C Ribet

<B>What is a Mushroom Art Print exactly?</B>

C Ribet:

“If you crack open any decent mushroom field guide, or a mushroom hunter’s guide, you will find many drawings and photographs of mushrooms and their habitat. Many of these are beautiful mushroom portraits, and all of them should at a minimum give you a better understanding of the mushrooms they depict. They fulfill their purpose and often provide more, but do they bring forth an emotional response in you? Do you lose yourself in them emotionally? On occasion yes, but often not. This is through no fault of the photographer or artist involved. It is because the purpose of those images is to show you the anatomical details of the mushrooms to allow you to identify them. You don’t want to decide to eat a mushroom based on an art print!

[In all seriousness, I do not take mushroom photographs to help you decide their edibility, and you should not rely on any of these images to help you in that regard! Similarly, image titles are merely an artistic choice. I choose titles which I find moving and complementary to the each image, and no title should be read to imply anything about toxicity or lack thereof.]

I create these prints because to me mushrooms present an extraordinary natural beauty while simultaneously conjuring a world of fantasy which transcends it. Mushrooms at their first appearance often are the smoothest, the softest, and the most delicate things imaginable. Mushrooms at their passing can be the most withered, the most rotting, and the most black and lifeless things imaginable. In the course of their fleeting lives they exhibit every state in between with equal fervor. In my prints I try to capture what I can of their more tangible raw physical beauty, but I also try to capture their spirit and personality. To me there is a tremendous spirit of humanity within the mushroom, and I hope to expose it and to share it through the artistic interpretations of mushrooms I create.”

<B>What are the images on this web site?</B><BR>
The images you see here are optimized for display on the web via a dial-up modem. Colors approximate the actual prints but do not match them exactly, and the images cannot reproduce the texture or ‘physical presence’ of the prints. However, they should give you a good general feeling about style, mood and composition, for each print. You can also tour the C Ribet Wild Mushroom Art Slide Show to see more images of mushrooms.

<B>What is the origin of a print image?</B><BR>
Each mushroom print starts as a digital photograph. That is why throughout the site the print images may be referred to as 'photographs', 'pictures', or 'photos' etc. The origin of each print lies in a photograph, but the final result is not a photograph in the traditional sense.

<B>What happens next?</B><BR>
Once the original photographs are taken, back in the 'digital darkroom' of the computer they then serve as both inspiration and source for the creation of the digital 'master' from which the prints are created. The original digital image is in effect the raw material from which the digital master is created. Sometimes the only changes to the original image may be as simple as cropping the image and removing a shadow or two from motes of dust on the lens. In other images the lighting and composition of the scene may be altered to bring about a mood change or to change the emotional focus of the print. Sometimes several separate images of the same subject or scene are melded together to create a different or more complete scene. Some alterations are essentially the digital replications of established techniques of the masters of traditional film photography (many ground breaking methods were perfected by Ansel Adams, for example). However, an all-digital creative workflow can yield more. The all-digital process allows artistic choices which are unavailable to traditional photographers. The result is that the final digital master for a print may surpass what is possible to actually capture on ‘film’ - digital or otherwise.

<B>What is the print process?</B><BR>
Not only can an all-digital work environment allow for creative choices otherwise unattainable, but using today’s giclee printers the digital process also readily allows for printing on non-traditional media. Virtually all of the mushroom art prints you see represented here are printed on Hahnemuhle’s heavy weight fine art watercolor papers. While these prints may little resemble traditional photographs, they are not watercolors either. They lie somewhere in between. The watercolor paper texture is often very evident, but it is not always so. Papers are chosen for each individual image by making test prints with the papers whose textures and base color intuitively seem the most complementary to the image in question. It is possible with experience often to anticipate a paper for an image, but there are always pleasant surprises to be had as well. Please see the Print Method Page at Gallery California to learn more details about the print method, paper choices, and paper texture.

C Ribet lives in Northern California in Silicon Valley but pursues subjects for photography wherever he may find them.

Mushrooms<BR>
Mushrooms are a favorite subject, of course. Many of the mushroom pictures you see on these pages are of mushrooms growing at Plum lake in the North woods of Wisconsin and in the surrounding countryside there. Other mushroom photographs are of mushrooms native to California. Mushrooms represented here are from Mendocino, Sonoma and from the Santa Cruz mountains among other areas of the state of California. Visit Gallery California to see the complete set of mushroom prints currently available.

California Oaks and Landscapes<BR>
California landscapes and the characteristic oak trees and shadowed hills and valleys of California are other favorites of the artist. The brief time before the true end of winter and the start of spring in Northern California affords tremendous opportunity for any photographer native to the area. Then is the time to capture the striking contrast of the bare forms of wintering oaks surrounded by the lush greenery of early spring grasses lit by the raking side light of a lingering winter sun. Gallery California shows the complete collection of C Ribet landscape prints available at this time.

Water and Extreme Macro Photography<BR>
C Ribet's pursuit of tinier and tinier subjects in mushroom photography (many fruit bodies are extremely small with details not visible to the naked eye) has led to other subjects of the natural world of the miniature.

Much of C Ribet's latest work involves extreme close-up photography of water droplets and water condensation on leaves, blades of grass, and on other foliage. This new series of prints intimately explores the interplay of aqueous lensing and reflection and illuminates the natural energies hidden within these tiniest of water droplets and water bubbles.

