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Kirk Jonasson
Kirk Jonasson often elicits the extraordinary from the ordinary, as he explores his surroundings through a
camera lens. The side of a dumpster becomes an abstract tapestry. An oily puddle becomes a landscape.
While his work is often infused with the color and energy of coast life, Jonasson avoids more straightforward
images of the ocean and rivers.
Sometimes just the surface of a wooden hull or the fractured tip of a well-used oar says much more than the
image of an entire ship.
In other words, Jonasson's style eliminates the whole kit-and-caboodle in favor of the quintessential.
In fact, Jonasson's work is such a close examination of surface quality, shape, line, color, that the original
scene often fades behind his keen eye for the eye-popping abstract.
"I take an intuitive approach to photographing and in making images," says Jonasson. "I look forward to
that moment when subliminal connection is made to the subject."
Jonasson does not plan his photographs so much as he discovers them. Expertly, Jonasson navigates the
space between 'reality' and 'imagination.'
Despite Jonasson's abstract tendencies, his latest body of photographs draws power from the grandeur
of Astoria's architecture, locality, and history.
Jonasson says much of his past work has been abstract; more an exploration of the artist's interior
world. His current body of work brings in more of the exterior.
"With Astoria, I wanted to back away a bit," says Jonasson, "I wanted to maintain a tight personal connection
with the imagery while at the same time letting the place speak for itself."
If he once distilled the grand from the minute, he now chooses to widen his lens-work to include the enigmatic
relics of the region, and their relationship to the land and sea.
"There's just something about Astoria," says Jonasson. "The historical significance and the magnificence
of the setting have really been drawing me there the last couple years."
Jonasson has lived in Lincoln City for a decade but has found himself wandering Astoria's waterfront
more and more.
"There's a grittiness about the place that I like," explains Jonasson. "It's not just an attraction
for the tourists, it's a working town. There is a real air of authenticity about the place."
Kirk Jonasson's Work at RiverSea Gallery
Click on the following thumbnails to see bigger pictures.
Past Exhibits at RiverSea Gallery
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