Barry Opatz Provenance of Abstract Wonderland

Abstract Wonderland Barry Opatz and Randy Jarvis abstract photographs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgXb9LKSxg4 Barry Opatz Provenance, March 2013

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Table of Content 1)

National Fine Arts Title Registration

2)

Barry Opatz’s Transcription of his video Provenance

3)

Related material

4)

National Fine Arts Registration , 3 x 3 Price cards, 3.5” x 2” Promo Card

5)

Additional photographs

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Barry Opatz & Randy Jarvis

Barry Opatz Provenance of his and Randy Jarvis abstract photographs Recorded March, 2013

Barry Opatz Provenance of “Abstract Wonderland” 0:00 0:05 0:13 0:18 0:21 0:27 0:32 0:36 0:44 0:46 0:52 1:03 1:08 1:11 1:14 1:19 1:22 1:26 1:29 1:35 1:41

March, 2013

Welcome to “Abstract Wonderland.” That's the title of this series that my friend, Randy Jarvis and I produced over three years at this particular location in Wisconsin.

This particular photo or image you're looking at right now has various meanings for various people which is one of the beauties of the abstract images we produced. Everyone sees something different. I saw it as almost an album cover from the seventies, of a Moody Blues album. My friend, Randy sees it as a flying bird and calls it the the “bird shot.”

As we have employees and customers touring Marco, each one as they look at this kind of come up with their own ideas. This series started from a phone call from my friend Randy. He stumbled upon this museum of railroad cars in Wisconsin and called me on his cell phone, very excited. He spoke a in a real clipped and quick fashion and and he's the first one who used the term, “Abstract Wonderland,” that he had discovered.

I could tell his excitement, and knew that a photo journey was probably in the making, as I had to see what he was so excited about.

He sent me some images on an email.

After looking at them, I immediately called him and said, “Randy, when can we get back there and do some work on these?”

We set a date, and I travelled to Spooner, Wisconsin with him and we went to the railroad museum and started our work.

It was a drizzly day and we had to work in the rain most of the day

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and that, I think, is what helped us achieve a lot of the depth and the brightness of the color that you see in these images. They were all wet and we had plastic bags over our equipment - it was kind of fun, working through those struggles In fact, we got a couple images of each other, trying to stay dry taking these photographs.

We came back several weeks later and the sun was out, everything was dry and it was a bright sunny day which you would think would be perfect for photography but those images didn't turn out nearly as wonderful as the ones and you see here. We spent three different sessions over the course of a whole summer going back and shooting these railroad cars.

Sadly they're gone. We don't really know what happened to them, but most of them moved out and I don’t know if they sold them, or they're in various stages of being restored. So we feel some of them maybe were restored in some people's mind, but in our mind, they were ruined because they now have a fresh coat of paint.

It was kind of fun watching us work if you would have been there.

We went on our separate ways and didn't see each other for, you know, half 2:58: an forty five minutes at a time - all engrossed in, you know, the detail in the 3:05 photographs that we were seeing, but you'll be amazed at how many similar locations that we we found that we have similar images, yet we discovered them on our own at different times. Some, we went back and worked harder the second and third time, and it seemed like as we took these photographs, we kept zeroing in closer and closer for less and less of the surrounding image and more detail of a very micro part of the railroad car.

Now we made sure, or at least on most of mine, that we left some of the rivets that you see in some of the images in so that there was a little tie-in to the real, and yet, it was abstract enough so you really didn't know what they came from and that's kind of half the fun, when people look at them, they really don't know what they are. Many people think they're paintings.

Many people feel they're highly manipulated in Photoshop, and when I tell him that these are simply railroad cars in different stages of disrepair with very minor adjustments in photoshop for clarity and maybe a little tweak in color and they are what they were live at the railroad yard and they're pretty shocked at that.

Why these railroad cars were such wild colors, we don't know, and some of the paintings and the colors were astounding but it really added dimension to the artwork and made it pretty exciting.

It was really fun when I showed these to Kate Kodak, the artist who was helping - the designer who is helping them facilitate the art in the Marco new facility. I showed her these images, she became very excited and thought they represented a very modern approach that we're trying to get across in the building. And I had another friend who had already shared with me a mounting technique - he works at a graphics house in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. So these are printed on a silver metallic paper and laminated onto a plexiglass and then mounted through these standoffs, or “pucks,” we call them, against the wall, so very modern look.

The designer again, Kate, agreed that that would be a very good way to

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showcase the art in this facility and, as you could see if you came to Marco and take a tour, we've got them throughout the building.

We get a lot of comments from employees and also from customers visiting.

They find it intriguing that it was an employee that actually produced the the photographs that are in the building. We try to do that at Marco. We have a culture of using the talents of everybody in the company.

We actually have a band that we affectionately call “The Marco Band.”

It isn't, but it's a group of employees that are musicians, and we use them in employee functions quite often.

So it's been fun to have them up and displayed in such a dramatic fashion.

They are very large many are thirty-two by forty-eight or larger I really don’t have anything else to say about the artwork, but I welcome you to come to Marco and take a tour, I’d be happy to show you all the images and we can talk a little more about it.

Date: Title:

April 15, 2013 Abstract Wonderland

Owner:

Barry Opatz & Randy Jarvis Abstract Wonderland

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PROVENANCE Art: Artist: When: Why:

Abstract Wonderland Barry Opatz & Randy Jarvis Summer 2011 Because the opportunity to chase the light was there!

Displayed: Marco, St Cloud, MN Contact: barryo@marconet.com

Scan to watch Barry’s video Provenance

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PROVENANCE - Abstract Video Art: Artist: When:

Abstract Wonderland -Video Barry Opatz - Photo Randy Jarvis - Photo Jim McAlister - Video Summer of 2011 - Photo March 2013 - Video

Scan to view video

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Barry Opatz’s and Randy Jarvis Provenance of their Abstract Wonderland photographs 3.5” x 2” Card

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Barry Opatz & Randy Jarvis www.AbstractWonderland.com

Artists Statement:

Abstract Wonderland

Abstract Wonderland