About the Work

This series is a collection of figurative, surreal collages and photographic backgrounds synthesized by computer and printed as giclée limited edition pieces.  These mixed media images are described as reminiscent of Erté and Dali.

The newer pieces have “shadow selves” incorporated into the backgrounds. Like conscience or one’s observer self, they exist behind the veil.

The “story” in each image is the one you bring to it, but the story of the technique I’m glad to share.

The process begins with high quality magazines and books from which the palettes, shapes, and elements are selected for the central characters. I photograph the backgrounds and manipulate the color in Photoshop to work with the images. The collages are drum scanned and photographed professionally before the merge with the backgrounds. The prints are highest quality archival paper or canvas and archival ink.

The Evolution of this series

The process in this series of art was the vehicle for a program I had challenged myself to create. It would be a class tasked to demonstrate a measurable result of having learned to see the world differently…creating a new reality out of existing situations.

The result: Tilting ones world-view to gain new perspective, in essence, removing labels and allowing one thing to become another: an egg becomes a head, a clump of seaweed a head dress, an antler a nose, coral a sleeve cuff and so on.

It was a process of re-defining things, noticing fine line distinctions and subtleties in texture, color, shadow and light. It was about possibility, judgment, surrender, embracing detailed and holistic perspectives, discovery AND all of it directly translatable to how we walk through our lives.

Artistically and personally the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Viewers enjoy the discovery of the pieces that make the whole…a meringue pie as a hat, bat wings, serpents, gems, fruit etc. used in unexpected ways.