Valerie Mangion         

The Night Vision series is based on photographs taken with my trail camera. Trail cameras have motion-activated sensors and use infra-red light to take photographs without human intervention, day or night. I place the camera in various areas around the farm to see the wildlife that we know is here, but that we rarely see during the day. Taking pictures in this passive way feels like... fishing with light. Translating the photographs to paintings allows me to create new compositions, change the format and size, and see if I can create beautiful, interesting images using color so subtle that it appears the images are black, white and gray.  In this series I'm experimenting with a combination of various blacks straight from the tube, as well as blacks mixed from dark blues, browns, violets, greens, purples, oranges and reds. (Later note: after the first three images, I stopped using "tube blacks," finding mixed optical blacks to have much more depth and visual appeal, to me.)

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The Night Vision paintings were shown at the James Watrous Gallery in Madison, WI, in July and August of 2016. That was a wonderful experience in so many ways.

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Though sometimes a one-person show marks the end of a series, Night Vision is a continuing part of my art practice. I never get tired of seeing what and who my trail camera captures, and I never stop finding inspiration from these images.

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