JOHN PRYOR

Although I enjoy taking pictures of landscapes and street scenes when I travel, the majority of my work involves abstract photography.

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Why abstract photography? Well, it started with an argument. I've spent my life in hardheaded, objectivist environments. I hold B.S. and M.S. degrees in Physics, as well as an MBA degree. My career has been in IT, mostly in engineering environments. So there we were one day, my wife and I, in an art museum looking at an abstract painting. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the painting, the artist, or the museum. Anyway, I'm standing there looking at this large painting. It is beige, with a couple of red lines crossing diagonally. Then I read the description, and I start snickering. It went on and on about the dynamic tension and the vibrancy and the deep imagery, yadda yadda. My wife got mad at me and asked why I couldn't see that. She asked what does the color red mean to you? Well, I said, it does not mean anything; it's just red. I said the problem is, red can mean so many things: love, violence, ketchup, blood, firetrucks, sunsets, roses, etc., etc. To me, presenting red without context meant nothing. Then she asked, well, how does it make you feel? Bad question to ask an engineer! LOL I said, it doesn't make me feel anything; it's just sitting there. So I asked, how do you tell a good abstract piece of art from a bad one? [Turns out, this is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. I'll try to tackle it in a blog.]  Then I looked again at the description and I experienced an epiphany: Here was this painting, hanging in a museum. SOMEONE thought it was good enough, in fact better than all the other paintings that could have been hung, to pay thousands or even millions of dollars for it. And I couldn't see why. At all. That bothered me; it bothered me a lot. I decided to learn about abstract art.

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I began reading books and articles. I particularly recommend "Why a Painting Is Like a Pizza: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Modern Art" by Nancy Heller. I have no talent with drawing or painting, so I decided to tackle this project of learning about abstract art through photography. I took classes, joined clubs, and went to a lot of museums. Ten years or so went by as I was learning to appreciate modern art, abstract art, impressionist art, expressionist art - If those terms don't mean anything to you, don't worry about it!! - and so on. I won awards for some of my abstract photos.

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Now I have reached a point where I could talk about those red lines on a beige background. Getting here has been a fun ride. One of the things I am hoping to do is to help others who may come from the engineering worldview to learn to grasp some of what abstract art is about, to help enrich their lives as mine has been enriched. I am hoping to engage you, the viewer, with my photos and to hold discussions with you about art.

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So... Hello! My name is John Pryor. I live in San Diego, CA. I am a digital artist, primarily in abstract photography, an avid theatergoer, and a bit of an IT geek. I love to travel. Nice to meet you!