A whale shark off the Yucatán Peninsula
“ I ’ ve gone through the different painting movements and have adopted styles from the painters but through a photographic medium and it broadened my interest and my artistic vocabulary .”
After being exposed to photography at an early age , Wolfe explored other art forms and ended up attending University of Washington for fine arts , not photography , in the early 1970s . While there , he had the pleasure of studying under professors such as Jacob Lawrence , an internationally recognized painter , with works hanging in the White House and the Smithsonian . Lawrence left a lasting mark on Wolfe . “ He told me to not be so pleased with the work I was doing that I didn ’ t leave room for growth and learning . He said that to everyone in the class , and the people that really stuck to their style or only painted one way , basically , left the class before the end of the semester . He spurred me on to keep experimenting and pushing the carrot slightly beyond my reach , so I ’ m always being motivated by something new and better . I ’ ve taken that to heart for all these years .”
Living in the Northwest exposed him to many ways of engaging with nature , which inspired his original interest in a fine art degree . “ When I was at University of Washington , I started climbing . I climbed all the volcanos in the North Cascades while I was in college and by the time I graduated my allegiance had shifted to photography . It was far easier to make original compositions through the photographic medium than sitting and conjuring up an image on a blank canvas .”
Wolfe goes on to say , “ There was a perfect parallel between what I had learned in painting and photography because I applied a lot of the theory to my photography . If you asked me who my favorite artists were , the answer would lie in painters rather than photographers . Right out of college I started emulating some of the impressionist painters like Monet and Seurat , photographing in ways that emulated them , to the point that it became my style as well . Through the years I ’ ve gone through the different painting movements and have adopted styles from the painters but through a photographic medium and it broadened my interest and my artistic vocabulary . The broader my knowledge base the better my work became .”
His desire to keep things interesting and new is what initiated his fascination with abstract photography — even now Wolfe has a collection of abstract work — the research for which has provided the impetus for a new series of classes and will someday be another book . “ Abstract
76 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE