Jason Michael Dunnington

Author: Jason Dunnington

  • Spring Break

    The weather has been very active, even for March. We had 11 degrees and snow. Then a few days later it was 91 degrees. This has been an interesting Spring Break by way of weather. I have gotten out to take a few photos to share. My mid terms weren’t very fun. Not that you would expect them to be. I was scrolling social media on my phone last week and I stumbled upon an old friend I had nearly forgotten in time. Apparently he hasn’t been active for some time (2012) but the little bit I found was very profound and captivating. I am going to utilize what I have found with some ideas I already had for some music and artwork and incorporate that into the next few months. I want to share some of these stories that I have. I need to ask a lawyer about sharing stories from 25-30 years ago. I have some great material but I don’t want to open the door for legal issues so I definitely need some advice before I do that. Here are some of my recent photos and artwork.

    Some daffodils before the deep freeze. March 2026

    more daffodils from March 2026

    macro view of some crocus March 2026

    A view from Unity Village before the snow storm. March 2026

    Purple nettle (henbit) in a field with a silo.

    Englewood Theater in Independence, MO March 2026

    The Scout, taken at Scout Lookout Point in Kansas CIty. March 2026

  • Late Winter/early March

    My class schedule is really grinding on me. I finally have some schedule openings in the next month with Spring Break around the corner. Next week Daylight Savings TIme begins also. With all the drastic temperature changes this month brings I am looking forward to getting back to some macro photography. Flowers, insects and textures of all kinds. It reminds me of a good friend I lost years ago named Rocky. He was a painter. Not just like a house painter, he painted signs and murals. He was twenty-two years older than me and I met him in the 90’s as a teenager through some friend’s parents. I played guitar and a lot of the older folks in the town where I lived really liked me a lot. They included me in bars to drink and carry on like a regular customer when I was 18 years old because I was a known musician. I played in a lot of different bands back then. I played Country, Blues, Rock, Jazz, Synth Pop and typical music from the 90’s we all associate with that time period. I also got into played Reggae and Punk Rock in this time and my most successful bands were more original and had Punk roots with some Ska or Reggae mixed in. When I was 18 (1996) I was playing in 3 different bands as either a guitar player, singer or drummer. I needed work and Rocky offered me a job painting with him. I did that with him for every Summer for about 10 years. I really enjoyed doing murals on the sides of businesses. I really need to look for some of our old photos if I even still have them. The years haven’t been too kind for me keeping track of things like that unfortunately. Rocky, passed in late 2012. I miss him a lot. That’s where I get my painting techniques on canvas. I translated the skills I learned with him into an artform that is absolutely an essential part of who I am. My easel is in my kitchen right now with two stretched canvases on it.

    Anyway.. I have a few images to share this time.

    Our Lady Of Sorrows backdropped by The Sheraton Hotel. Kansas City

    Arp 2600 clone en macro Canon RF nifty fifty lens

    Late Winter cityscape KCMO Canon RF 35mm

    Collage created on Photoshop March 1 2026

    Variations on a theme. Collage created in Photoshop with a concept I previously incorporated. March 1, 2026

  • February

    This month has gone fast for me with this 15 credit hours I am working on completing this semester. Programmable Logic Controllers, Commercial Refrigeration and a few other classes. I have had a couple of opportunities to get some photos and I have been working on some music. I have been maintaining balance in my life. By Spring Break in 3-4 weeks I will be working on some more paintings. I may try to find some sort of band situation starting Spring Break with hopes to have something interesting lines up before this semester wraps up in early May. Soon (Spring) there will be more opportunity to get some nice macro photography. Here is some of my recent photography from the last month. Definitely some Winter vibes.

    The city in light. Feb 2026

    Lake Jacamo frozen over in early February 2026

    Mural at the location of the former Isis Theater at 31st and Troost in Kansas City, Mo. Walt Disney worked here and showed some of his first animations here.

    Kansas City downtown area glowing from the sun on an early February afternoon.

    This photo was clearly a found opportunity. early Feb 2026 at the WW1 Memorial KCMO

    I shared a similar photo last Summer. This one taken in early February 2026 had some interesting color combinations to work with.

    Winter time view of the city from the Troost overpass. early Feb 2026

  • early January

    In the past I had a real problem with deciding I wasn’t good at something. Maybe I tried something once or twice and had bad results or lost intrest. Among the things I thought I wasn’t good at were web design, graphic design, managing fianances and writing lyrics for songs. There are some other things that I considedered myself having a basic understanding and I lacked the discipline necessary to do anything really of merit with it. Like painting pictures and photography. Over the last few years I have reopened the door to trying those things. Except this time, with structure and discipline. I love to read so I bought a lot of different books on subjects and set aside time each day to read. Then I set aside time to try building my own web page, along with watching tutorials on YouTube to learn Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to give me some sort of real world reference for what I was reading in books. That’s another big part of taking on learning something new. Not just reading the literature but finding real world applications of those processes.

    What I have learned from all this is to do my best to not ever say I can’t do something and instead say “I haven’t tried that yet.” Because I know full well with a little understanding and practice I can do just about anything. Most limitations are mental constructs that can be easily avoided or countered with genuine curosity. I am sharing some images I created in photoshop and lightroom with my own personal photography. I guess you could call this graphic design. This is artwork I have created over the last few weeks.

    This stray cat was so photogenic and I really love how this image lent itself well to this effect.

    On a foggy early Winter evening I got some interesting light trail photos.

    This is a photo I took back in September and I had a photo of a painting I made back in August. During some down time over Christmas break I was stacking these images in Photoshop and trying different things. This happy accident really gave me a lot of ideas for future renderings.

    Some of the photo impressionist ideas I love to work with in negative.

