Walter Nelson

“There is No Such Thing as the End”

There is no such thing as the End

Beginning some 50 years ago I ventured into the arts, leaving a secure conventional employment, standing in the food stamp lines reading my how to photography books. Coming from a genetic history of artist I decide to become a photographer instead of a painter because I could not draw a straight line, so in 1967 in Houston, Texas I walked into commercial photography. In 1979 I moved to New York City to expand my chosen path and walked into the big world of all the arts.

Searching for a unique expression in visual form I began experimenting with pastels and gesso on paper for the background element, combining still life floral arrangements with vase and fabric, the end result being a dye-transfer portfolio of 10 images “Fleur”, another being “Dreamtime” based on the Australian Aborigine Mythology.

From this junction I started producing sculpture relief paintings with high texture and form. As time advanced my work reached into multi-mediums the end result being the photograph. A merger of 3 dimensional form into a 2 dimensional image by taking out the shadow when printed on a signal dimensional surface looked like a painting from a distance where upon approaching the person viewing recognizes a photograph.

As time proceeded my work got more complex with an impressionistic pallet – color and texture. Working with the idea of sculpture relief form I produced several works of art using various material to achieve an end never repeating myself after completing a series.

At present time I am moving into a broad color field abstract expression with symbolist forms combined with drawings.

My life and my art is a constant journey into the unknown, always looking ahead, never behind, a positive and spiritual quest to understand and portray inner and outer existence.

Walter W. Nelson

Web site: https://www.walterwnelson.com/
Email: [email protected]

Marfa statetement

I am a multi-disciplined artist working in photography, painting, sculpture, and sculpture-relief paintings. Over the past forty years I have produced five portfolios, including several series of sculpture-relief paintings, paintings on canvas and paper, and photography series both in color, B&W gelatin silver and platinum palladium prints.

Two books of my photography have been published: “Ribbons Of Time: The Dalquest Research Site,” in the Big Bend area of Texas; and “The Black Place: Two Seasons,” focused on the area in New Mexico where Georgia O’Keeffe painted and produced one of her most beautiful abstract paintings called “Black Place II”.

In 1989, author Douglas J. Preston and I retraced Coronado’s journey through Arizona and New Mexico on horseback, traveling a distance of 1000 miles over a 70-day period. Douglas recounted our journey in his widely acclaimed book “Cities Of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest,” and I documented the adventure with a combination of 8×10 and 35mm cameras.

My creative work began in 1967, spanning a period of 40 years.  My journey into the visual arts has been long and complex.  I first explored the field of photography, traveling around the world, discovering spiritual places, deep landscapes, places of origin, experimenting with abstract colors and textures, always seeking the visual heart of existence in the desert, mountains, canyons, rivers, and cities of this great world.

In traveling this visual journey, I have relied on the masters, past and present, for inspiration in light and shadow, color, texture, form and ideas.  I used these inspirations as a point of departure for my voyages into visual delights and mystical realms, my work striving to be present in the moment, to take the viewer “from the without to the within and back to the without again”.

I later branched out to painting and sculpture, and I combine all three together into a richness of color, texture and form, a unique and ever-expanding visual tapestry of mind and consciousness. At present time I am moving into broad color field abstract expressions with symbolist forms.

My life and my art is a constant journey into the unknown, always looking ahead, never behind, a positive and spiritual quest to understand and portray inner and outer existence