John McCluskey is the Digital & Photography Artist Spotlight winning artist for the month of July 2018. He is a published author and photographer. He is drawn to the intimacy and urgency photography uniquely offers, that sense of both the quick and the quiet coming together whenever a visual transfers from the human eye to the fantastic limits of the viewfinder.

For this “Ice Image” series of photographs, John shot close up abstractions of frozen Candlewood Lake in Connecticut, charting the changing light and ice formations daily and weekly from late December 2017 through early March 2018, when the lake finally thawed. Some shots were deliberately blurred slightly, to limit the focal point, the object overall being to create photos of the ice that stand alone as abstract images while working together to tell the story of the ever-changing life cycle of light on ice over time.

John’s Solo Art Exhibition will be featured on the website for the month of July 2018. The gallery will promote John and his work on the Fusion Art website, in Fusion Art’s Artsy.net Gallery, individual online press releases to hundreds of outlets, email blasts to over 2000 collectors, galleries, buyers and art professionals, in online event calendars, art news websites and through the gallery’s extensive social media outlets.  Fusion Art’s objective is to promote the Artist Spotlight winning artists, worldwide, to art professionals, gallerists, collectors and buyers.

Please read John’s Biography and Artist Statement below as he describes his history, inspiration and process in his own words. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see his exhibition.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these award-winning pieces, or to see more of John’s work, please visit his website.

Also, please visit Fusion Art’s YouTube Channel to see John’s Solo Art Exhibition Video.

Thank you to all the artists who participated in the Artist Spotlight competition and congratulations to John and the other Artist Spotlight winning artists.

John McCluskey’s Biography

John was born in Chicago and grew up in Connecticut, where he currently resides. While working in the IT industry for many years, John also became a published author and photographer. He applies the unique qualities obtained from a structured career and multiple creative outlets interchangeably, each discipline informing the other, a synergy constantly creating new and exciting approaches. John’s photography acts as a perfect companion to his writing: a visual counterpoint to the written word, the two often published together as well as independently. His photography may feature negative space or geometrical patterns, as an example, whereas his writing may illuminate such space or purposely blur patterns and connections. Regardless, discipline and routine always apply. John has had many photographs, poems, and short stories, including a novella, A Moment of Fireflies, published in both print and on-line journals over the years.

John McCluskey’s Artist Statement

I am drawn to the intimacy and urgency photography uniquely offers, that sense of both the quick and the quiet coming together whenever a visual transfers from the human eye to the fantastic limits of the viewfinder. It is only you and the subject, framed in that fleeting, most intimate moment when the click of the shutter button affixes your signature. Yours. Once “signed”, the image is set, vulnerabilities revealed, generosity offered. This is photography to me.

My photo shoots center mostly around New York City, New Orleans, and New England, where I experience this ‘communion with subject’ most profoundly. Whether close-up or panoramic, in busy, noisy, or tranquil settings, the connection is real and inspirational. In this particular photo essay, I shot close up abstractions of frozen Candlewood Lake in Connecticut, charting the changing light and ice formations daily and weekly from late December 2017 through early March 2018, when the lake finally thawed. Some shots were deliberately blurred slightly, to limit the focal point, the object overall being to create photos of the ice that stand alone as abstract images while working together to tell the story of the ever-changing life cycle of light on ice over time.

I use a digital camera and am drawn predominantly to deep color, high-contrast, negative space, geometrical patterns, and wide-angle perspectives across urban and natural landscapes. I prefer underexposures for the darker sensibility this offers, the magnitude being critical. I approach the images, post production, as belonging within any of four quadrants: traditional color, traditional b/w, color graphic, and b/w graphic. Every photo is considered for each quadrant; some work well in only one; some in all four. And there are always surprises. Patience offers fresh viewpoints; each photo may emerge in it’s own time – some sooner, some later, all valuable. I embrace this, letting some simmer awhile, hoping they’ll announce their presence in perhaps an unexpected quadrant.

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