Great Pond Gallery at Wellfleet Adult Community Center

Janis Ekman - “My Wellfleet”

Curated by Robert Rindler

On Exhibit: January 4 - 30

Reception for the Artist: January 4, 3:00 - 5:00 PM

“Unable to paint what I saw, the camera taught me to see what I could not see.”

Janis began taking photographs at the age of eight. Her first camera was a Kodak Brownie Instamatic. Her first subjects were her sister hanging upside down on a fence and the family dog Dixie. When the roll was spent her father drove her to the photo shop in town. A week later she received a fat envelope with 2x2 black and white photos. She was sold, It was magic. She still keeps the envelope with the name “Ekman” on it and a life long devotion and love of the camera began.

Her dad gave her a Pentax 35 mm when she left for college. Later she would develop black and white photos in her bathroom. And then came color. She would spend many vacations on the Cape and she noticed something. The photos were better there. There was something about the light, the colors. She spent many hours exploring the galleries and the artists there and how they used color. She walked the beaches with her two Border Collies. One evening she had a small point and shoot in her pocket. As she turned to leave after the sun had set, she noticed something. The light on the water was absolutely stunning. She took dozens of photos as the waves broke quietly on the shore. This was it. This would be one of the subjects of her photos for years to come. She chased the sunset over and over. When that didn’t work she looked to the clouds, then patterns in the sand. She didn’t need to take them to the photo shop in town. She could “develop” them on the computer at home. She learned to work with the new digital world.

In 2006 she opened the GARAGE GALLERY in a converted garage space on her property in Wellfleet. Since then she has been exhibiting and selling her work to guests who come year after year to see what is new.