The Journey
Images by Marita Gootee
Journey is defined in the Webster New World Dictionary as ‘to travel from one place to another’.
Everyday one wakes to see meet a new day continues the personal journey through life. It is a both personal and public experience. It is filled with dreams, visions, memories and reflections – so many that subtle nuances flash by without recognition.
The flicker of time and how one presents this fleeting memory has always been a major aspect of my work. It does not yield exactness of imagery rather the impression of a moment. I do not portray the chaos of dreams nor the non-representational design of the total abstract thought, rather I search for the mental visual; tags that convey the emotion for location and the feeling for the moment. I search to express visually the quite moments of the memory. The journey from the present to the past as one moves through the reality of the day. It is my goal to bring the moment back to the surface so others may share the experience of the mountain trail or the child in the ocean. Still it more than the obvious – it is the mood created that we all share untied to the location presented. It is the spiritual quality of nature and the whimsy of play.
Memory is defined in the Webster New World Dictionary as 1. The power or act of remembering 2. All that one remembers 3. Something remembered 4. The period of remembering 5. Commemoration.
Upon reflection of these definitions it seem one should go to the Webster’s New World Dictionary and define ‘remembering” for it seems one cannot define memory without a true understanding of this term.
Remember is defined in the Webster New World Dictionary as 1. To think again 2. To bring back to the mind an effort; recall 3. To be careful not to forget 4. To mention to another as sending regards, -vi, to bear in or call back to, mind.
The journey I have undertaken is to have the viewer to ‘think again’ about the quite moments that are lost by the sounds and actions of the present. This is a personal journey through abstracted thoughts and emotions that I bring to the public. These are reflections of moments that should not be forgotten or lost. Although created by a single individual these images are not to be owned by one but shared by many through a reflection of the private moment.
The journey progresses through the ethereal quality of the Shifting Landscapes Series
to the dynamic energy of the later series titled Sand Shadow. Both series could stand-alone but each draws upon the viewer to become active with the imagery and enter the page. To not permit the soul to feel the expression is to limit the experience. The use of the pinhole camera and the soft hand tinting further accents the memory and dreamlike further guides the viewer.
Images from Shifting Landscape Series
Often I am confronted by the concept of beauty in this work. This work is meant to be comforting for the viewer. Yet unlike the soul-less sofa art this work draws upon the past and present dreams of the viewer for success as a work of art. It requires the imagination of the viewer to capture the moment and create life in the images.
The landscapes were the start of the project. Each image was taken with a pinhole camera and delicately hand tinted to add to the mystery of the location.
From Nevada
From Mississippi
From North Carolina
As time progressed I became extremely interested in the recording of motion and the exaggeration of scale. The use of an 8x10 pinhole camera provided new perspective and new technical challenges. The mire processing of the large sheet film was a learning experience. The images were worth the effort and the many failures.
As I was exploring the larger format images I was still very active using the smaller pinhole camera. The smaller camera permitted more mobility that after the larger camera provide more freedom for movement. By re-experiencing total movement the thought of motion triggered new creative freedom. I will explore this more in a later post.
