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Artist adds spice to everyday scenes
May 6, 2005
Ray Holt uses a fisheye lens to create whimsical slices-of-life art. (Shane
Bevel/The Times)
By
Jennifer Flowers
jenniferflowers@gannett.com
Ray Holt wants you to see the world with new eyes.
Several years back, he got hold of a semi-fisheye camera lens and started
shutter-bugging while vacationing in New Orleans, exploring how he might
be able to distort the world and then paint the scenes he photographed.
His resulting body of work is a bright, whimsical take on slice-of-life moments
unique to the South that push the viewer to see a pedestrian scene in an
unconventional way. His palate is heavy on attention-hungry reds, yellows,
greens and purples.
Ray Holt, 52, has been a production manager for 20 years at silk-screen company
ABC Signs. He lives in Shreveport with his wife, Christi,
and studied visual art for two years at LSUS. He's shown his work in Shreveport for close to 12 years
now, and his latest exhibit hangs at the Prima Tazza coffee shop in Ashley
Ridge Pointe.
QUESTION: What visual themes do you use in your work?
ANSWER: Usually just as far as the color, just purples and greens normally and,
of course, the distorted background. And I usually twist the street or
buildings or something like that. A lot of the subjects in the foreground are
straightforward subjects, but usually the background is distorted.
Q: What's your artistic process?
A: I'll take a picture of a doorknob or a light pole or a crack in the
sidewalk, that kind of thing, and kind of put it together as a collage and see
what I've got. And if I like it, I'll paint it from there and put a foreground
subject in there later.
Q: Why do you like the fisheye lens view?
A: It's just a little more interesting than the straight-forward painting of a
barn. It just draws my eye. I don't know why I'm attracted to it. It's not
necessarily a sofa painting, but something you might look twice at. ... I know
a lot of people who try to paint realism, and it takes a lot of talent to do
that. But the way I look at it is, why not just take a photo if you're trying
to paint something that looks like a photograph?
Q: What draws you to New Orleans scenes?
A: The architecture mainly, and the culture. I wouldn't want to live there, but
I like to go down there. I like the art part of it, but it's kind of wild.
Plus, it's hard to make a living down there. The real estate's gone sky high.
Q: How important is it to you your artwork sells?
A: Actually, it's not so much the money as it would be to get my name known for
that certain style, and that way they can know who did it.
Q: Why not move to a bigger city to make it, like New Orleans?
A: It'd be a lot harder in New Orleans because it's like a
melting pot of visual artists and musicians and everything. If you're an
artist, you're pretty much next to some of the street scum unless you're
wealthy. So much of (art) is kind of taken for granted down there.
Q: What artists inspire you?
A: Pino. He paints women in these vintage clothes and the lighting is just really
killer. He's got it down. I saw his show down on Royal Street in the French Quarter --
it just blew me away.
Q: Why do you paint?
A: I guess it's an outlet, you could say. And then you get two or three things
started and it drives you crazy until you finish them.
Q: Why is it worth the doing for you?
A: That's kind of hard to answer. I don't really know. It just goes back to
feeling like you accomplished something "» mainly for myself, to satisfy
myself.
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©The
Shreveport Times
May 6, 2005
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