Return to The ‘Mountains’ of East Texas (There Are No Mountains in East Texas)

I explore nature areas and nearby places – mainly in Texas – with light painting photography: During long exposures I stroke dark places with colored beams, aiming to reveal uncommon potential of common scenes and the world as otherworldly. In post-processing, I match the photos to my mind’s eye. And to me (as a retired psychologist) this transformation offers a visual metaphor to a psychological concept: Things can seem different if seen in a different light (so to speak) – the concept of “cognitive reframing.” The current work (a continued subseries of a long-term, encompassing collection called “Vibrant Night”) shows how art can reveal diverse, unexpected viewpoints of a “reality” we thought we knew. Here, the surreal images of “The 'Mountains' of East Texas,” are actually – SPOILER ALERT – piles of mud from sand/gravel surface mining – most no more than 10-20 feet high! (Seeing this “in another light,” suggests an analogy of how the media can “make a mountain out of a molehill” – or vice versa.) I love this subseries, both for its badlands aesthetics (of places I miss) and also for how well it embodies and extends the reframing concept. The concept can merely refer to finding opportunity amid negativity. But therapists use a form called “cognitive restructuring” to help clients deal with “cognitive distortions” (eg., all-or-nothing thinking; over-generalization; magnification/minimization). And here, the illusory mountains created by “magnification” from limited context (as revealed by the daylight shot) reminds me of that therapeutic form of reframing. [Respected advisors have split on showing the final reveal, for it could spoil the mood. I favor concept over beauty here, yet in a gallery I’d separate the reveal shot from the others... and warn the viewer.]