<B>La Quinta Arts Festival, March 20-23</B>
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The La Quinta Arts Foundation (LQAF) this year recognized C Ribet as one of the Nation's top twenty-one photographers, and C Ribet and Gallery California exhibited work for sale at the annual La Quinta Arts Festival held March 20-23, 2003 in La Quinta, California on the grounds of the new LQAF site at 47-555 Washington Street in La Quinta, near Palm Springs in Southern California.

The La Quinta Arts Festival is one of the largest and most critically acclaimed outdoor fine-art shows in the United States.

<i>"More than 250 juried fine artists from around the world will participate in what Sunshine Artist magazine ranked as one of the top three fine-arts shows in the country (1998). This nationally acclaimed festival convenes painting, sculpture, photography, jewelry, fine craft, drawing, printmaking, and other design categories with live entertainment, refreshments, fine wine, and children's interactive art activities."

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"Set against the majestic mountains in the beautiful
Southern California desert, La Quinta Arts Festival is ideal
for viewing and enjoying the finest offerings of
some of the world's preeminent artists."
</i>

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<B>San Anselmo Art Festival, June 21 & 22</B>
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On San Anselmo Avenue between Bolinas and Tamalpias Streets in San Anselmo, California.

<i> "San Anselmo's central business district creates its own renaissance canvas of tree-lined streets, old-world lamps, shaded benches, and sunlit awnings. The true hub of the weekend is art, all original covering a wide palette of styles and genres. It's in the air in the form of jazz, blues, and country music rising off street corners and from village stages. You can even make some of your own in the arts-&-crafts area. Whether you take away the perfect piece for your bedroom or hallway, a full stomach and sleepy kids, or simply the memory of light and shadow painted by branches across a picnic blanket, you will return home with summer in your blood. And a promise to yourself to return next year."
</i>

For great food, fine art, and small-town charm, San Anselmo's Art Festival remains one of the Bay Area's best-kept secret escapes. It makes for one of those memorable weekend trips into all that summer promises. Once a railroad hub for freight on its way to the Sausalito docks, the town's restored "hub" now offers safe passage to the turn of the century. Just across the bridge and 100 years back in time.

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<B>Monterey Rock n'Art Festival, July 19th</B>
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At the Historic Monterey County Fairgrounds

<i>
The 7th Annual Monterey Rock n' Art Festival is the largest showcase of unsigned bands in one day in Northern California, and features some of the most cutting edge artists from the Central Coast and abroad.

Enjoy killer music and view unique unusual art, all at the beautiful Monterey County Fairgrounds, home of the 1969 Monterey International Pop Festival</i>

The festival entertainment includes three stages with live music, over 35 bands and musical artists, fire dancing, belly dancing and more. It is a California event not to be missed!


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<B>Sacramento Arts Festival, October 3, 4, 5</B>
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Sacramento Convention Center, 14th and J Streets

<i>"The Sacramento Arts Festival features 225 of America's best contemporary craftspeople and fine artists offering 15,000 original works. Each exhibitor is selected through a jury system for the originality and quality of his or her work. The event has become not only the premier art show in Sacramento, but is also developing into one of the top art festivals in the country"</i>

In addition to all the visual art, the festival features continuous live Main Stage entertainment including jazz, blues and bluegrass groups. And hungry festivalers can dine on Restaurant Row from great area establishments offering a wide variety of international specialties.

The Crocker Art Museum Partnership for Arts Education program directly benefits from the festival as the recipient of a share of ticket sales.

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<B>San Diego Arts Festival, November 28, 29, 30</B>
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San Diego Convention Center, 111 West Harbor Drive.

<i>"The festival features 200 contemporary craft and fine art exhibitors, each selected through a jury system for the originality and quality of their work. The event not only will be the premier art show in San Diego in 2003, but also should become one of the top art festivals in the country. Strolling through the festival, attendees will see a vast selection of extraordinary work. In fine art, thirty five painters, working in watercolors, oils, pastels, and acrylics, are displaying traditional and modern, landscape and still life, animal and floral, portrait and abstract, whimsical and surrealistic, originals and limited-edition prints."</i>


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<B>Santa Cruz Fungus Fair, Jan 10-12</B>
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Louden Nelson Center

<i>
The Fungus Fair is held each year in January in Santa Cruz at the Louden Nelson Community Center. The Fair is sponsored in association with the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. The weekend-long event features hundreds of species of local fungi presented in a unique fashion, and draws 2000 plus visitors each year. The Fair showcases speakers, cooking demonstrations, a special Kids' Room, and a taxonomy panel for identification of fungi. Many books and mushroom-related items are available for sale, as are wild mushroom delicacies.</i>

The annual Fungus Fair is one of the best mushroom and fungi related events in California. Mushroom art, mushroom edibles, and all kinds of mycological delights abound.


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<B>San Jose Arts Festival, March 12, 13, 14, 2004</B>
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San Jose Convention Center, West San Carlos Street at Market

<i>"he First Annual San Jose Arts Festival comes to the San Jose Convention Center, March 12, 13, 14, 2004. The festival features 200 contemporary craft and fine art exhibitors, each selected through a jury system for the originality and quality of their work. Festival visitors have the rare opportunity to actually meet and talk with these talented artists and craftspeople who have come to San Jose from across the West and as far away as Texas, Minnesota, and Connecticut."</i>

The festival is produced by Warren Cook who was the producer-president of the Harvest Festival from its start in 1972 until 1989