ARTIST PROFILE

Name: Dave Norman
Hometown: Columbia, IL
Current Residence: Wandering Around America
Medium: Photography
Vocation: Writer/photographer
AoB booth location: Agnes Ross, Old Distillery Center
Art on display: Photographs--"Arches at Night" collection, "City Museum" collection, "Autumn: New Hampshire" collection
Book on display: "501 Paintball Tips, Tricks, and Tactics" (book signing)
Buzz: I'll offer a sneak preview of the "Columbia at 150" photo essay I'm working on for the Sesquicentennial, which will formally debut in January

Behind the Scenes--Getting Ready for Art on the Bluffs!

The fun and excitement about Art on the Bluffs begins, for the artists, several months in advance. From the work I like, I select the photographs that seem to work well for the event and the season--no one wants to see Christmas scenes in June, for example, but come the first week of October we'll be thinking about fall and decorating with dark reds and browns. So in August, I'm thinking about fall already, and hunting through my collections for the images. In this case, I'll display my "Autumn: New Hampshire" collection. I made those images over several years, while I lived in the White Mountains. It was very inspiring to watch the spectacular autumn colors sweep over Mt. Moosilauke and the Presidential Range, and light up the Kancamugas Highway like fire. Fall was exciting, crisp, beautiful--full of contrast between red leaves and blue skies, white foam on mountain streams and dark evergreens emerging from the disintegrating canopy. I hope my photos can bring a little of that to your home.

Shows like Art on the Bluffs also give us a chance to show our recent work, building on the excitement we get from our current projects. A few months ago I spent time photographing Arches National Park at night, and playing with light at City Museum in St. Louis. The real prep work for this show comes from getting these brand new collections ready for viewing--working with my lab to get the prints just right, working with my mat company to get the mounts I need, and then bringing all the pieces together in my studio. After the photo shoot is over, that's when the next phase begins: turning a digital image into art you can hold in your hand, made of archival material that will last for generations. From scouting photo locations and taking the pictures, to matting and mounting and signing the prints, I love every single step of the process.

The eight hour show on October 3rd will be, for many of us, the shortest step in that evolution. It is the culmination of months, or years, of carefully working inspiration into artwork. From one end of Main Street to the other, we look forward to sharing it with you.

About the author: Dave Norman is a writer and photographer from Columbia, IL, whose work is featured in sporting magazines and newspapers, and hisfine art photography is represented by the Underground Gallery in Lebanon, NH. His first book, "501 Paintball Tips, Tricks, and Tactics," is available now; his next, "Following Josh," will be available in 2010. www.davenorman.net