NORTH DAKOTA ART GALLERY ASSOCIATION
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      • Jennifer & Brian Matthews
      • Roxi Mathis
      • Mitch Melberg
      • Paul & Dakota Noot
      • Matthew Norton
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      • Deana Novak >
        • Deana Novak
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      • Mack Schroer
      • Dawson Shafer
      • Dan Smith
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      • Beau Theige
      • Erica Thune
      • Avis Veikley
      • Jessica Wachter
      • Emily Williams-Wheeler
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Dan Smith

Hoops
Photography
February 2019 - January 2020

Artist Statement

"This project as seen started with one image.

The Old Idaho State Penitentiary was the site. The witness room of the Execution Chamber the location. One small window looking out.

The shadow of a basketball standard on an empty prison yard.

The first of what was to be HOOPS, an exploration. A trip into barns, yards, garages and fields. A visit to a world of aspiration and hope, of youthful dreams and bitter failure.

These basketball hoops put up for kids to play with, farmhands to keep occupied while waiting for a grain wagon or load of hay - were the subject matter. Sculpted by light, location and weather they remain. Silent and gradually decaying via wind, water and time.

I enter with a camera and an idea quietly shaping the quest for meaning in images devoid of people. The suggestion of activity in silence. 

Gradually the idea took shape and images presented themselves before my lens.

Images that, at times seemed to jump out of the day as I chanced upon a basketball standard. Others dimly seen in passing and only recognized after many visits, finally to reveal subject matter worth stopping for. Still others seen clearly, yet not realized until weather and light and opportunity combined for an image worth the effort.

Night skies, morning dew - an animal emphasizing the playground nature of the quest. Hay and farm machinery and winter winds in sub zero temperatures. The net made of baling twine... the bare rim, the shadow.

HOOPS, images of dreams, hopes and daily life. Tangible reminders of youth too quickly gone, friendships of the past pushed aside by the demands of the day.

​I stop and I photograph. Seeking quiet, the memory of days long gone.  These remnants of life once seemingly important. Totems of happiness and friendship and effort. All in images seen and felt as I photograph, as I print and as I exhibit them."

Touring Schedule

Cando Art Center
February 1-28, 2019
Dickinson State University
October 1-31, 2019
The Arts Center
December 12, 2019 - January 18, 2020
Picture
PO Box 714, Williston, ND 58802 | (701) 557-9443​
Picture
NDAGA is sponsored in part with funds from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
  • Home
  • About
    • 2023 Annual Meeting
    • Member Galleries
  • 2023 Proposals
  • Exhibitions
    • Charles Beck
    • Arvin K Davis Jr
    • Doug Engberg
    • Lacey Holmen
    • Charles Lee
    • Marilyn Niewoehner
    • Linda Olson
    • Katie Vasbinder
    • Morgan Wagner
    • Past Exhibitions >
      • 2020 Governor's Photo Contest
      • Matthew Anderson & Michael Conlan
      • Jamie Azevedo
      • Lino Azevedo
      • BisMan Writers Guild
      • Susan Brekke
      • Johnathan Campbell
      • David Driesbach
      • Jim Falck
      • Carol Fielhaber
      • Mark Holter
      • Hooshang Khorasani
      • Sharon Linnehan
      • Jennifer & Brian Matthews
      • Roxi Mathis
      • Mitch Melberg
      • Paul & Dakota Noot
      • Matthew Norton
      • NOTSTOCK
      • Deana Novak >
        • Deana Novak
      • Walter Piehl
      • Mack Schroer
      • Dawson Shafer
      • Dan Smith
      • Suite 1 Artists
      • Beau Theige
      • Erica Thune
      • Avis Veikley
      • Jessica Wachter
      • Emily Williams-Wheeler
  • Resources
  • Donate
  • Contact