The Cannon Reading Room

Howard Weissman

howard.weiss01@gmail.com

My interest in art began when I took my first art history and drawing classes while studying civil engineering at the University of Delaware and then continued while studying for a graduate degree in architecture.

After retirement I began looking for ways to express my creativity and after going through phases of making clock and lamps finally settled into painting and some sculpture.

Two of my sources of inspiration are Mondrian and Matisse. I’m also inspired by contemporary “color field” painters such as Elsworth Kelly and Sean Scully. I like bright colors and like to make my paintings feel bright, happy and optimistic.

My most recent paintings are QR codes, that work as QR codes. Just as Andy Warhol painted Campbell Soup cans and Marilyn Monroe as Icons of the times, QR codes are icons of our time. Scanning my QR code paintings with your phone takes you to a message that is a quote from a famous artist.

Fun Fotografy 

By Karl Leck

Photography has been a big part of my life for 70 years.  During the Covid catastrophe I tried to stay sane by finding interesting subjects and methods for photography at home.  I discovered many ways to make interesting images with equipment I had or could readily obtain.  Curiosity led to a lot of fun trying to use colored lights, polarizing filters, plastic items, water, oil, super close-up lenses, camera movement, flatbed scanner and specialty infrared and panorama cameras.

I have seen many photographers lose interest after years of narrowly concentrating on landscape, portrait, bird, animal or flower photography.  Most of the photography I am doing now at home is very different.  Sharing these unusual methods with my friends helps to rekindle passion for photography in all of us.  I assembled these techniques into a Fun Photography workshop for OLLI Wilmington in spring 2025.  The workshop was updated and is offered again this semester.  I provide a lot of the materials and my equipment for hands-on work.  Students are encouraged to try these unusual techniques in class and work together to make fascinating images.

This exhibit of pigment giclee prints that I call Fun Fotografy, represents the photographic techniques I use in the Fun Photography workshop.