New Discoveries: Phil McDarby

Phil McDarby

I just stumbled across his site about a week ago, and I was completely blown away. Total cheesy-sauce, but his work reminds me of why I wanted to do art in the first place. It has a subtlety to it, with loads of hidden little details you would only find if you really studied the piece, yet it isn't loud at all. It also has a sense of wonder, imagination and appreciation of the natural world that I really admire. It's almost like you could see these things for yourself if you went deep enough into the wilds, and were patient enough to actually look.

The amount of time and effort that goes into these images is incredible - he uses a combination of his own photography, digital painting and 3D modeling to construct different pieces. Keeping lighting and texture and everything consistent, making everything blend together that seamlessly with a wide range of media in the same picture must take an incredible amount of work, and also a certain OCD perfectionism and attention to detail that I can definitely relate to. And I have to say, the results are stunning.

Never Been

So, somewhere new this week that I've never been before. That's not too difficult of a task, considering I've only been in Ashland for a week total now, so pretty much everywhere is somewhere I've never been before. I did almost drive to Yreka because I got on the wrong half of the freeway trying to go to Target in Medford. So I went to Mt. Ashland, even if it wasn't on purpose. Didn't see much of it though, just mountain backroads (which are REALLY creepy in the dark, by the way) lots of pine trees, and yellow roadsigns that popped out of nowhere, like "Long steep downgrade ahead". That was fun. At least I didn't see any creepy people with chainsaws, that would have made it worse. Or taxidermy shops in the middle of nowhere, like last time when we decided to take the scenic route back to California through the mountains. Anyway, I'm sure there's a lot to explore around here, I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll be on purpose next time.