Digital images take many forms at ARC Gallery
Three artists show how digital media can provide different impressions in the January ARC Gallery Show, 2156 N. Damen, through Jan. 28 in Bucktown.
Collett Hudeck, Ryan Bourque and Caitlin Carter each use digital images very differently. In fact, that is why Cheri Reif Naselli and Iris Goldstein selected them, said Naselli. Both are on the ARC Board and served as the selection committee for this show.
"Hudeck's photographs are the opposite of what you think of as photography, they are very 'painting like'," said Naselli. "She disposes of the details the way our faded memories tend to forget specifics."
"Bourque's work is very much what one expects of photographs. They are images of people and places, while Carter uses the computer to create designs."
Hudeck wants to evoke emotion in those that look at her Blurred Memories. "Blurring the image means that you can not see detail. You don't need detail to experience an emotion," explains Hudeck.
"As a North Carolinian, I'm a beach bum at heart. These images were shot there or in Michigan. Just looking at them takes me to a beach in my memory and that is what happens to other viewers. We all 'see' different places and have different emotions about it."
Bourque, on the other hand, spent ten years as a portrait photographer then decided to do street photography.
"I was at a certain place in my life where I saw people that I photographed reflecting where I was. In them or their situation, I saw me," explains Bourque.
During that time, train trips between San Francisco and Denver, then Denver and Chicago became the source of some of his many images. A Chicago resident for eleven years, during which he was an actor and fight choreographer, Bourque just moved to New York.
He is now publishing his work in what will be a series of books that are printed to order. Called People in Places, they are available online.
Using the computer as her palette and canvas, Carter often repeats an image, creating an all-over pattern.
Her mirrored/unmirrored designs are described as the "culmination of Heaven, Hell and everything in-between." That is an understandable interpretation considering that she designed these while rehabbing from shoulder surgeries in 2014 and 2015.
Naselli described her work's aesthetics as being influenced by post-modern design, ancient symbols and typography.
ARC Gallery's hours are noon to 6 p.m., Thursday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. They can be reached by phone, 773.25.-2232, or .
NOTE: Contrary to some rumors, ARC Gallery has other shows coming up. They are NOT going out of business, though they may have a move in their future as their space was recently sold to a new owner.