Final Mentor Meeting and Collaborative Project

I had my final mentor meeting with Karl yesterday. Even though all the reports have been submitted, it was good to have one last meeting and give the semester some closure. I brought my final prints, four 2'x6' and one 4'x12', along with some smaller images. Overall, Karl said he was impressed with the work. He said that even though there is some borderline clique imagery, I mess it up enough to keep it interesting, by emphasizing weird digital artifacts and mistakes. He also appreciated the two newest images with the slices. He quickly related them to Georgia O'Keeffe's  and Joseph Stella's paintings of New York and the Brooklyn Bridge. To him, the vertical slices were architectural and the horizontal slices read as rock stratification. I like the possibilities of both of these interpretations.

The following image is a rework of one of the previous images, but with the slicing technique. It was an interesting experiment.

We also briefly looked at the collaborative project I did with other members of my cohort. It was a response to the quote, 

"The noun of self becomes a verb. This flashpoint of creation in the present moment is where work and play emerge." 

-Stephen Nachmanovitch

It was two parts, where we responded to the quote on our own, and responded to an image sent to us by another member of the cohort. I responded to Ann Olson's piece first.

Ann sent me her image:

After spending a fair amount of time considering it, I started to work on my response. Initially, I though I would respond with college, since that is the technique she used and I enjoy college. Thinking about it further, however, I realized it may be more effective to work digitally. This is my primary medium and I thought the blend of digital and physical college would show the blend of our two styles, and give me greater flexibility. I scanned in her original image twice. The first time to get a true scan, and the second time I moved it as it was being scanned to give some interesting distortion. I wanted to add and enhance Ann's image without taking away from it. I added sky and cloud imagery as well as ocean near the bottom and other elements because I associate these elements with creation, referring to the original quote.

 In turn, this is my response to the quote that I sent to Ann:

I really enjoyed working on this project. It was a good way to "break out of the box" and stretch the creative muscles. 

Slices

As I continue to consider time and its non-linear qualities, I was struck by the ability of a single moment to linger and stretch passed its expiration. The following image explores this idea:

In this piece, that same image is sliced, stretched and duplicated to convey a sense of repetition or memory. This is the most abstract I've worked. I am concerned about seeming unfocused, but overall, my concepts remain consistent and I am interested to hear the feedback during the upcoming residency.

This image is created in a similar way, using four different images from the same location during different times of the year. I've enjoyed working in this format. Ideally, these will be printed 4' x 12' and will unroll on the ground. The folds will emphasize the flatness of the paper and time as a single but flexible dimension.