Hello, my name is Linda Rogers and welcome to my Desert Reef Contemporary Fine Arts web site.
I moved to the Silver City, New Mexico area from Bisbee, Arizona in 1973 and now reside in Pinos Altos, NM.
My careers have spanned fields as diversified as computer data entry and emergency medicine before settling, for now, in the art arena.
I became a certified PADI Rescue Diver in 1990 and started photographing underwater subjects.
My self-taught, trial and error method produced my first blue ribbon in photography from a man who was to become one of my professors, mentors and a dear friend.
Since I have a fear of water stemming from a close call as a child, being able to concentrate on what is in front of my camera helps control my unease of being underwater.
In 1993, I returned to college at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, NM.
In December 1997, I earned my Bachelor of Arts in Art with high honors.
My emphasis was in both photography and clay.
I am continuing my education in art by working on my Masters degree part time.
Working in clay and photography has been a life saving therapy for me during a bleak period of my life.
I place a great deal of emotion into all my creations.
I choose to shoot color film underwater to express the riotous world the oceans are.
Color disappears at a very shallow depths until light is applied.
Once the strobe light fires, a kaleidoscopic rainbow screams for attention.
My dive partners have benefited from slowing down and seeing the small, wonderful life underneath them that they had sailed over, never taking the time to notice before.
On land I shoot both color and black and white.
I let the subject matter and my view of the subject dictate which process I wish to use, keeping "What would happen if?" in the back of my mind.
I studied photography under Anthony Howell,
Michael Berman, Chuck Pawlick and Claude Smith while working on my Bachelors degree. Having these different views gave me a unique advantage not usually experienced.
I have taken different aspects from each professor, changing and refining what they had to give into creating my personal style.
What they gave me the most was the desire, encouragement and freedom to experiment.
The painted-in-camera night light photos seem to represent opposites and hyprocisy to me. They juxtapose aspects of bleakness in my life, while at the same time, break out of that bleakness.
Some who view the photos experience a "draining" of their energies while others feel an energy "radiating out" from the unnoticed lights.
In addition to studying photography with Claude Smith, I also studied clay.
As in photography, he gave me the freedom to experiment.
As much as I dislike cooking in the kitchen, I do love mixing chemicals to create a glaze from scratch, the trial and error refinement and the final end product of a new glaze all my own.
My raku pieces reflect the organic universe both in nature and space.
Each piece of raku and saggar fired are unique one of a kind.
The "Kiss of flame" never touches a pot in the exact same way as it does any other pot.
Raku and saggar give me a looseness and spontaneity while the high fire exerts a bit more control and ability to predict the outcome somewhat.
I believe pots, especially, have a soul and will often speak loudly to those whom they are meant to belong.
Clay allows me to mold and form either with finesse or, if the need arises, with aggression.
Being such a malleable medium allows me to be tight or loose, sometimes at the same time.
The figurative pieces, come from deep inside.
I don't start with any certain idea in mind, but choose to allow my soul and the clay to speak to each other, sometimes with comical results.
I then allow the piece to tell me which firing technique to use.
I hope you enjoy my art works as much as I have enjoyed producing them.
Thank you for visiting my gallery.
I hope you enjoy enough to return again.
I became a certified PADI Rescue Diver in 1990 and started photographing underwater subjects.
My self-taught, trial and error method produced my first blue ribbon in photography from a man who was to become one of my professors, mentors and a dear friend.
Since I have a fear of water stemming from a close call as a child, being able to concentrate on what is in front of my camera helps control my unease of being underwater.
I choose to shoot color film underwater to express the riotous world the oceans are.
Color disappears at a very shallow depths until light is applied.
Once the strobe light fires, a kaleidoscopic rainbow screams for attention.
My dive partners have benefited from slowing down and seeing the small, wonderful life underneath them that they had sailed over, never taking the time to notice before.
On land I shoot both color and black and white.
I let the subject matter and my view of the subject dictate which process I wish to use, keeping "What would happen if?" in the back of my mind.
The painted-in-camera night light photos seem to represent opposites and hyprocisy to me. They juxtapose aspects of bleakness in my life, while at the same time, break out of that bleakness.
Some who view the photos experience a "draining" of their energies while others feel an energy "radiating out" from the unnoticed lights.
In addition to studying photography with Claude Smith, I also studied clay.
As in photography, he gave me the freedom to experiment.
As much as I dislike cooking in the kitchen, I do love mixing chemicals to create a glaze from scratch, the trial and error refinement and the final end product of a new glaze all my own.
My raku pieces reflect the organic universe both in nature and space.
Each piece of raku and saggar fired are unique one of a kind.
The "Kiss of flame" never touches a pot in the exact same way as it does any other pot.
Raku and saggar give me a looseness and spontaneity while the high fire exerts a bit more control and ability to predict the outcome somewhat.