J. Karl Bogartte has been exploring the deep wellspring of the imagination since the early 60’s, both inventing and discovering the motives and imagery of our human passage through endless realities.

Originally through the use of a singular, very original process of collage he invented and named Photomorphosis, which he mined thoroughly like an alchemist driven to transform his psyche into gold… into the Philosopher’s legendary Stone.

At the beginning of 2000 he abandoned the work, and began the exploration of a digital expression, with the same passion and obsession that characterized the earlier imagery.

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J. Karl Bogartte thinks, and rightly so, that �Everything�including ourselves�is moved by the obsessively beautiful conquest of the irrational.� Of course, one needs to invent the means of getting to this irrational, a problem that each great creator solved in his or her own way, taking into account, or not, the achievements of his or her predecessors. Like Man Ray, Vane Bor, Ubac and many others, Bogartte took up automatism again: �Automatism�he says� remains one of the most necessary tools in freeing from slavery the truest products of the activity of the spirit. Art is the clue left at the scene of the crime. It is also its evidence. The crime is freedom, this radiant digression into the revelations of desire.�

Paradoxically, Bogartte uses for this liberating end one of the modern inventions that would seem a priori the least suited to do so: the photocopier, on whose plate he places �all kinds of illustrations,� or fragments of illustrations �regardless of their contents: landscapes, machines and naked women, especially naked women, with eggs and forks, tinfoil, etc. Movement is the key process, as opposed to the natural function of the photocopier of recording the absence of movement and being a simple imitator.� Hence the term of photomorphosis, which means �change or transformation of an organism by means of light.� One should mention here the �self-copies� of Theodore Brauner; and the reader (�) will probably be surprised by the fact that two creators of the same movement obtained at about the same time such different results by using the same impassible mechanism.

On the plane of the �pure fascination� that Breton talked about, the entities that give free rein to their frolics (The Strange Confrontation) are as magical, humorous and �marvelous� as the various sprites, vampires and chimeras, which appeared on the scene of pictorial automatism with Matta, Esteban Franc�s, or Kamrowski (who is, like Bogartte, a member of the American Surrealist Group). In some cases Bogartte cuts up again the images obtained in this way and combines collage and photomorphosis, by adding sometimes fragments of photos�images of birds or butterflies, animal species that he has an elective affinity for (The Wedding Guests Have Arrived�).

The contribution of Bogartte to the field of experimental photography can be already considered of major importance. By combining the different contributions of the photogram, photo-drawing and the so-called �action painting� (by moving rapidly elements under the light) and the �situationist� diversion of the photocopier, a machine which is as practical as it is forbidding, the photomorphosis appears to us as the epitome of the latest research. As such, the fantasy set free by this dream alchemy is considered by us worthy in all respects of participating in the final bouquet of fireworks that �surrealist photography� has been for sixty years.

(From Les Myst�res De La Chambre Noire; le surr�alisme et la photogrphie, by Edouard Jaguer, was published by Flammarion, Paris, in 1982. It is the most comprehensive volume on the myriad uses of photography in the history of surrealism.)

Surrealism and Photography

“Of a time when the beasts (fools) spoke,” it had been possible for a ring of magic fairies to transform pumpkins into carriages. The fact that this never existed only gave the poets a reason to invent it. However, the fundamental idea of the world says “reality” will have evolved considerably over the next 20 years and the “machine” under which all beings will have progressively invested our familiar literary domain, as much as and more than in the animal world of old, the attempt is great for these same poets to go on much longer, dreaming up these “machines.”

Bogartte’s work is like the point of a lightening rod that simultaneously attracts the legendary storms of the past and those which are to come… He is affecting the machines that will dream.

(Edouard Jaguer - October 1984)

Website: Photomorphose
Contact email: photomorphose@mac.com

Cartography is the foundation I use to discover, interpret and reveal the world from a new point of view. I explore global issues through my personal bicultural lens. My drawings, paintings, collages and sculptures address issues of new identities, communication routes and world interactions, as well as describe the ever-increasing combination of cultures through reconfiguring and recontextualizing different elements from around the world. I use diverse imagery appropriated from traditional symbols, patterns, foliage, insects, sea life, bodies of water, tectonic plates and the reinvention of maps to create imaginary and fragmented landscapes.

My work is a representation of both the abstract elements of my history, and the physical elements of my childhood. The work also explores global concerns, such as how the world is becoming an interdependent society where cultures are being created and traditional borders are shifting or disappearing altogether.

These works, which are in a sense map mutations, are greatly affected by where I create them. Much of the imagery is derived from my travels and the connections I make with the new surroundings. I build these pieces by overlapping outlines of maps and motifs specific to particular cultures and tribes then breaking and distorting them to create new forms. My processes of drawing, erasing, leaving marks, adding and removing paper, moving and layering images are conspicuous in the work. Moreover, I do not underestimate the power and sensuality of color and the way visual opulence can connect the viewer to the work’s emotional base. I strive to engage both the intellect and the emotional circuits–a reaction of the nervous system, perhaps, is what I am striving for in the midst of creating these imagined worlds.

