Robert Kendall Priel

About the Artist

   I am a traditionally trained artist skilled in multiple media disciplines, current Associates in Arts: Photography student with a completed Photography Certification, and proud Navy veteran with six years of free-lance photography hobby experience prior to college. My current focus is on my "Shattered Past" photo series where I photograph various types of antique broken glass with a variety of experimental techniques.

Artist's Statement

Artist Statement: “Shattered Past” photo series     My whole life, I have had a fascination with glass and the way it bends light. In 2016, I discovered a way to combine my art skills with this phenomenon in my photography. This led to my current photo series, "Shattered Past". In this series, I channel my Japanese heritage with the ancient philosophy of Wabi-sabi by photographing various types of antique broken glass with a variety of experimental techniques. Similar to the art form of Kintsugi, all compositions included in my Shattered Past series emphasize how something used, broken, and thrown away as trash can be recovered and made more beautiful than ever before with just a little bit of care. This is of course a metaphor for broken people who, like the glass in the compositions, can be picked back up and put back together brighter and more interesting than the way they started. Scars give people character the same way cracks do with glass. This is the message I convey with each and every composition in this series.