Hadley Raysor

Kristen Wong @kristenwong piece from her solo show at The Fourth Wall Gallery @thefourthwallgallery , “would you trust a flower that bloomed in a darkened room?” (March-April 2024). This piece is installed on my living room wall (please excuse my uneven placement of magnets). From The Fourth Wall Gallery’s website: “Wong sees photography as a way to understand and capture both the small minutiae and the big transformative moments of every day life. In choosing to make photographic work of domestic and personal imagery at such a large scale, her practice is something that demonstrates that the emotional undercurrent of the human condition and the overall affect and feeling of the common events and vignettes of our day to day lives can become something so big, vivid, frightening, and electric that the emotions one feels can consume the mind. Wong explains, “The ‘darkened room’ series is rooted in the idea of metamorphosis for the better or the worst despite life’s chaotic wheel of fortune type of a hand and in times of emotional turmoil and unrest - to change and heal in life’s own darkened room”.” I personally am self taught, and have been using my eye and intuition to photograph dogs and art for the past decade. I am about midway through an Intro to Digital Photography course at Laney College in Oakland @laneycollege , which has been both informative and fun. This photo of Kristen’s work was part of an assignment I just completed on using the exposure triangle to create a balanced photo, which I’m starting to learn how to manipulate for creative effect. I’m inspired by Kristen’s unorthodox approach to photography, which plays with exposure and “balance” while additionally layering elements of collage, found objects, painting/drawing, and chaotic crayon scribbles. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before, and it’s a fun process to consider while learning about technical aspects of photography in my Laney class. [Photo of a large, colorful print on a white wall. The print has teal/green/yellow leaves, neon pink/yellow/orange tape, what appears to be a mesh blanket in the top right, and various other scenes collaged in. There is crayon on the borders and leaves.]

It was my 40th birthday on Thursday! I’m very grateful and happy to be alive, and to have had four decades of experiences and decisions and moments and connections that have combined to bring me to this moment. All I want for my birthday is immediate, permanent ceasefire & it’s been an inspiration watching all of the students who are staging sit-ins/occupying their campuses/otherwise organizing. === Photograph of a photograph of me as a young person standing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. My hair is pulled back into a ponytail and I have a small black camera pouch/bag around my neck. I’m wearing white pants pulled up kinda high with a brown belt, with a white shirt depicting running horses tucked in to my pants.

Mango at Treasure Island (2023) digital photograph | iPhone 13 Pro === I’ve been a professional dog walker going on 13 years, and have had my own business @dandydogwalker going on 11 years. Taking photos of my dogs and dog packs is what really sparked my interest in photography; after each 1.5-3+ hour structured pack walk, my clients receive a very detailed report card along with an edited individual portrait of their dog plus a pack photo from our walk. What started out as an Instagram marketing and community building tool in 2013 quickly blossomed into a passion for photography and capturing creatures’ personalities to bring people joy. === [Image Description] Photo of a beige/white lanky shepherd mix 13-month-old dog sitting at the top of a concrete boat landing. Behind him is the SF Bay, which is still and shades of royal and light blues, and the Richmond/Berkeley hills. The sky is a bit of a lighter blue than the water, and is dappled with long stretches of flat/poofy clouds. To his left is a single weathered piece of wood sticking about 6 feet out of the water, some rocks, and green weeds with a small scraggly shrub. To his right is an intentional pile of rocks and a patch of green weeds/grass. Mango is wearing two collars clipped together with a black carabiner and a green leash falls down his side onto the ground.

Horniks at Home on Stairwell Steps 2023; Digital Photograph taken on Sony Alpha A7R II (c) Hadley Raysor === Photo of Pamela Hornik @pamelahornik and David Hornik @davidhornik inside their Bay Area home, sitting next to one another on the two stairwell steps that lead up to a landing before a second longer staircase that leads to the second floor. David is on the right, partially underneath the staircase. He is wearing a pink button-down shirt with small blue and green flowers, with the top couple buttons undone revealing a white shirt underneath. The shirt is untucked over dark blue denim jeans; he is wearing white socks on his feet, and thick tortoiseshell glasses. He has a short, tidy, trimmed beard and mustache that encircles his mouth but doesn’t extend up his jaw toward his ears. His hair is brownish/black. He’s looking to his left at Pamela and is smiling. Snuggled in to his arm/side is a black/brown/white mini Aussie dog named Auggie, who also appears to be gently smiling at Pamela. Pamela, who’s sitting on the left of the frame, is looking down toward her right at her elder rescue small tender dog companion, Teddy. Teddy is wearing a red harness and his eyes are closed, with Pamela’s hand gently touching his back shoulder. Pamela is wearing a loose-fitting black sweater, loose-fitting black pants, black socks, and sneakers that are various shades of green with off-white laces. She is wearing red lipstick and also has dark brown hair cut and styled to a length just at her jaw line. The stairwell area is brightly lit and the walls are white; the floors and stairs are a lightish brown wood, and the sides of the stairwell are glass. {Description of artwork continued in comments.}

