One of my greatest pleasures about living and working in Santa Barbara is the talented and passionate photographic community that surrounds me here. Not to say there isn’t that feeling in other places, but I like to think of wall space as serving a community of artists, and the diversity of committed professionals, amateurs, enthusiasts and supporters of photography I meet keeps me excited and confirms my decision to move here.

One of the first photographers I met shortly after my arrival was Patricia Houghton Clarke. Committed, passionate and involved in her work as well as the community that surrounds her, she is in constant motion. Her subject is the human condition, I know, I know, art speak….but she throws herself into a subject I can appreciate and explore  alongside her. Passion. It is all about who we are in that moment we decide to take that leap of faith, of being. To commit.  To ourselves, to others. External, internal through our actions, artifice, ritual both grand and small.

We both share a commitment to serve a broader community, and it is in this shared belief we have created the benefit, Erasing Lines for Pacific Pride Foundation coming up this Friday, July 8th.

Erasing Lines is the story of a cross culture found all over the world, and Patricia focuses her lens on Santa Barbara. In 2008, she started documenting the local drag culture, following the people, performances and how they shared their lives with each other and the public. This series is about acceptance, about the ability to be comfortable in your own skin. The girls opened their homes, their lives, and let Patricia in. While there are a few images of their performances, what I am attracted to is the intimacy between photographer and subject. How many of us would allow a camera into our bathroom to document our dressing? I can’t imagine many. Certainly not me. Humanity exposed. In a beautiful way.

Join us Friday night, July 8th from 6 to 8pm to celebrate Patricia’s work as it hangs on the walls, as well as support Pacific Pride Foundation, a group working to provide services to the HIV/AIDS and LGBT communities of Santa Barbara County. If you can’t join us Friday night, please spend the afternoon with us at the gallery on Saturday at 4pm for all of the stories from Patricia and the girls – the trials and ultimately triumphs of the community.

Patricia and wall space gallery are donating 10% of the print sales over the short weekend exhibition to PPF programs. Patricia has also generously created two limited edition benefit prints, available at the gallery during the weekend, with all net proceeds going to Pacific Pride. For more information about these special photographs, please contact the gallery. You can purchase any of the prints on the gallery’s website.

Patricia’s work transcends the boundaries often discussed between the traditional divisions of “documentary” or “fine art” photography. Her work grabs us, makes us think, using grace and beauty to make a point.

Expanding on the narrative and creativity of Patricia’s vision of the broader topic of passion, the gallery is pleased to showcase another of Patricia’s projects looking into the emotional realm of humanity, and of being. She recently completed a residency in a small Italian village this past April. The result of that time is a stunning body of work, Comunione.  The work is deeply personal, bridging ideas of faith, passion and spirit.

In her words –  “Ancient Pagan, Greek and Roman chants joined my inner chorus of Buddhist bells, Saharan minaret calls, Hindu, Animist and Celtic rituals experienced in disparate lands and cultures.”

In an effort to showcase Patricia’s diversity, complexity and connection to her quest to document the human condition, to find passion in all of us, we have created an exclusive collection of works from this spiritual body of work. Collectible, wall space gallery’s affordable art division is offering 10 images in editions of 25. The prints are 11×14 and priced at an affordable $75. each. If you wish to purchase all 10 images, the prints come in a portfolio priced at $600.

You can see this beautiful collection of images here, or contact the gallery for more information.