Sometimes
I'd rather photograph a dead flower than a live one, although I
get excited about both. Maybe it's just
that dead ones last longer, and most photographers
go for the live ones. Dead ones tell us more about
transition, change, and imperfection.
vitae
I publish DallasArtsRevue, which
I've been making in this medium all this century and before
that I published on paper since December 1979.
I've been a photographer
since 1963, had photographs published in Life,
Jet, Texas Monthly, Texas Observer, Dallas Observer and a bunch of
other rags and in more than 90
exhibitions, a couple museums and even had a photograph
of Mel Farner in a floppy black hat and polka-dotted
shirt sandwiched between two other photos collaged
on the
cover of Grand Funk, Grand Funk Railroad's best-looking
LP cover.
I've been publishing stories about art
longer than anybody else in Dallas.
In the 1970s, I published
underground newspapers, including Dallas NOTES from the Underground and HOOKA (I
was Editor and Publisher of both of those as I am
of this now), Instant Karma Komix and later worked at
Fort Worth's Trinity
River Messenger, The Austin Rag, The Austin Sun and
San Antonio's River
City News. In 1974 I published a newsprint magazine
called armadilla about
the nine-banded armadillos (which begat,
eventually, DallasArtsRevue). I also photographed for, designed,
then co-published Texas
Jazz.
All my publications
have had to do with creating a sense of community.
Since graduating from
the University of Dallas, I've spent most of my life
in Dallas, Texas, USA. I know where things are, and I can
usually find my way there — and
back.
D-Magazine called
me "Dallas'
best local arts promoter."
To support my media
habits I've done a variety of jobs:
- Night Watchman at a Massage Parlor,
- Yellow Cab Driver
- Worker Bee at Mary B's Barbeque
- Secret Film Courier in Viet Nam,
- Instructor of Desktop Publishing
- Macintosh Computer Tutor
- Webmaker
for artists and galleries,
- Photographer of work that is art and
- Photographer of other artists'
work.
Sample photographs (including some fairly recent
ones) are
all over this and my
personal site.
I have also been on several boards of directors, which
is why I do not have one of those and do not wish to have
one, and this website will stop when I do.
I have been:
- The P R Guy and Founding
Board Member of Dallas Artists Research & Exhibition (DARE, which
became The MAC, kinda, a little, maybe, but usually
not much, although they think it did. They're wrong.)
- I was
also on the board of the trailing edge of Allen Street
Gallery, which disappeared off the face of the earth
shortly after they fired me. Nyaaah-nyaah!
I was
their Program Committee Chairperson, and they did
not find anyone else to do that job, so their benefactor
took
"their" building away when they stopped planning
any more exhibitions. Those idiots fired me because
I warned them about nepotism, a lot of which was
going on at the time. It got worse.
- Before that, I was a board-member of Electronic
Graphic Artists of Dallas (EGAD!), a Macintosh Users
Group, for which I had previously been the Disk
of the Month (DOM) Guy — a
much more interesting, important and fun job — distributing fonts,
utilities and other programs on floppy disks I either
gave away or sold for one dollar.
JRCompton.com has
many more photographs — and ideas, including some you
might not expect from whom you may think I am. There's
my words about
philosophy, psychiatry and romance — as if I knew anything
about any of those. My
resume, list
of exhibitions and exhibitions
produced and lots else, too.
That's also where you'll
find my Amateur
Birder's Journal usually about White Rock
Lake — I been
writing nearly week daily entries in it for more than
two years now.
See also How
to Photograph Art, How
to Start Showing Your Art and How
to Design
& Produce An Invitational Postcard in the Resource section
of this website.
