James Putnam Abbott
Portfolio for Gallery Owners and Publishers
The 18 images below provide a quick overview of my work, and my comments add insight into my process.
A link accompanies each piece, to permit further exploration of areas of interest.
Contact me via email or telephone: 402-559-0285.
Clothed in Light - “Vice I”
The complex layered effect makes this a favorite of mine from my Clothed in Light collection. The image that I used to “clothe” this model was a worn out side of a building in New Orleans that was dilapidated even before the flood. The old “Velvet Ice Cream” poster that had been affixed to the wall must be long gone now. Pigment ink print. 11” x 16” is the favored size.
2006
Unnatural Abstractions - “Alien Dawn”
On a beach that sea birds and humans share in peace, a strange dawn opens. I change it as I capture it with the camera, in much the same way an impressionist would, altering the reality through the use of slow shutter speeds and deliberate camera movement. The result is a dawn more mysterious than if I had recorded it perfectly, but more in keeping with my mood and internal vision. Pigment ink print. 9” x 16” is the favored size. See more like this.
2009
Natural Abstractions - “Ladies in the Sand”
“Oh James, you see naked ladies everywhere!” I hear this, and it makes me smile with comfortable self-recognition, but I swear the ladies are there! Many of them! Pigment ink print, mounted on board and framed in steel. 16” x 12” See more like this.
2008
Mixed Media - Beneath the Patina
The embedded test reads: “Oh, it’s always the same,” she sighed, “if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.” Quote from W. Somerset Maugham. Image printed on mylar transparency, mounted on board and framed in rusted steel, then varnished. 16” x 24” See more like this.
2008
Mixed Media - Worlds Apart
Constructed from steel and found objects, this three-dimensional piece is lighted from within, casting an eerie glow upon the naked woman as see advances past the mannequin’s torso and into the dark and ominous carpenter’s shop. See more like this.
2008
Garden Art
Building with objects found nearby in Maine, I constructed these pieces, which now stand guarding the entrance to my cottage and studio on the water. The red-necked crane is constructed of a painted antique tool, steel brake disks, iron eyelets, concrete and spruce. 18” x 48” x 18” See more like this.
2008 - 2009
Clothed in Color - “The Lens of Desire”
Captured at widely spaced places and times, this image is built from two others, but married to create another layered piece. I hand painted the black and white image of a powerful and iconic woman with primitive colors, then set her behind a golden lens that is cracked and aged from overuse. It blends a voyeuristic theme common in my work with the archeological complexity that has attracted me recently. Pigment ink print. 11” x 16” is the favored size. See more like this.
2009
Worlds Apart - Voyeur Series
This small piece is interactive. The viewer must bend and peak through the brass eye holes, or must “cheat,” and peak around the sides. If I succeed in achieving even that level of involvement, i have succeeded, period. The viewer WANTS to see what is hidden, and that is the whole point: we are all voyeurs. It is made with a sense of humor, and I have been pleased when these pieces make people smile. Brass plate and image mounted on hardboard rubbed in pigment and wax. 11” x 14” See more like this. See the Skin and Steel pieces.
2009
Mixed Media - Icons of Desire
On land near the Atlantic coast in Maine lay this piece of driftwood. It was partially naked. I stripped it totally bare, then anointed it with oil, suspended it for all to see, and began to worship it. “Oh James, you see naked ladies everywhere!” Found drift wood and window frame, steel turnbuckles, whitewashed Japanese wall paper. 21” x 52” x 5” See more like this.
2008
Confessions of Desire - Book of Images
This image is on the cover of a prototype of my book, “Confessions of Desire.” The text seeks to reveal what is in my mind as I work to make art with naked women, but sometimes simply describes the technical processes used. This image is hand painted, and is part of my Clothed in Color series See more like this.
2008
In the Warehouse - “Anatomically Correct Mannequin”
This image, now in the permanent collection of the Kinsey Institute for Human Sexuality, is from a series of mages captured in the forbidding basement of a rambling Omaha warehouse inhabited by over two hundred naked mannequins. These are images in which the context dominates the viewer’s perception of the animate subject. See more like this.
2008
Clothed in Light - “Coming Apart III”
For some images I have written poems. See the poem for this image from my Clothed in Light series. See more images with accompanying text.
2004
Fantastical Impressions - “Underwood Winter”
Much of my work seeks to create dreams, and to reflect the inner life of a mind obsessed with sex and female beauty. These images are not always pretty, but the always seem to trigger some sort of narrative in the mind of the viewer. See more like this.
2006
Mixed Media - “Atlantic Horizon”
Constructed from copper, steel, brass and wood, and utilizing corrosive chemicals, pigments and waxes for further enrichment, my mixed media pieces incorporate found objects, marquetry by the artist, and limited edition pigment ink prints from the artist’s collection. See more like this.
2005
Surreality - “Waste Land”
I shot this image in a burned out portion of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming in the summer of 2007. The real scene seems almost surreal when frozen by a camera. See more like this.
2007
Video - “Clothed in Light”
This video shows my Clothed in Light images morphing from one to another to another, in a visual stream that is never static. It has served as an excellent tool to capture clients’ interest in a gallery context. See this video. See all my videos.
2007
