Michael Pointer

Michael Pointer is a fourth-generation artist. He received his first camera at age nine and began working in the darkroom when he was twelve. He has won numerous awards for photography and drawing, as well as exhibiting extensively in the United States, Taiwan, and Europe. After a solo exhibit in Wichita, Kansas he was invited to teach Photography at Wichita State University, he taught there for three years. He is best known for his large scale semi-abstract analog photography work. In 2009 Pointer lived in Afghanistan supporting a free dental clinic in Kabul and working with the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan. Until recently he served CCAA as an advisory board member.

“My work is generally about the relationship between painting to photography. The images in this exhibit are explorations of organic forms and other miscellany played against the wooden grid of a large vintage paper cutter. They provide interesting visual textures.     Each piece works to expand photographic language through the combined influence of abstract composition played against real photography. I have titled the pieces with familiar song titles so that the viewer, if they are familiar with the music, will hear the    song in their head which will facilitate a connection between my mind and theirs. I have always been involved with the surface of my paper, often showing swathes of gelatin silver paper torn at either end. I want the viewer to experience my paper in the way I do.          Using encaustic to finish these images lets me work that surface further and enhance metaphorical possibilities.”