Art at RMS

I noticed him out of the corner of my eye… A student moving about the busy art studio, camera in hand, seemingly taking close-ups of random objects…the clay shelf edge, the pencil cup, the paper rack…I warned once not to take pictures too close, they would blur…better to stand back and use the zoom for better focus. I didn’t give the student’s activity much more thought. Later that day, I down loaded the photos into a file for this artist to access next time. Then I saw for the first time what he was doing. He had a set of eyes, which traveled all around the room, appearing in weird places. The last shot was a slef portrait, a “reveal” if you will, of the artist hold the eyes, one in each hand, and looking straight into the camera lens (for this shot, he borrowed my tripod).
Ingenious.
Captivating.
Contagious.
A traveling pink scarf was next, as an admirer appropriated the idea. Next, a bottle cap snake popped up in a series of photos…the imitators were clever too, and all attributed the start of this new genre (?) to their clever classmate, who by then, was on to something different.