This piece was created from a photo of blossoms from our Mother of Thousands plant in our greenhouse. It is a succulent that has beautiful orange blossoms and blooms once a year. It was a difficult photo to work with, but I think this particular experiment came out kinda cool. The detail in this piece has swirls that weave in and out of one another.
Witch Moth Diva
This particular work was created from an omen of good luck. I came across a Witch Moth above our doorway and that is an auspicious omen apparently. I took a photo of the giant moth and used it for a series of works and this is one of them.
Flamingo Experiments
These works were created from a photo of a flamingo that was nestled in it’s own feathers. It is not a photo that I took, it is one that I found on a site called Pexels, that has royalty free photos that are shared by photographers all over the world, this is one was by Cesar Aguilar. Many only require a credit and many don’t even require that as long as the image is not used as is for commercial purposes, but most can be used if they are altered. I didn’t have access to any flamingos and dreamt of using a photo of one for an series and that is how this series came about.
Canna Blossoms | Deep Pink Tutu
This new work was created from a photo of a stem of white canna blossoms from our moon garden. I was working with the image digitally and trying to create a watercolor effect with deep rich tones. For some reason, the final result made me think of a pink tutu, hence the name.
Sandstone Rock | Arabian Linen
This piece was done from a simple photograph of some lichen and molds growing on a sandstone block in our garden. I thought the patterns were pretty interesting and decided to use the photo as a base for a few experiments. This was one of the ones that I liked.
Hybrid - Adam | Transitioning
Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there's a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. It's sometimes known as gender identity disorder (GID), gender incongruence or transgenderism. I cannot imagine the frustration and torment of feeling as though my body doesn’t match the gender that I associate with. The formidable strength of self that must be present for a person to transition from one gender to one that aligns with their heart and mind was the impetus for this piece.
Mushroom Quasar Series
This work was created from a photo of mushrooms that had some very intricate texture and pattern. I thought that applying the layering and filtering that I work with that it could create some interesting pareidolia and unusual interest. The pareidolia, for me on these works, is limited, but the textures were much better than anticipated and the colors produced from the techniques married well with one another.
Chrysanthemum Series
This short series was all created from a photo of a fallen green chrysanthemum blossom from an arrangement we had. It was an experimentation in many ways to see what colors that I could pull out from layering and filtering from a single color flower.
Prickly Pear Cactus Pad Skeleton Series
After working the the original Prickly Pear Cactus Pad Skeleton photo, I decided to push the image a little further. The following images are the result of that experimentation. The original image is the last photo.
Canna Blossom | Blue Star Expansion
This work was created from a photo of a white canna blossom. I was working on ways to make one of my digital works appear more painterly and rough. I was also experimenting with palettes that I hadn’t used before and one that was more simplified. The final result seems to have an almost velvet texture and and the colors give it a retro feel.
Cactus Pad | Diamond Dimensions
This work started as a photo of a decomposing prickly pear cactus that I came across in my walks around our garden. It had a lot of very cool intricate details, so I figured I’d use it for a new piece today. To me, the end result has the illusion of depth, somewhat like a magic eye image, if you have ever seen those. The color was pulled out of the original photo and enhanced.
Prickly Pear Skeleton | Alien Cathedral
This is another piece that I created from that same piece of prickly pear cactus that was decomposing and that I used a few days back. Some of my variations that I work on I set aside for a few days and then see if they speak to me differently. This is an example of that. I played with shifting colors in the background more towards that of an architectural blueprint as I imagined this as some futuristic or alien cathedral, so it was a nod to architectural design, organic structure and early printing reproduction processes.
Palm Fronds | Eden Snowflake
I have been doing some experimentation with palm fronds and I’m in the early stages of finding out what unique and wonderful works can come out of these amazing leaves that Mum Nature has created. This is the first of a series that I’ll be working on with palm fronds. The name stems from the fact that if I imagine what Eden would look like, it would have lots of palm trees and tropical greenery.
Prickly Pear Skeleton | Discarded Filigree
This piece started with an odd find in our garden. I was showing a close friend, Karina, who was visiting from out of town, our gardens in the pouring rain and taking cuttings for her to bring home with her to Portland. In doing so, I came across this skeletal piece of a prickly pear cactus that was oddly breaking down and showing it’s internal structure. I thought it was kinda cool and Karina agreed. I told her that I was going to use it as the base for my piece for the day. This was the result, along with a series of variations that I’ll post in the variations section of my site later this week. It almost has a Rococo effect when layered and reflected.
Lychee Seed | Alien
Happy New Year everyone! This piece was created from a photo of some Lychee seeds that were given to us by our friends Martin and Mandi. The sprouts had such interesting movement and they were wrapped in paper towels, which gave some interesting and contrasting textures, so I decided to take a quick photo and use it for my first piece of 2019. The final work has an alien quality to me, so that is where I arrived at the name.