AVONDALE, Arizona – Art students at Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC) were tasked with developing their own theme for a photography assignment with the intent of inspiring and directing their work. After selecting a combination of several themes including nature, place, history and landscape, they created the title of “Free/Flux: Place, Change and the Psychology of Space.” The upshot was an invitation to exhibit their collection through the month of November at the Avondale City Hall Lobby Gallery. And that could be just the start.
These talented art students are enrolled in photographic art classes taught by EMCC faculty Jimmy Fike who is a foundational visionary for the college’s entire art program. He is always looking for ways to exhibit his students’ creative works for public reveal, but as a professional artist, he enjoys those same opportunities.
For the past seven years, Fike has been working on a photographic series about wild edible plants found across the United States. These plants are often considered “weeds” growing in yards, alleys, ditches and empty lots, but he explores them as food sources through his photographs and invites art gazers to realize their intrinsic value.
As Fike explains the process, the plants are excavated, arranged in the studio, photographed, and then illustrated digitally in such a way as to render the edible parts in color, contrasted by the inedible components which are in black and white.
This series, J.W. Fike’s Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of the North American Continent, caught the attention of the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento, California and now is one of three artists currently being featured in their Main Gallery.
His nationally recognized photographic works endeavor to find creative, contemporary ways to approach landscape by incorporating place, identity, ecology, and mythology. According to Fike, this series is intended to serve as an archive and guide for a sustainable future.
“This communal and ecological approach to photography was a new iteration of a life time fascination with landscape, nature, technology and mysticism,” says Fike. “I hope this approach literally changes the way viewers feel about the landscape upon leaving the gallery.”
Viewpoint will be showcasing selections from his series through Dec. 7, 2013. In January 2014, Fike’s work will be on exhibit at a one-person show at the Coe House Gallery in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona and a two-person show at the Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens in Ormond, Florida.