Accidental Abstractions

This blog is dedicated to a small part of what I do with a camera.

Even though I have primarily been a painter and illustrator all my life (www.allanstephenson.com) I have always had a camera by my side. At first a Kodak Brownie, then eventually a Yashicamat, then a series of Nikons.

What I chose to capture with these cameras has changed over time. At first people and friends, then places and travel. (travelnotes.allanstephenson.com) Eventually I would look for the out of the ordinary, the odd, the different and always the abstract.  In Mexico I find a wealth of such imagery. Maybe because it is not so tidy and well manicured as some developed countries. It leaves room for accidental abstractions.

Here you will find organized by color some of the many images I have taken over the past ten years or so.

To date there are two volumes published of these images called Las Paredes de Mexico (12×12 inches 90 pages ) which include just some of the many images I have collected over the years.

If you wish to get a copy please contact me.

About the Book

However, what intrigues me more are the accidental abstracts I see just walking along the streets looking at the crumbling walls around me. Layers of paint and surfaces eroded over time, sometimes into exquisite abstractions.

No artist did them-though I would be glad to have done some of these as original paintings.

Instead they were done by the hand of time and weather-along with the hands of multiple wall painters.

They are not even frozen in time for posterity as they are changing day by day. Some of these examples exist no more having been painted over and so the process continues.

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