Welcome to Inkriver
Inkriver contains original work in photography and graphic art. My name is Paul Saturley. I used to teach photography and do commercial graphic work, but these days inkriver is largely a labour of love. I have also restarted Casa Diablo, which is a blog of very short, atmospheric, and largely fictional writing. It has its own subdomain on inkriver and will hopefully fill out a bit more in months to come.
I live on Vancouver Island, on Canada’s West Coast. It is one of the most spectacular places in Canada to call home — at times glorious, but also dark and mysterious. The fog can roll in for days at a time. Some of the trees are ancient. It turns green in the winter. There is a lot of wildlife.
Please do not use the work on this site without permission. Just contact me and we’ll work out something simple. It’s the right thing to do.
Paul Saturley, 2019
Things as they likely aren't
There days I am torn between photography (things as they more or less are) and digital constructions (things as they more or less might be). While the former offers recognizable subjects and some kind of allusion to a supposed truth, the latter
offers the freedom to explore the unseen. It is a massive romp through the imagination. I confess that these days, the latter is holding more of my attention. It uses elements of photography but doesn’t exclusively rely on them.
Some New Friends of Mine
Uncle Chaos and Friends, seen above, was concept work undertaken for album art. In the end, the pieces weren’t used, but I got a lot of pleasure out of doing them. The originals are quite large. Uncle Chaos is a bit of a Frankenstein with some missing pieces.
Much like his namesake, he never quite makes it to an ordered state. He may be a little dangerous. The Space Kite and My Stoner Pal are contented creatures, but Mr Bitter, well, he is really something else. I’d watch out for him.
For more of this kind of image, take a look through the Constructions gallery here. The actual CR cover art for the album, Maniacal, appears below. That is an actual deceased crow. It was on a sidewalk. I like to think I immortalized it just a little.
Pain
Recent work has, for the moment, taken a dark turn. It’s funny how you come upon things. I was listening to a band called PAIN. Their music has nothing to do with the work presented here, but the name caused me to think that pain is hidden from most of us. In the West, we disguise pain with medication.
And yet it is a vital part of the human condition. It announces our arrival, warns of danger, and signals our eventual departure from the world. Perhaps it is the fear of death that keeps us quiet. Perhaps pain is a little death.
