June Art Exhibit EXTENDED

Note: This photo show has been extended until July 14, 2011. In addition, all photographs are on sale for reduced prices. Please contact the artist directly to arrange purchase. (Business cards can be picked up at the cafe counter). An online gallery of "Tidal Ways" can be found here.

Rick Crockett’s “Tidal Ways”, currently on display at Modern Times Coffeehouse, is an ongoing series of photographic images whose ultimate purpose is to capture and chronicle the accidental artistry created by the sea as it interacts with the natural elements and debris its tides deposit along the coastlines of North America. Not a single component is ever added, removed, or rearranged during the process of photographing what not only emerge as works of art that can be simultaneously beautiful, humorous, and haunting, but may also upon deeper reflection cause one to feel as if they are participating in a Rorschach test that has been intricately etched into a canvas of sand.

Intrigued by the idea of celebrating a world seen only through his own viewfinder, Mr. Crockett became a serious photographer within moments of taking his first camera out for a test run on the back streets of San Francisco more than 25 years ago. Since that day he has created a body of work that encompasses a wide range of subject matter and themes, all driven by the simple principle that anything visually and emotionally compelling is worth the effort to memorialize that experience as an image that could outlive the person who captured it -- himself. To that end, Mr. Crockett has taken pictures of musicians, magicians, politicians, chimpanzees, children, Caribbean sunsets, Scottish ruins, urban demise, lobster shacks, and coastal life on opposite sides of America, as well as having lent his eye to innumerable public and private events in his capacity as a professional photographer.

In addition to his photographic efforts, Rick Crockett is the author of four books of poetry. His latest collection, MOSES STUTTERED (Musings on Love, Faith & Other Tricks of Light), features several images from his “Tidal Ways” series. Mr. Crockett is also the creator of “Lines on the Face of Portland,”a framed exhibit of six impressionistic "wall poems” commemorating the 350th birthday of Maine’s largest city. His work has drawn high praise from Lawrence Ferlinghetti, an American poet whose A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND still remains the most popular book of poetry ever sold in the U.S. Current projects include “Beyond the Call of Beauty,” a compilation of images exploring the inevitable, slow-motion deterioration of physical and natural matter as it is observed in the real-time world around us. Rick Crockett is also working on his next collection of poems, tentatively titled, TALKING IN MY SLEEP.