    Photo impressionism is kind of becoming my niche.

    This stack was more intentional after the aforementioned happy accident.

    Photo impressionist design with key esoteric symbolic elements.

  • What a year!

    I have been so busy with class and especially finals. The end of the year just sort of arrived while I was busy living. I am so blessed and lucky to have been afforded all these opportunities, and I know that. This is why I give the amount of effort that I do. I’m all in on life and the more I give the better it gets. During Christmas break I am working on some music and photography. I’m making a lot of short video clips for social media that are gaining some traction. Otherwise my photography work gets the most hits from people that don’t know me. The music content gets the most hits from people that know me. I thought about doing an end of year review of my favorite books and music– that I found this year. Not necessarily stuff made in 2025. maybe a “best of new-to-me books and music 2025”

    I feel like I am going to make the Dean’s List. Unfortunately they didn’t publish the list before break. I did however enter my grades into the GPA calculator that the school website has and it indicates that I definitely made the right grades to appear on the list.. Perhaps in early January the list will be provided. Anyway, here are some photos I have made since my last post.

    Edit- I made the Dean’s List for Fall 2025 Semester.

    reflection in the pond Nov 2025 Canon RF35mm

    midtown KC in early December 2025 Canon RF35mm

    well-placed artwork in midtown KC Dec 2025 Canon RF 35mm

    Country Club Plaza Holiday season light display Dec 2025

  • early November

    Currently life is really busy. I am now legitimately a Sophomore in college. After a lot of hard work I have finally made some significant progress. No time to rest on my laurels though. I will press on. In December and early January I expect more post frequency. I also have some plans to play a few open mics in Kansas City in December and January. I have had several opportunities to get some photos that I want to share

    Union Hill – Kansas City, MO Oct 2025

    Liberty Memorial area Kansas City, MO Oct 2025

    Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Kansas City, MO Oct. 2025

    Liberty Memorial – Kansas City, MO November 2025

    Union Station – Kansas City, MO Oct. 2025

    Lake Jacomo – Lee’s Summit– Jackson County, MO

  • early October

    The past few weeks have been exceptionally busy for me with all these claseses I have been taking. However, I have taken several opportunities to paint and take some pictures. I wanted to share some of them as content. I made an upgrade to my camera from an APS-C to a full frame mirrorless Canon. I’m utilizing 50mm, 35mm and 16mm RF lenses. Here is some of my most recent artistic output.

    This photo was taken on top of Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, MO in late September 2025. Canon RF 35mm

    taken with Canon RF 35mm Sept 2025

    This photo was taken in early October 2025 on the morning of the Chappell Roan concert in Kansas CIty.

    Abstract painting made in early October 2025. Titled: Dream Sequence 1.

  • End of Summer

    As the Semester has been moving along I have found an opportunity to install a Pitch Witch bender on a Gretsch 5700 Lap Steel guitar. Also obtained a Canon RF 35mm f1.8 lens that should enable me to keep my creativity fresh through next Spring. I have two paintings that I need to finish when I find time and another graphic design concept to realize.

    The idea I had to install benders on a lap steel came as I was doing research to buy a pedal steel. I have always wanted to learn to play one. I write a lot of music that a pedal steel would lend itself well to. The lowest price on a quality pedal steel is outside of my budget right now so I started looking at lap steels and found this fella that installed some Certano benders on a lap steel in order to get pedal steel sounds. As I did some research I found the Peters Pitch Witch bender and they had a Labor Day sale right as I was looking and it fit my budget right. I also obtained a Gretsch Electromatic 5700 lap steel second hand at a very good price. The only other thing I added was a roller bridge from the Georgeboards company. They sent me a nut also but I haven’t installed that yet. For now, I installed just the benders and the roller bridge.

    Gretsch Electromatic 5700 lap steel with benders.

    I have had several opportunities to use my new camera lens in the last few days. Here are some chosen examples…

    Cathedral in midtown Kansas City, MO Canon RF 35mm

    Butterfly en macro Canon RF 35mm f1.8

    A little bee working away. Canon RF 35mm f1.8

  • start of Fall Semester

    Class has started for me and I am happy to be back. It definitely felt like a long Summer. This semester is going to be very busy for me between work, class, music and all my art projects I have going. I have backed off from playing in a band format and opted to just focus on songwriting and recording. I recently added Logic Pro to my already vast software collection on my MacPro. I have found that there are things that Ableton does better and likewise with Logic. They are both unique tools for songwriting, scoring and sound crafting. I’m quite happy to have them both readily available. Here are some of my recent photos….

    Streetcar in Midtown Kansas City, MO.

    Hairy Cat’s-Ear also called False Dandelion

    this plant is called Wingstem- taken with Canon RF 50mm

  • August low

    The other day I had a memory come back to me during a period of self reflection. Back in August 2007 I had what seemed to be an all-time low, or what seemed like it at the time. I lost my home, my girlfriend and my band had broken up. At the time I had all kinds of resentments and malicious conspiracies I had dreamt up to use as reasons all this misfortune came my way. Truth is, it was all me. I was single handedly doing all this damage to myself, seemingly behind my own back. I had a lot of heart and determination back then I just didn’t have the positive coping skills, multiple years of sobriety and I guess being accountable helps also. At that time or a few months before August 2007 I was turned on to a software program called Ableton Live from my friend Matt Kivett. It became a new obsession. Up until that point I had been writing and recording music but I wasn’t very sophisticated about it. I was more or less a party/bar musician that dabbled in songwriting. Ableton Live changed everything about how I connect with the world as a musician.

    Here are some recent photos and artwork….

    Juniper Berries en macro

    Image captured on a recent outing to Englewood Arts District in Independence, MO.

    image layered in Photoshop