Daily Inspiration: Meet Reed Hearne

Today we’d like to introduce you to Reed Hearne.

Hi Reed, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am an artist, writer and third-generation Valley native who grew up in Scottsdale in the sixties when people still tied their horses up to hitching posts in old town and the closest nightlife was miles away in Phoenix. As soon as I could manage it, I fled to California to seek adventure and find the cultural influences I had always been drawn to. I spent most of my adult life in San Francisco where I earned a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of San Francisco and an MA in English from San Francisco State University. During that period I interned with renowned art historian Carl Loeffler at La Mammelle. It was at that legendary Art Space that I participated in chronicling the emerging contemporary art scene blossoming on the West Coast in tandem with technology and the Internet. During the nineties and early millennium, I concentrated on writing and published a dozen short stories. In 2007 I returned to Arizona where I went full circle back to my original passion of visual art, only this time utilizing photography as my primary and essential tool. My art is currently exhibited and sold from my own website ReedHearne.Com as well as other online art galleries such as RiseArt.Com, based in London. In 2016 and 2017, I received Honorable Mentions at the Moscow International Foto Awards as well as the Tokyo International Foto Awards. At Rise Art, I was shortlisted for the Rise Art Prize and received High Commendations from the international panel of judges. In 2018, I had a solo exhibition at The Onyx Gallery in Phoenix, Arizona. I was also honored to present my work at Photo LA as a Top 20 Finalist of FOCUS Photo LA for both the Winter Show in Los Angeles and the Summer Show in NYC. Most recently, I was selected for the 2024 Tuscon Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art. My art is included in public and private collections in the U.S. and internationally. Because I believe creativity is always a process and never a destination, I will always consider myself an “emerging” artist.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Because much of my work doesn’t resemble what most people recognize as photography, I’ve struggled with how to categorize it. Instead of freezing a recognizable moment for posterity, I use the camera to forage for color, shapes, composition, and texture divorced from any frame of reference that identifies the subject matter. After an intuitive process of manipulation, the result is a digital painting that doesn’t represent the objects in front of the lens but has been turned into its own subject. Some artists have designated this kind of work as digital expressionism, however, that label can also include computer-generated content that doesn’t originate in the camera. I only use my own photography and digital manipulation programs (never AI) to steer the viewer toward unexpected ways of crafting meaning out of what they encounter in their field of vision.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
For me, creating art means I’ve entered a process where the outcome is indeterminate. Occasionally, someone will ask, “How did you come up with that?” The answer is, “I didn’t.” From the second something in the world captivates the attention of my camera to the finished piece, I’m simply walking an uncensored path of intuition that leads to the creative state. If I stay engaged, I begin to be pulled by forces beyond the control of my ego. Each step in the process is entirely determined by the previous step, until the thing itself, whatever it is, has worked itself into existence by offloading my mind and engaging my heart and curiosity. Just like a dancer whose choreography has become body memory or a musician who doesn’t have to think about the individual notes, this freedom to embrace emotional spontaneity requires the skills from years of practice and trial and error. It’s a beautiful irony that you have to use your mind to develop the skills that will eventually allow you the freedom to ignore them and allow creation to flow.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The art world landscape, like everything else, has been significantly impacted by the internet. Social media now allows artists from all over the world to be instantly connected to share their work with the public and ideas with each other. Twenty years ago, I would never have been able to afford the cost of framing a dozen or more works for a gallery exhibition that may or may not produce sales. Today, I can show my work online and produce limited-edition prints to order. Artificial Intelligence is obviously the great wild card of the future. My take is that, thus far, it’s in direct opposition to the creative process. It mimics and undoubtedly surpasses the ability of the human mind to make abstract connections between disparate elements. What it can’t do is enter the mysterious realm of the collective unconscious, where I believe true creativity resides.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ReedHearne.Com
• Instagram: reed2hearne
• Facebook: reed.hearne
• Linkedin: Reed Hearne