Where the day takes me….it could be anywhere. The camera habit started in my hometown, Chicago, inspired by architecture. With thirty-five+ years of SoCal living, I’m still on architecture but now also photo collage, focussed mainly on the co-mingling of urban scape and undeveloped land. The two collide in a complex, alluring and often infuriating way. It seems like you can’t control Greater Los Angeles at all, which is why it never seems neat, tidy and consciously well-tended like other cities. Big, beautiful mess - ‘beautiful’ in the broadest sense. As a neatnik, I reluctantly embrace the grandiose, blighted, pristine, polluted, decayed, unfinished, and drop-dead gorgeous, all mushed together in a crazy multiverse.
Method: I take snapshots ‘on the fly’ in an undisciplined manner with no pre-visualization or intent. These snaps are my “found objects” (as assemblage artists call stuff they pick up). Then I make collages from the digital detritus and never stop rearranging them. None of the pieces shown are complete; they’ll always be works in progress. But sometimes the image captured by one click of the shutter is simply wonderful and screw the collages.
I’ve ‘suffered’ from Visual Earworms that resulted in a series of related images that I can’t stop obsessing over. Some V.E’s include: single palm tree standing sentry in front of structure; little house with big cactus in front. I’ve worked these obsessions for all they are worth. I’ve also engaged in the dangerous and irresponsible habit of taking photographs while driving: don’t do that anymore. Oh,……and I also like trees. The result may be truth, lie or …..
…..You can do anything you like, it’s all fiction.
John Gossage, photographer
Instagram: @arlene.vidor
Would love it if you followed me on Instagram
EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions
Whimsical | Interspace, Art in the Arthouse, Laemmle Glendale, Glendale, CA, September 12, 2023 – February 27, 2024
Cactus, Splits and Coffee. KAFN Coffee Company, Glendale, CA. May -June, 2018
Solo exhibition, In the Hothouse, Antaeus Theatre, Kiki and David Gindler Performing Arts Center, Glendale CA, February-March 2018
Group Exhibitions
My World is Black and White, Lioncourt Gallery online, Arnol and Arch Rock, May, 2025
Motion, Decagon Online Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, Swirling, September 2024
Openings, Decagon Online Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, Drain Pipe Mischief July, 2024
Casting Shadows, Photo Art Pavilion Online, Golden Hour Mesquite Flat, Golden Hour Verdugo Road, Dining Room Wall, June 14, 2024
Brand 51 Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper, Glendale, CA. Urban Onion. Juror: , July 8 – September 1, 2023
International Monochrome online, Honorable Mention, The Way In, 2022
Brand 50 Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper, Glendale, CA, 2022. Fire: next time, Juror: Shannon Currie Holmes
Trees, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, North Yorkshire, Juror: 202
Trees, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX, Fountains Abbey, Juror , April 29 – June 9, 2022
International Monochrome online, Honorable Mention, Fountains Abbey, 2021
Julia Margaret Cameron Awards for Women Photographers, Barcelona Spain, 2021, Honorable Mention, Photo Collage Series, 2021 Jurors: and Online only, show cancelled/pandemic
Borders: Visible and Invisible, Gimpo Art Museum and Subway System, Gimpo, Korea (exchange between 4 Glendale and 4 Korea Artists). Irrigate photo collage, Curated by and . November 1 – November 30, 2021
Brand 49 Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper. Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA; Elysian, Juror: , 2021
Diptychs, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX. Two-faced city, Juror . March 12-May 9, 2021
Vistas, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX. View at Dusk, Juror: . August-September, 2020
A Jury of Your Peers, LightBox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR. Honorable mention for Calaveras Split, Neon Petunia. Jurors: Applicants to exhibition voted. March-April, 2020
Gallery 43, Assembly District 43 Photography Competition, winner for Neon Petunia. Jurors: , , Catherine McGann. October 11, 2019
Julia Margaret Cameron Awards for Women Photographers, Barcelona, Spain. St. Petersburg, Shore Dune|Short Sunset (series), Stonehenge, Calaveras Split, St. Petersburg. Juror: , October 2019
Light, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX. 5 o’clock dining room, Juror: , November 23, 2018 – January 26, 2019
13th Annual Black and White Spider Awards online, Archipelago, St. Petersburg, Calaveras Split, 2018
Members Juried Exhibition Catalog, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel California, Calaveras Split, Juror: , June-July, 2018
11th Annual International Color Awards online, Honorable mention: North Adams, runners up: Through the Chute, South Adams, Gas Station 1, Huntington Split. 2017
Lens 2018 International Juried Photography Exhibition, Perspective Fine Art Photography Gallery, Evanston, IL; 2nd place for San Pedro Mono, Juror: , 2018
Vistas, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX; Siuslaw. Juror: , 2017
12th Annual Black and White Spider Awards, online, Huntington, 2017
Quiet Landscape, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, Honorable Mention, Salisbury, Jurors: 2017
International Monochrome online, Honorable Mention, Stonehenge, 2016
11th Annual Black and White Spider Awards, Honorable Mentions: Better Off, Vigilance, Runners up: Back Stairs, Construction, Tube, Mendocino, TV Age, Chinatown, 2016
Alphabet, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX; San Pedro. Juror: , 2016
10th Annual International Color Awards online, runners up: Tartu Dress Shop, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Broad Window, Sao Paulo, Diver with Petunias, The Mailbox, Tailor, Services Included, 2016
Barnsdall LAMAG, Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, CA; Playtime at JPB, 2016
H2O, A Smith Gallery and East Main Grill, Johnson City, TX; Sunnylands. Juror: S. Gayle Stevens, 2015
10th Annual Black and White Spider Awards, online. Runners up: Steve S, Best Reception, Inside Henry Miller, 2015
Blue, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX; Blue Henge. Juror: , 2015
Magic, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX; Stay Out, Conjuring Gladys, Waiting for Treament. Juror: , 2015
9th Annual International Color Awards, Honorable Mention: Sao Paulo Market , Aqueduct, Altino Arantes View, San Pedro, 2015
Brand 42 Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA; Nancy’s Celebration, Juror: , 2014
Brand 38, Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA. Spring Bloom, Juror , 2009
Brand 36 Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper; Dennehy’s Dead Marriage (Eva Mason Award), Her Better Self(Burbank Fine Arts Federation Award), Juror: , 2008
Photo Chimera, 10 California Photographers, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA; Good Neighbor Suzanne, Fatal Distraction, Curator: , 2008
Brand 35 Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA; Into the Light, Juror: , 2007
Group Exhibitions of the Tropico Artists Collective
Tropico Artists Collective at Seeley Lofts, Glendale, CA, 2006
Tropico Artists Collective at Nickelodeon Studios, Burbank, CA., 2006
Tropico Redux, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA, 2005