The arts break through our daily patterns to remind us that life is miracle, all of it.  Of course, the arts can also be prophetic and address human shortcomings, but the underlying vision of prophesy is a life more whole and more compassionate than what we have now.  If art sounds a bit like religion, that's because it is.  Artists from street mimes to playwrights to Pablo Picasso are all part of this tradition, as were prophets from Isaiah to James Baldwin.  

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How I got here. Degrees in English and divinity are artifacts of early attempts to articulate the miracle.  Fortunately, the English program at my university emphasized that literature was one of the arts, and the divinity program allowed me to take studio art classes at Cal Berkeley.  It was in Berkeley that I first identified as an artist and joined the Kala Printmaking Collective to create and show my work.  Later my medium changed to photography: I was selected for several juried shows, participated in group shows, and met inspiring colleagues.  When I moved to serve a church in Omaha, I was invited to show work each month at Connect Gallery because gallery owners Tom and Jean Sitzman liked my work in spite of the fact that they found it almost impossible to sell photography.  Thank you, Tom and Jean.

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Now.  After Anne and I retired to Santa Fe, it took a while to become present in my new surroundings.  New Mexico lacks the challenging mountains of Colorado as well as the compelling flatness of the Midwest.  It has something else, what we who live here experience as connection, both physical and spiritual, to the earth.  The nexus cannot be photographed directly, but only through intimation.

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Connection.  If you would like to reach me in order to show my work, to purchase a piece, to ask a question, or to make a comment, please feel free to email me.

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Acknowledgements.  The list of the remarkable people who nurtured and shaped my life and work would take a website of its own.  I want to mention two: first, my father, who modelled a life of gratitude; and second, Stuart Klipper, an extraordinary photographer who served on a panel of jurors for an award I didn't receive.  Stuart subsequently called to say that he believed that I should have been the recipient and offered to become something of a mentor.  It's people like these who open our lives.

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All the photographs are printed on archival paper somewhere between glossy and matte.  This allows me to print at high resolution (720 pixels per inch) without the glare of glossy paper.  Images are printed with a half-inch border on 13 by 19 inch paper, 17 by 22 inch paper, or 13 by 38 inch panorama paper.

      Frank Rivas