Into The Brightness with my Pack iPhone 13 Pro digital photograph; 2023 (c) Hadley Raysor “Being an Artist is the Best Feeling in the World” Shana Harper @mizz_artiste_82 (2017) @niadartcenter artist (large print applied to wall leading in to Oakland Museum @oaklandmuseumca as part of the exhibit “Into The Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth & NIAD”; 2023) === Photograph outside of Oakland Museum with my Dandy Dogwalker @dandydogwalker pack of nine dogs ranging in breed and size. The dogs are doing a sit-/down-stay in front of a large possibly concrete wall with a blown up artwork possibly wheatpasted to it of a letterpress print by NIAD artist Shana Harper reading: BEING AN aRTISt ⭐️/⭐️IS THE BeSt/fEELING IN THE WORLD! The letters are printed in various typefaces with some letters in lowercase and some in capital, with a star after “aRTISt” and before “IS”. The letters are in a lavender purple and the background is a dark blue with a purplish tint.

Pamela & David Hornik, Dining and Living Room Entries Digital photograph, Sony Alpha a7R II; 2023 (c) Hadley Raysor Artworks: Oscar Yi Hou @oscyhou “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, aka Bushwick Bleeding Hearts Club” Acrylic and gouache on canvas; 46 x 28 in; 2022 Wanxin Zhang @wxzhang25 “Made in China” Bronze with pink patina; 78 x 24 x 20 in; 2014 Zanele Muholi @muholizanele “Phiwokakhe” Acrylic on canvas; 71 x 47 in; 2021 === Photo of Pamela and David Hornik in their home living room and dining room entries. David sits in the back left in a living room chair and looks at his phone; their small dog Teddy’s back half is visible walking into a dog bed behind David’s chair. Pamela @pamelahornik stands in the right foreground with her hand on the back of a dining room table chair, and she looks off toward the right of the frame. There are three visible works of art: in the foreground on the left is a colorful painting by Oscar Yi Hou of a woman holding a dog; in the middle is a pink sculpture by Wanxin Zhang of a standing figure; behind the sculpture is a painting by Zanele Muholi of a person in an unbuttoned blue suit coat with a pocket square, and a white collared button-down shirt (with the top couple buttons unbuttoned) tucked in to blue pants and a belt. The room is lit with both track/ceiling lights and natural lighting which filters in through drawn curtains.

Claudia Huenchuleo Paquien @claudiahuen “Untitled (Or boquifoye holding a branch of foye tree)” { 2022; Crowd-sourced illustration of an engraving from the book Histórica relación del reyno de Chile in reference to the Parliament of Quillín (1641), a Peace Treaty between Spaniards and Mapuche people. Alonso de Ovalle. Printed 1646. Installation, archival inkjet print and magnifier mounted on a piece of wood 8 x 4 x 3.5 in. } detail & installation photographs of work installed as part of Claudia Huenchelo Paquien’s show “Life in Transmotion” in The Arts at CIIS Fourth Floor Gallery, California Institute of Integral Studies @artsatciis (2023) curated by Kija Lucas. === First photo is a detail image of a tiny replication of “Illustration of the Parliament of Quillín (1641)” installed on a beautiful blue wall with a small magnifying glass mounted over the illustration. All that’s visible of the magnifying glass is the very top of the wooden handle & the gold rim of the glass. The illustration is printed with black ink on white textured paper; the image shows two groups including people on horseback meeting in the forefront, with a cross in the center background and a battle in the right background. The person on horseback on the right is offering a Foye tree branch to the person on horseback on the left. === The second photo was taken from farther away, and shows a gorgeous, textured blue wall with the full magnifying glass visible and mounted in the center of the frame. The wall is kallfü blue, which is the color of the Mapuche people.

Ania Hobson @ania_hobson “Pamela and Teddy” (2020; 63 x 39 1/2 in.) installed at Some Dogs (a curated collection of dog-themed artwork from the Hornik collection) at @fouroneninesf (2023) === Photo of a mini Australian Shepherd in a gallery, sitting obediently on a shiny concrete floor beneath a painting. The painting, hanging on a white wall, depicts a woman in a stylish long black top over loose-fitting black pants, wearing stylish black-and-white shoes made caricaturly long and large. The woman is holding a small scruffy black dog with white tips in her arms. The background of the painting is shades of reds/pinks and a tan bottom. === One Sunday, while “Some Dogs” was still installed, I received word from Pamela Hornik that she would be at the gallery with both Auggie (mini Aussie) and Teddy (the dog in the painting). I hadn’t snapped any photos yet of Auggie, so I rushed over to snag some shots. The photo shoot ended up doubling as a fun dog play session, with some obedience training sprinkled in. I miss popping over to @fouroneninesf to see @pamelahornik , her dogs, @davidhornik , amazing dog art, and all of the visiting dogs amalgamated into a dream hangout of art, artists, collectors, curators, and their doggo besties.

