum with Bartlett’s imaginative approach.
“That series is exemplary of what I see when I look at a picture. I saw his series of wave pictures, and literally, I imagined the explosion of this water coming upward. The wave’s base is a horizontal ocean, and then it rises up and up toward the top of the frame.
“Choosing the differences in the layering patterns and shadows, I wanted to capture the enormous swell. In ‘Energy Wave,’ there’s the upsweep of the water that comes out toward you. It’s popped way out, and on the left side you feel like it’s climbing up because there are curved facets.”
The “Abstract” series reveals Bartlett’s appetite for pushing the “what if” mindset he brought to the chemistry lab and now applies to his artwork. Breaking the solid edge expected of a photograph with pieces extending beyond the rectangular frame is one shift, as is expanding the color palette, textures and component shapes.
Elsewhere in the “Abstract Images” series, Paul Kozal’s photograph of water flowing across sand on a North Coast beach animates “Sand Feathers” a 32-by-32-inch piece that resembles a magnificent bird wing in motion. A photograph of El Capital reflected in a frozen river by Elizabeth Carmel fractures on the edges into shapes resembling ice shards.
“Extending the image past the edge for the frozen river, the whole thing seemed to me like it had to be as edgy as the image was,” he says.
Asked to select work in the show that perhaps caused his portfolio to deepen and mature, Bartlett first selects “The Furies,” from the “Abstract” series.
“For years, this photo made by (the late) Russian photographer André Ermolaev fascinated me. I reached out to him for permission to use it, but he never got back to me. Then he died. I decided to try again, and his widow sent the image.”
The aerial image of glacial rivers in Iceland brought to Bartlett’s mind mythical Greek deities and themes of danger and vengeance. Deep shadows and undulating, swirling geography in the original image appear to gain speed and ferocity as a viewer moves past the piece, leaving a sense of mystery that he suggests is intentional.
Bartlett says the “Cityscape” series was “a lot of fun.” Two works are collaborations with photographer Winston Swift Boyer in which San Francisco is featured.
“With all the buildings, there are clear patterns. To complement that without looking like you’re just just laying out the grid, in “Russian Hill” (a large, 24-by-74-inch photo montage), there is the classical vanishing point of the street grid.
“The buildings get not only narrower, but go from shorter and wider to taller going up. You can see folded slants in the components too. I had to be careful to avoid prevent zig-zag shadow patterns because I wanted them to roll.”
In future work, Bartlett says he hopes to create larger pieces and installations such as entire walls or perhaps outdoor murals. In the meantime, he plans to continue conducting experiments and exploring the “Xtra-Dimensional” universe.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.
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