Making a painting
Spending time back in Maine over the summer meant being closer to family and friends, including Phil Muolo. Phil is not only an amazing painter, but he is also a killer tattoo artist (I am lucky to have several tattoos by Phil). Phil’s paintings have always blended the natural with the supernatural, fine technique with abstraction. They are uniquely his style, and damn good because of it. One thing, of many, that I appreciate about Phil’s artistic process is his willingness to let the creative flow take him where it will. He doesn’t force anything and allows himself to see where his mind, eye, and hand take him. This process is clearly evident in his work.
To develop a more contemporary portfolio of editorial- and documentary-style portraits, I asked Phil if he would be willing to be a subject. I wanted to capture the making of a painting (at least the start of one), including a few formal portraits and documentation of his environment and creative process. You can see the final products in this gallery.
I’ve included a few additional photographs in this post that I really liked but didn’t quite fit into the final “story” displayed in the gallery. For these, I chose black and white to offer an alternative to the smooth, summery, mid-morning hues of the colour photographs (damn, that Hasselblad Natural Colour Solution is good!). The black and white also provides a nice documentary feel.
Over the next few months, I am hoping to document and photograph a few folks in my network to start building out this portfolio. Underneath it all, a new, more formal project is materializing. Way too early to say, so we’ll see where it goes.
In the meantime, if you’re in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire and Southern Maine and looking for a new tattoo, check out Phil at Hobos Tattoo.
