March 1, 1946 -

Born - Clovis, New Mexico

 

Perrygallery.com displays artwork I have created including photos I have taken over the last few decades. My intent for the website is to share pieces that I have a particular interest in and potentially so may you. 

 

The art I create and the photos I take are representative of my personality, thought process, and interests. These three areas continue to evolve as my circumstances and experiences expand. 

 

“All children are artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once they grow up.” (Pablo Picasso) In other words, how does one maintain that ever-flowing enthusiastic creativity that children have?

 

The search for subject matter can stimulate creativity. I have been drawn to geometric shapes since third-grade geometry. My eye or my mind's eye searches for shapes and in particular recurring patterns. I find these in nature, cityscapes, aerial photography, and potentially anywhere.

 

I feel a special delight when confronted with atmospheric disturbances. Since a child when a siren warns us of impending danger from violent storms, I have tended to go outside while everyone else may seek shelter. The effects of the disturbance on lighting and color mesmerize me. 

 

My first visit to Cuba was in 2011.  I took hundreds of photographs of people. People at work in the tobacco fields, smoking a Cuban cigar on a street corner, having coffee in their living room, children playing baseball in the middle of a street that looks to have been the epicenter of the last hurricane. Beautiful people, unusual people, and sometimes in unusual circumstances. Photographing people had never been a primary interest for me prior to this trip. 

 

In Cuba, the opportunities to be creative never seemed to stop.  In 2011 people liked to pose and have their photograph taken. Parents tended to push their children forward to have their picture taken. 

 

Photographing people in Cuba encouraged my interest. How people appear, what interesting situations they find themselves in, the environment they live in, and perhaps most intrinsic is the story each person carries with them. In taking a photograph of a person or people you will find inevitably there is a story to be told.  

 

Then and now I tend to avoid crowded commercial centers and head to the poorest area I can find. This tendency has led me to feel tremendous empathy for those people with few possessions and little to eat. Generally, these poorest of the poor not only are willing to share what they have with you, even if it's a cup of coffee but are endlessly kind and smiling. 

 

Photographing people was also a highlight in Myanmar on a trip a few years later. I ventured deep into rural communities and markets.  Many of the people I photographed had never seen a digital camera and were enamored with the LCD image on its backside. After each photograph, the LCD image was shared with friends of the subject amid much laughter and an instant line appeared with everyone wanting to be photographed. 

 

One morning in Bagan Myanmar after taking photographs of the sunrise over dozens of stupas and temples I was approached by a group of younger Asian girls. They wanted to take my picture. I said of course but have always wondered what was special about photographing me. Perhaps my subjects had the same question when I photographed them.