Website: Artist Statement
Contact email: globalchild@gmail.com

Born in Antalya/Turkey in 1989,Fettahoglu began painting as amateur at 2005 in an art course in Antalya. From 2005 to 2006 she studied there as designer and modeler. Later, She continued her works in workshop at Middle East Technical University northen cyprus campus at where she is still undergraduate student.There, Fettahoglu centred mostly on conceptual art and realized her affinity to surrealism and postmodernism. Still mantaining her studies, she has displayed lots of her works in many exhibitons.

Website: Spanish apple
Contact email: melis.syn@hotmail.com

Gaia Cianfanelli (Albano, Rome, 1980)
attended the European School of Economics in Rome where she obtained a degree in Art and Heritage Management. Since 2005 she has been curator of the �TEVERETERNO� project now at its third year of development. She founded the START cultural association.

Caterina Iaquinta (Rome, 1978)
A Phd in Art Science and History, she attended Universit� La Sapienza in Rome. She authored the project In-Between: Visual Crossings, produced for the 2005 edition of the White Night in Rome. Since 2006 she has managed the activities of the Baruchello Foundation. Since 2005 she has been a member of the START cultural association.

plug_in edition it was founded in February ‘ 07,
the themes of our publications are Contemporary art, Architecture, Photography

Info:

info@plugin-lab.it
www.plugin-lab.it

neon>campobase
via Zanardi 2/5 40131 Bologna
tel e fax +39 051 5877068
e-mail info@neoncampobase.com
www.neoncampobase.com

Website: dissertare/disertare | dissertating/deserting
Contact email: press@archphoto.it

Nature is my father, my mother and me.
And on my muzzle god�s muzzle.
Silence� Because words are killing.

I was born in 1981.
I get graphic designer and later painting at Vilnius Art Academy.

Website: inspektas art
Contact email: jolita@inspektas.lt

Randall Claggett is the owner of Castle Studio, Inc. Located outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Castle Studio is a full service studio accomplished at performing any requirements in the field of stained glass. Randall specializes in the restoration of historic, painted stained glass. His experience has ranged from restoration of a Tiffany window to restoration of an entire chapel of painted German stained glass, circa 1870.

Glass painting is Randall’s specialty, as shown in ‘The French Lady’. He prefers the more detailed, complex classical style to more modernistic windows favored by other stained glass artists.

More of Randall’s work can be seen at Castle’s website.

Website: Castle Studio, Inc.
Contact email: rc@castlestudioinc.com

Sharon Belle Hawkshawe is both a painter and a writer. Sharon paints under her sur name Hawkshawe, while she writes under the nom de plume, Sharon Belle.

Painting under her sur name, Sharon Hawkshawe, specializes in abstraction and impressionistic art. Sharon�s preferred choices of mediums are acrylic and oil paints. Besides her canvas work, Sharon’s credits include the illustrations and covers for Songs of the Soul and A Soul Speaks. Sharon has periodic art shows, displaying and selling her latest works.

Writing under the num de plume, Sharon Belle; she has co-authored a collection of poetry entitled, Songs of the Soul with two other talented poets, which was released in February 2002. Her latest book A Soul Speaks is scheduled for release in late 2008. Sharon has also completed her first screenplay, entitled The Rink and is in the process of completing a second screenplay entitled The Take Over.

Sharon Belle Hawkshawe was born in Dayton, Ohio on August 25, 1963. Sharon was raised in Washington D.C and then in Columbia, Maryland. However, Sharon spent all of her summers, through high school, in Ohio, with her Grandmother, Claudia Jefferson.

Sharon comes from a distinguished family, steeped in tradition and natural talent. Her mother, Dorothy L. Drinkard, is a published author and her father, Richard Ramsey Hawkshawe, also a modern art painter (now deceased). Sharon�s extended family includes a ballerina, musicians, athletes, as well as educators, ministers and various other professionals. Sharon currently works for a national real estate firm, while she works on her art and writing.

For more information, regarding book signings and art shows, visit Sharon�s website at www.HawkshaweGallery.com. Sharon also maintains a daily blog at Artgirltoday.blogspot.com.

Website: Hawkshawe Gallery
Contact email: hawkshawe@aol.com

Next Event: February 14th, 2008 12-9pm (Reception 7-9pm.)

Featuring Video Artist Alexander Mercado and musician Arrica Rose. (Arrica’s performnace will start at 8pm.)

Artist Works by: Brandon Cheek, Jason Cruz,Bryan de Roo, Suzanne Federico, Ashley Hagen, Deborah Martin, Nick McPhail, Thinh Nguyen and Brad Reyes.

Website: Spring Arts Collective Gallery
Contact email: sac@springartscollective.com