[July 03, 2009]

Willits' Michael Coons photography at Northcoast Artists Gallery

Jul 03, 2009 (The Willits News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- "Innervision" is the name of Willits artist Michael Coons that will be on display at the Northcoast Artists Gallery in Fort Bragg running from July 3 to August 4. The show features earlier and current work from Coons who is looking at his work in a new way; not solely as a literal interpretation of the subject but as an expression of the feeling he had at the moment the image was recorded.

He has also been experimenting with re-interpreting some images using alternative printing methods and materials, as well as exploring forms abstracted from nature as subject matter.

Coons started with photography in school where he learned to take black and white photos and develop the film, he took photos of friends and photographed his family as the years went by.

In the early 1980s and 1990s, Coons worked as a Graphic Artist in the printing department of Microphor but he was always intrigued with photography and continued to work on his skills behind the camera.

Coons started to submit work to shows and started having pieces accepted in juried shows including the Mendocino College and Willits Arts Center shows.

In the late 1990s, Coons and John Klein started the Willits Photography Club to give the community a place to share their work and get feedback from other photographers.

In 2005, Coons applied and was accepted to the Northcoast Artists Gallery as a permanent member. Originally, a 6-month guest membership is offered and at the end of the time period the artist is reassessed for a possible permanent membership.

The Northcoast Artists Gallery is one of the oldest galleries on the coast Coons noted and he expressed his excitement to be on permanent display along with the community of other artists.

Though he has done some studio work and portraiture, the favorite subjects for Coons' work usually includes flowers and landscapes. He spends time in botanical gardens, flowerbeds and other natural surroundings capturing images of flora and nature with his current camera, a Canon EOS 30D digital camera. Coons has also enjoyed spending time in the South West, photographing desert landscapes and enjoys using a low shutter speed and tripod to get many of his desired effects including shooting in RAW form.

When asked about his use of image editing software, Coons laughed and noted that programs like the popular PhotoShop were a standard part of his editing routine.

"I always get asked if my work is PhotoShoped," Coons noted. "With photography, there is this underlying 'baggage' that it caries where people seem to assume or expect it to portray just what exactly was taken and a literal interpretation of what was there. Many don't see photography as an expressive art form, with artistic license and expression that say a painter would be 'allowed.' I use PhotoShop to enhance the image to help it evoke the emotion that I felt at the time of its original capture to get it closer to what I experienced when I was there." An artist's reception will be held today from 3 to 5 p.m. and the show will remain open everyday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Northcoast Artists Gallery located a 362 North Main Street in Fort Bragg. For more information call 964-8266 or see the gallery's website at www.northcoastartists.org.

To see more of the Willits News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.willitsnews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Willits News, Calif.

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