Most people who look at microscopic bioorganic molecules or discarded aluminum cans might see alien spheres connected in web-like chains or shiny silver cylinders ending up in the recycling bins. Paul Bartlett sees possibilities.
“I’ve always had a three-dimensional, constructivist approach,” says the former UC Berkeley chemistry professor from his home in the Montclair neighborhood of the Oakland Hills. “People are often surprised, but science is like art. It visualizes things that don’t exist and translates them into reality.”
“As a child, there were construction sets, later chemistry sets. I designed and made furniture for our home. In my chemistry major, I synthesized simple or complex molecules from nature and figured out how to make them in the laboratory. This led to new pharmaceutical discoveries, for example.”
Bartlett’s previous pursuits have now been replaced by 3D artworks he calls “Xtra-Dimensions” (xtra-dimensions.com). He has developed a unique method for bringing movement and spatiality into the viewing of two-dimensional photographs. A special exhibition at the Piedmont Center for the Arts introduces visitors to the process on Saturdays and Sundays through August 25, presenting 32 original artworks (piedmontcenterforthearts.org).
Bartlett plans to be at the gallery every day, bringing notebooks and photographs for anyone interested in the tools and techniques used to create colorful, layered and animated depictions of forests, cityscapes, ocean waves or abstract forms.
“I use two basic tools,” Bartlett explains, simplifying a process that can seem intimidating when explained in detail. “The first is my computer and graphics software that determines which pieces are printed in which way. This creates the patterns and files that I send to a photo printing shop. The second important tool is scissors. I have left and right scissors to cut out the shapes.”
There is also glue to stick stencils onto metal sheets, blank pens to scratch shapes into the components of the aluminum cans, and table edges with which he shapes the curved pieces of the “puzzle” that he eventually assembles.
“It’s all pretty low-tech,” he says.
Although it’s low-tech, it reflects the impulse that led him to turn his hobby into a passion: turning still images into pictures that appear to change and move as people walk by looking at them.
“What got me started was taking pictures from my kayak in (Lake) Tahoe. There were rays of light and reflected light in the water, but when I printed the images, they didn’t capture the movement I remembered. I thought about maybe forming huge pieces of corrugated plastic to put over the artwork like a lens. Then I thought about breaking the images up into shapes.”
His first attempts began with rigid, straight squares, but later he added curved shapes and organic forms like leaves. Bartlett says the more he looked at the world around him, the more patterns and opportunities for experimentation he saw.
At the Piedmont Arts Center, the artworks are presented in series that fall into categories such as “Colorful Forest,” “Cityscapes,” “The Active Ocean,” “Abstract Images,” and more. In the “Active Ocean” sequence, two dramatic images of ocean waves by Australian photographer Russell Ord gain energy and dynamism through Bartlett’s imaginative approach.
“This series is an example of what I see when I look at a painting. I saw his series of wave paintings and literally imagined the explosion of this water coming up. The base of the wave is a horizontal ocean, and then it keeps rising up to the top of the painting.
“I chose the different layer patterns and shadows to capture the enormous swell. In ‘Energy Wave’ you can see the upsurge of the water coming towards you. It is curved far outwards and on the left side you have the feeling it is climbing upwards because it has curved facets.”
The “Abstract” series demonstrates Bartlett’s desire to expand the “what if” mindset he brought to the chemistry lab and now applies to his artwork. Breaking up the solid edges expected of a photograph with pieces that extend beyond the rectangular frame is a shift, as is expanding the color palette, textures, and component shapes.
Elsewhere in the “Abstract Images” series, Paul Kozal’s photograph of water flowing over sand on a North Shore beach enlivens “Sand Feathers,” a 32-by-32-inch work that evokes a magnificent bird’s wing in motion. A photograph by Elizabeth Carmel of El Capital reflected in a frozen river breaks at the edges into shapes reminiscent of shards of ice.
“When I extended the image beyond the edge of the frozen river, it seemed to me that the whole thing had to be as angular as the image,” he says.
When Bartlett is asked to select works for the exhibition that may have deepened and matured his portfolio, he first chooses “The Furies” from the “Abstract” series.
“For years I was fascinated by this photo by the (late) Russian photographer Andre Ermolaev. I asked him for permission to use it, but he never got back to me. Then he died. I decided to try again and his widow sent me the picture.”
The aerial view of glacial rivers in Iceland evoked in Bartlett’s mind mythical Greek deities and themes of danger and vengeance. Deep shadows and undulating, swirling geography in the original image seem to gain speed and ferocity as the viewer passes the work, leaving a sense of mystery that Bartlett believes was intentional.
Bartlett says the “Cityscape” series was “a lot of fun.” Two works are collaborations with photographer Winston Swift Boyer and feature San Francisco.
“There are clear patterns in all the buildings. To complement that, without it looking like you’re just laying out the grid, there’s the classic vanishing point of the street grid in ‘Russian Hill’ (a large 24″ x 74” photomontage).
“The buildings not only get narrower, but they also get shorter and wider towards the top and then taller. You can also see folded slopes in the components. I had to be careful to avoid zigzag shadow patterns because I wanted them to roll.”
Bartlett hopes to create larger works and installations in the future, such as entire walls or perhaps outdoor murals. In the meantime, he plans to continue conducting experiments and exploring the “xtradimensional” universe.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. You can reach her at [email protected].
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