WINTER SPRINGS—Artist Alex Lanier was excited to participate in his first outdoor showing at the 11th annual ARToberFEST held at the Winter Springs Town Center Oct. 20-21.
Lanier uses Adobe Photoshop to manipulate photos he takes on his Sony A7 Mirrorless Digital Camera. His overall goal, he said, is to tell stories through the impossible situations and elements he creates in his photos.
For example, his series titled, Gentrification, shows how gentrification can make areas look chaotic because they aren’t ready for gentrification.
“I wanted to exaggerate it in each of my images to prove the point how crazy it can look in certain places,” Lanier said.
Lanier also produced what he calls the Vacation series, where he manipulated photos he took of places he and his wife, Christi, have traveled.
“My style is photography, 3D and digital painting,” Lanier said, talking about his piece, “Hot Tub.” In that photo, Lanier brought a hot tub into the middle of the desert in Abu Dhabi to “make everything come alive.”
The Burj Al Arab in Dubai is another photo from the Vacation series. A lot of jaw dropping events took place on this platform. For instance, a commercial of two people playing tennis was shot 56 stories in the air.
Lanier saw this photo of the platform as an opportunity to take it to the next level and “out do” the commercial by placing Connect 4 machines on the top. Detail is important to Lanier, he said.
Looking closely at the image, the Connect 4 pieces are Bitcoins, representing the gambling on the building, as a lot of money was put into it. If it didn’t work, there would have been a big loss, he explained.
“It’s great to see art with imagination,” said one local festival goer. “That’s what it’s supposed to be all about.”
Lanier named Spanish surrealist paints Salvador Dali as one of his artistic influences. All of Lanier’s work can be found on his website: www.alexlanier.com/work#/dream-series/ and his Instagram page at alexlanierart.
The Winter Springs festival featured more than 100 artists. The many different crafts included paintings, jewelry shark tooth jewelry, pottery and more.