Nicole K. Shaffer @nicolekshaffer “Like Luck” (2022; Transparent acrylic sheets, rattan, glass and plastic beads, woven rex-lace and fishing line, yellow flocking, nail polish, custom printed velour fabric with one hour of CA seismographic data) installed at SFSU 2022 masters thesis show. === Series of four photographs and one video depicting a fabric-covered sculpture suspended from the wall with a light-covered fabric sheet flowing from it. Another sculpture is suspended from the wall just in front of the flowing fabric, such that it casts color and designs onto the moving fabric from very stiff geometric lines and shapes. === I was transfixed by “Like Luck” immediately upon sight. It wasn’t just the mesmerizing flow of the fabric in the natural air circulation of the room, it was all of the specifically and carefully chosen detailed elements that made up the entire installation. I was particularly drawn to the playful inflexibility of the colorful geometric sculpture shapes vis-à-vis the soft unpredictable movement of the fabric in the wind. I loved the shadows and colors cast from the stained glass and apparent intentional symbolism adjacent something uncontrollable and always in motion, constantly in flux. I focused my photos mostly on capturing these unique moments of connection between rigidity and elasticity, stasis and chaos.

LJ Roberts @atelier.lj “sleeping with clenched fists, dreaming with clenched fists” (2021; neon mounted on upcycled tornado box springs, eight-channel oscillator, metal) installed at Socrates Sculpture Park @socratespark (2021) === Series of five slides of photos taken just before, during, and just after twilight of Roberts’ installation at an outdoor park in Queens, New York City. The installation is two upcycled mattress box springs with mounted neon Yiddish words in Roberts’ father’s print handwriting, in purple and reddish orange yellow letters. The work stands on worn grass adjacent a paved path that runs along the East River; across the river are buildings on Roosevelt Island and Manhattan. The second slide is of Roberts and their dog Ziggy; the third slide is detail of the interior of the box spring, which is green and brown with rusty weathering. === This installation was a fun challenge to photograph, given the neon lettering and the natural lighting. I tried many angles over several hours, sometimes with ferries passing in the background. I also waited for pedestrians & park goers to pass through, although some shots with people would have been interesting for scale. It was particularly fun photographing the artist (one of my best friends) with their dog Ziggy, a renowned art dog.

Hadley Raysor @dandydogwalker “Frankie Choodle at Alameda Point” (2023; digital photograph taken on iPhone 13 Pro) personal collection === Photo of a black/white/grey/brownish choodle (chihuahua/poodle blend) sitting on concrete in front of a light blue building wall. She wears an orange Mendota dog walker slip lead, which falls in front of her floofy body and extends out of the frame. Her mouth is open, her head is back, and her ears are out - giving her a bat-like appearance - as she nom noms a treat. Her tiny, long, uneven teeth are visible, and some are yellow. Her eyes are open as she gazes lovingly at the sky while she chews.

Jason Powell-Smith @jasonpowellsmith4 @niadartcenter artist part of the show Into The Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth, and NIAD at the Oakland Museum @oaklandmuseumca === left: “KTVU (two prints)” 2022; risograph === center: “Thirty works on paper” 2019-2022; mixed media === right: “Jason is Holding Up a Train Car” 2022; serigraph print and acrylic on canvas === First photo is of Powell-Smith’s work on three walls. The left wall is white and has two framed prints, mounted one above the other. The top print is red, white and blue and a man’s face is in the center. The bottom print is similar, except in the colors black, white and blue. The right wall is also white and has one print on canvas: a black/white print of Jason holding a train car above his head is in the center; the canvas background is divided vertically into two colors, blue on the left and red on the right. The center wall is black and has thirty prints on various types of paper, almost all with text. The text is mostly in the form of __ vs __, although there are a few of Jason holding the train car. Second photo is a closer depiction of the thirty works on paper, so that they’re easier to read and see. Third photo is an even closer detail photo of the thirty works, including: it made me feel dizzy; team cats on fox vs team dogs on usa; bart team vs amtrak team; yes it is; ac transit team vs muni team; team I don’t know vs team I know; team park vs team pork; team daytime vs team nighttime.