ArtScuttlebutt.com member Phil Napala (www.PhilNapala.com) is unique among many artists in that he doesn’t consider himself to be one. The 58-year-old digital photographer and recent retiree believes his current work is simply an extension of his former occupation as a NASA engineer.
“At six-years-old, I was an engineer, and I’m still an engineer in my head,” he says. “I use my art the same way I use scientific research. My process has always been about solving problems.”
As a boy, Napala’s father had a darkroom, so he took up photography as a hobby. His early observations laid the foundation for his approach to taking pictures.
“My work is small and intimate,” he explains. “It gets so close to the subject; you can almost touch it with your hand.”
Later, in his adulthood, Napala put his hobby aside for more than 30 years while he pursued other interests. While in college, he was given the opportunity to work with NASA at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Afterward, he joined the space program, doing research on aircraft and rockets.
Then, in 2003, the Smithsonian held an exhibition of watercolors by Walter Anderson. Napala was blown away by the artist’s vision. He resolved to dedicate at least one hour a day to art.
“From that day, I kept doing it, a little every day, and I started building my stuff,” he states.
The return to taking photographs also meant a return to using film, but Napala quickly became frustrated with the processing. Not only was it expensive, it was taking him weeks to get his slides developed. Napala made the switch to digital in 2004.
Napala uses several in-camera techniques and digital manipulation to create his images, and has even made his own lenses from pieces of aircraft. He prefers to leave a sense of mystery to his subject matter, deliberately creating blurry and indistinct images.
“If the image is too clear, people have already determined what it is,” he explains. “When I show my work to people, they imagine other things that I never saw.”
Napala’s work is also deeply influenced Japanese woodblocks: “I study Japanese woodblocks because the artists figured out how to express (themselves) in simplicity,” he says. “Because of the limitation of the media, the image has few elements. The construction is beautiful and so balanced.”
He is attracted particularly to the use of simple lines and negative space for impact, and greatly admires the work of printmaker Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), best known for The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Napala has used Hokusai’s woodblocks as the basis for his own method of composing photographs. To achieve the minimalism of a woodblock, Napala invented a system he calls B-B-C: “background, balance and clarity.”
“When you go shoot, you find your background first, then you find your subjects,” he says. “Try to keep it clean and eliminate anything that obstructs the balance. The clarity is the three points you want people to focus on. I use this system on all of the things I do.”
Since his retirement from NASA, Napala has opened himself up to a slew of new artistic endeavors. Last month, Napala opened The Door Gallery in Falls Church, Virginia, to showcase his work. He has also exhibited at art fairs, had several public art proposals accepted, and is currently represented by Stifel and Capra Gallery (www.StifelandCapra.com) in Virginia.
His professional persistence has resulted in six upcoming exhibitions in 2009 and 2010. Three of his pieces are part of “Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate,” a traveling exhibition put together by the Holz Museum of Art in Montana, which will tour 10 museums over the course of three years. To teach children about tolerance and compassion, PBS has filmed a television special about the exhibition. Although Napala is still largely inexperienced as a professional artist, he remains unfazed by it: “I’m doing it because it’s out of character, and so maybe, I’ll learn something new.” AC
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