Photography
Intimate Pixels - The use of abstraction enables me to engage color, texture and shape to create a pixelated form. Hidden in most digital images, I use the pixel to tell the story. Its presence is essential to define the visual field - transition from one color to another, the shape and movement within the image. The pixel informs the viewer and at the same time hides the within the image. It is a result of thousands of on/off computer contortions.
I was in a show, Color Clarity, at the ArtReach gallery in Stillwater for the month of March 2018 and several pieces are in a juried show, Biomimicry, in St. Charles, IL in May.
In a visual and digital world I am challenged to paint with the computer.
PRESS RELEASE: Provided by Robbin Gallery 4/20/2007
I am an “emerging, artist” somewhat recently returned to my life-long interest in the creative process. I began dabbling in computer generated art in 2009 and upon retirement in 2011 have since undertaken more serious study. I studied visual communications and photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago. The advent of digital cameras and computer editing enabled me to combine both original disciplines. In a visually driven, digital world it made sense to “paint with a mouse”.
I would describe my work as abstract spaces and places. Using the pixel, most often hidden in a digital image, I engage the flow of one color to the next, develop texture, and with the juxtaposition of positive and negative space to create a visually stimulating experience.
Whether horizons or landscapes, interpreted by the human eye and driven by memory or imagination, you can get lost in the image. Is it a monolith, a sacred place, dangerous or inviting place? What’s over the horizon? If you scraped away the buildings, roads and other manmade objects is the land energizing or foreboding? Have I been there before or do I want to be there?
Colors, shapes, distortion or clarity will mean different things. The graphic remains constant, the engagement is a unique experience. I invite the viewer to explore these spaces and places with me.
When I started experimenting in 2009, an image began as a drawing generated in Windows Paint – as simple a graphic tool as possible. The image was then often transferred to a digital edition program and further manipulated. Over the past 4-5 years, I started using digital photographs. Ignoring the actual picture and looking at it as if a color pallet. I manipulate the pixels, stretching and reshaping them beyond recognition. The result is an image from my series – Horizons or Landscapes.
Some day we may have to tell stories of butterflies, bees and fireflies to our children and grandchildren. How does one explain the wonder of a butterfly fluttering in the breeze, flitting from flower to flower. My Butterflies attempt to capture this experience – the shape, texture and movement without the textbook description.
While maintaining the basic form my butterflies may reflect the influence of Paul Klee’s child-like spaces, the amusement of an Alexander Calder or the vivid O’Keefe pallet. The fanciful insects are there to delight the senses. I additionally, assign each a unique scientific name to reflect its true nature.