By Sara Hall | NB Indy
Marian Jones has always been a creative soul.
After being a writer and journalist in Hollywood for more than 20 years, she moved to Corona del Mar (CdM) with her husband, cartoonist and animator Chuck Jones, and pursued another art: photography.
Her most recent work, a collection of photos displaying natural forms and designs found near the ocean, is on display at the Newport Beach Public Library until Oct. 31. The exhibit, “Shoreline Vision,” was shot in Crystal Cove and a few other beaches in the CdM area.
“Crystal Cove has a lot of appeal. It’s a great subject to photograph,” said Jones, who grew up in Santa Barbara exploring beaches and collecting seashells. She has always loved the beach and is intrigued by the ocean, she said. She wants her photos to give a “sense of how magical all of that is.”
Many of the photos in “Shoreline Vision” are close-up shots, displaying the details of the seashore. Jones said she wanted to show a different perspective of the beach, to give a different feeling to the viewer.
Jones also gave all of the photos a special watercolor-like Photoshop effect and printed all of them on a fine art matte paper to give the prints a more fluid, watery look and feel.
“I wanted to bring out different aspects (of each photo),” Jones said. “(For example) the texture of the rock, the vibrancy of the roots.”
The exhibit is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission. The photo exhibit is just one of the many cultural activities the commission sponsors at the library.
All of the photos on display are for sale, and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity in Orange, a non-profit foundation that encourages the creative side of people of all ages, especially children.
Jones encouraged her creative side during her years as a writer. She worked in the entertainment field and met and conducted a lot of interviews with a lot of interesting people, she said, including her husband Chuck. She wrote for TV Guide, newspapers, several half-hour TV shows, a cartoon and worked with Chuck as a researcher and writer.
“I enjoyed it a lot,” said Jones about her days as a writer. “(But) I’ve always been interested in painting and photography.”
Jones has been a photographer since she retired nearly 20 years ago. Most of her work is outdoors, both detail shots and landscapes.
A few words of advice for budding photographers, she said: assume that the first 1,000 photos will be bad. And assume that you will be constantly frustrated. But getting that one good shot will make it all worth it, she said.
She has probably taken thousands upon thousands of photos while working on her own projects, she said, and there have been many projects.
One of those was a series of take-offs on famous artists, which included “Nude Barbie Descending a Staircase” (a take-off from Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase”) that was featured in a New York exhibit and in several books.
She has done several other projects throughout the years and her work has been shown in galleries across the US, including a solo show at Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.
“I’ve learned a lot along the way,” she said. “You learn a lot with every photo you take.”
For her next project she will be reviewing some of her old photos, concentrating on shots with abstract designs and bold colors, and seeing how she can manipulate them to create an entirely different piece of art. She is also working on a book about herself and Chuck, and about his attitude about life, art and creativity.
“I can’t imagine not doing something creative,” Jones said. “It’s just beyond me.”
Being able to express herself creatively is just part of the fun, she said. Finding something new (or a new way of looking at something old and familiar) is what really fascinates her, she said, because there is no end to what she might come across.
“It’s discovering something, that’s the intriguing part of it” Jones said, “I just hope I don‘t run out of film.”
