tyson crosbie photography

On Saturday, (yes I’ve been so busy since that I couldn’t post before now) Phoenix attended the event of the year: Tyson Crosbie’s (that’s me) book signing for his new book “Phoenix 20″.

I just want to thank everyone that attended. Phoenix continues to surprise me, in a good way. We had 25-30 people show up and watch me talk about my work and my connection to this city. I had good conversations with nearly everyone that was there and it is my hope that some new relationships were formed between the guests. It isn’t just a marketing phrase or gimmick for me, I really think the events main focus was about community. If I get to sell some books and prints along the way that is just a bonus. It just happens that I sold out of all available books and left some people wanting one. Which is a testiment to the kind of community that exists here already.

Erica Lucci and Chris Altman purchased their first art piece together as a married couple, and were gracious enough to let me unveil it at the event and show off a little bit.

This was the draft for my speech:

I started working abstractly in college in the beginning it was just about learning compositional rules and practicing observing the world around me. About the time I traveled to Mexico, about a year later, the work had begun to evolve into something a lot closer to abstract expressionism, in that I wasn’t able to disconnect the experiences I was having personally from the work that I was producing. I continued practicing and developing the work over the next several years. I never really gave too much credit to the work and still considered it just an exercise even though the images were becoming increasingly complex, and I was starting to get noticed at shows, I still didn’t feel like it was completely ready. When I moved to Phoenix in July I didn’t want to be here and went into a quite severe depression as I looked for work and essentially felt trapped in my house during the summer months. The few times I went out to photograph I couldn’t find the same complexity and depth that I had been previously working on in Austin. It was like hell for a color abstractionist with all the stucco and sandstone bricks. I almost gave up on it completely, and started looking for a temporary job.
It eventually cooled off and I started to attend first fridays I was absolutely blown away by the event. Here was an entire emerging art culture right on my front step, all I had to do was get to work. I started to go out photographing again and it took a long time to find what I was looking for in the sea of brown. But there it was a little spot of color and then another and another. One of the major hurdles I had to get used to was driving a lot further and taking little field trips into the city that may or may not result in usable material.
It was a strange coincidence that as I started photographing the streets of Phoenix and the work became more accessible I started to connect with the community of people in the city as well. I started my own business and decided the work was ready to be something. That thing was a series of 20 images that related as much to my experiences moving here as it was a reflection of what Phoenix is as a city. I worked toward publishing this book and it took a couple months but here it is and I am so happy that you all are here to share it with me.

This is a question for anyone who attended: What was the signing like for you?

Okay, something a little different. I am going to avoid all the third person talk about the work like it is in a museum stuff. Hopefully you read this blog because I am honest and serious about what I do.

I honestly have been developing this series in places all over the world for about eight years. It is a process that is slow and sometimes surprising with long periods where all is working as it should like evolution. To develop a personal language out of all the formal considerations of color, composition, texture etc and personal considerations of time, context and philosophy it just takes time. It is a work that is about direct observation of beauty, and on that premise is really about hope. And hope is something all transplants need to find in the desert.

When I came to Phoenix and started this series I was really pissed off about being here. I had just been moved out here (wife’s work) from Austin, Texas and felt like I never had a chance to fully developed a series of work out of that city. My rules were set up to work in Austin and the ideas that were available for exploration in that city just weren’t available in Phoenix. Like so many other transplants to this city I had to let go of what my previous experience was and embrace the new opportunities that Phoenix had to offer.

Letting go was not as easy, I didn’t even photograph anything for a couple months. I would drive around and all I saw were the sandstone brick walls and the black trash cans. For a color abstract expressionist this was like hell, and just about as hot. However, I kept looking because I knew there must be something out there, and frankly I needed to find it. I needed a creative outlet to survive the isolation that Phoenix, just by it’s very culture of expansion, had imposed on me. I had to learn how to source material from the city I started by walking my neighborhood and then expanded to other parts of Phoenix… little field trips, explorations that didn’t guarantee any reward but were required.

Check out the series in full at tysoncrosbie.com

Please leave your comments and criticisms below I would love to know how this succeeds and fails. If you love it pass it on, if you hate it tell me why in the comments below.

Thanks.