Jay Ressler • Artist

Jay Ressler • Artist

Artistic Images and Sometimes Commentary

  • Ancient Aqueduct
  • Bath Ruins
  • River Crossing
  • Icons of Lyon
  • Little Eifel
  • Overlook
  • Secret Passageway
  • Pencil and Eraser featured
  • Pencil and Eraser in background
  • Planter
  • Riverside
  • St Nizer church
  • Steep Staircase
  • Swimming on the River
  • Swimming Pools
  • The Weight of Oneself
  • Tree and Light in an Alley
  • Walking bridge
Europe France Lyon 

No. 38 Around the Town, Lyon, France

Jay M. Ressler 0 Comments ,

Lyon, France is situated at the convergence of two major rivers, the Saône and the Rhône. Many stunning bridges traverse the rivers, including several pedestrian bridges.

In Roman times it was the capital of Gaul and the largest city in North-western Europe. Two Roman emperors were born in what is now Lyon.

It has a long history as a center of industry and commerce. During the German occupation of France in World War II, Lyon was a center of working-class resistance to the Naxi occupation forces. Many secret passages and hidden courtyards helped many fighters elude German pursuers.

 

 

Jay M. Ressler

Jay Ressler Composite Photography, Encaustic Art, and Oil Painting He is an outstanding location photographer and painter, with an eye that can capture the soul of a Havana back street as beautifully as the sip of a hungry hummingbird, often with compelling black and white images. Jay Ressler is best known for artistic expression that lives in layers between opposites. “I like to explore boundaries,” he explains. “Boundaries between consciousness and the unconscious, between reality and imagination, between certainty and skepticism.” He does this by compositing his own photography in multiple layers to produce stunningly original, interleaved images. Using Photoshop, other image manipulation software and a variety of digital effects, he paints one photographic layer on top of another. He takes advantage of textures he's captured along with an array of processes for manipulating light, contrast, and color to tell the story. “Distorting and reinterpreting the literal 'machine moments' captured by the camera is as old as the art of photography,” he insists. Jay occasionally extends his multi-layered approach to encaustic mixed media creations. Based on ancient techniques, the process begins with cooking his own recipes of beeswax and damar resin and applying this medium between the layers of photographic images, along with various pigmented compounds and materials to add color, texture and expression. Either way, the results are riveting. The viewer is drawn into an unfolding, dreamlike scene that might be heart-warming, haunting, gritty, poignant or magical. Sometimes, within the various layers, all of the above. The award-winning photographer/artist has many dimensions himself. He studied advanced digital photography at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and advanced encaustic techniques with leading instructors in the field. He worked as an underground coal miner, steelworker, machinist, labor and civil rights activist, copywriter and commercial printer. He has a BS in Psychology from Albright College.

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