The Art of Robert Buelteman

I have never seen myself as an art museum enthusiast, nor have I ever been able to actually appreciate art and the messages it expresses. But never before have I ever been so taken away by an artist's work. Through his unique, inventive use of technology, Robert Buelteman proves in his images of "Through the Green Fuse," the momentary beauty of plants and their visual metaphors for human life. Buelteman's "Cortaderia Selloana" meaning Pampas Grass, caught my eye as soon as I entered his gallery. The colors and form of the image are breathtaking and even furthermore, his process for the creation of this image is fascinating. His choices of exotic plants all of whose characteristics range from delicate to dramatic seem to have been so meticulously chosen and for this piece in particular, pampas grass was a perfect selection because of how sharp and defined each blade of grass is. Buelteman's true messages of these images are expressed not only through his inventive process but through the media he incorporates into the process.

Buelteman has utilized a variety of media to present his vision which depicts "the universe as designed and life as purposeful." He finds his sources in the visible world of nature and each seem particularly chosen. Buelteman uses the lights and tools of photography to create his works of art "as painters use brushes and pigments to create theirs." He begins the process by choosing his subject, in this case, pampas grass. He uses surgical tools to sculpt the pampas grass then takes it into a darkroom to manipulate it on his imaging easel. The easel he works on is surrounded by a safety fence of wooden 2x4s to avoid electrocution. It is constructed with a piece of aluminum sheet metal which floats in a solution of liquid silicone, and is sandwiched between two sealed pieces of 1/8-inch thick Plexiglas. He builds the exposure matrix on top of his easel. The 8x10-inch color transparency film is laid flat on the easel. Then the sculpted pampas grass is placed on the film and wired to a grounding source with cable and clamps. Buelteman then introduces high frequency, high voltage electricity into the exposure matrix. Without the use of this medium, the blue aura that stems from the pampas grass wouldn't be present. Next, a variety of light sources including xenon-strobe, tungsten, and fiber-optic light are used to paint the grass by hand so the light is scattered through the diffusion screens, through the subject, and onto the film where the exposure is recorded.