SERIES

The following are different works in series that have been created from a single photo that has been digitally manipulated to create something new and unique. Much like variations in classical music, where material is repeated in an altered form. Within each series there are as many as 50+ variations besides the ones shown, the changes may involve layering, mirroring, transparency, color shifting, textural applications, filters or any combination of these. These shown, were edited down to give a taste of each project's results.

Banana Leaf

This series stems from a photo of some withering frost-bitten banana leaves in our garden. I loved the spots and curves of the leaves. There were beautiful textures, shadows and complexity of form, so I decided to use this as the base for these works.

Fire Hydrant

This series started with my love of textures. I tried to find an image that had texture that was rare in plants and flowers, so it would be a departure from some of my other works. When I came across this rusty fire hydrant, I knew that I found what I was looking for. I experimented with digitally layering and filtering, but made no changes to the actual image. Many of these definitely lend themselves to pareidolia and others are actually kinda Sci-fi in their evolution. It’s so interesting how you can change the appeal and energy of an image by simple digital manipulation and create a departure of that initial image that is enticing.

Butterfly Ginger

This series stemmed from a photo of the only remaining Butterfly Ginger blossoms that survived an unexpected freeze in Austin. Everything was beautiful and green in the garden one day and the next, it was completely freeze burnt, drooping and looking terribly sad. It was a very disheartening experience, especially because our gardens were to be filmed for a local PBS gardening show two days later. In the course of trying to assess the overall damage to the garden, and getting more and more depressed as I walked the property, I came across this in our Moon Garden and it seemed as though it was put there to give me hope that all was not lost, that everything would be OK. I had to use a photo of this beautiful bloom as the basis for a series of variations and what you see below is the result of that effort.

Grasshopper

This series of works were created from a single photo of avery large grasshopper that was on our greenhouse. I loved the intricate details of the insect and thought that it might work really well as the basis of a new variations series. The resulting images reminded me of kaleidoscopic visions of stained glass in some old gothic cathedral with ominous smoky entities present, deep jewel tones and glimmers of white light peeking through on occasion. I played with layering some of the resulting works on top of each other to create even more complex designs and finally had to stop as it was getting a tad addictive. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did creating them.

Banana Leaves

It was the end of the summer season and I was trimming off some of the lower leaves of the bananas as they had turned gold and parts were also browning. When I cut them off, they were lying on our concrete pool surround and I thought that the shadows and shapes that they made in the afternoon sunlight might work well as the basis of one of my variations series. The resulting works are shown below. I thought that some of the different end shapes were really unique and in some cases my personal pareidolia surfaced Renaissance jesters, golden jewelry and fascinating creatures.

Garden Gloves

I am a gardener, and at the end of the day I usually have a pile of dirty gloves from weeding in my yard. I decided to use a photo of these gloves, instead of my usual plant material as a base image, to see what I could do with it. The examples below are the result. They almost seem to take on a futuristic look, which was unexpected

Fallen Orchid Blossoms

The set of works, below, were all created from the same photo of some fallen orchid blossoms. As you can see from the original photo, one dried blossom turned very dark while the other stayed light for some reason, both of them were from the same plant, which I thought this was very unusual. I thought the contrast of the two would make for an interesting base image for the way that I manipulate the imagery.

Giant Leopard Moth

The following twelve works were created from a single photo that I captured of a Giant Leopard Moth female, Hypercompe scribonia, that I photographed while she was laying eggs on the side of our home. I was transfixed by the textural aspects of the moth and the elegant shapes that were created through digitally folding it and layering it on itself.

Oak Bark

I found this sculptural piece of bark and branch at the base of a Live Oak tree and loved the textural nature of it. I had to snag it and take it home to use as the base for a series of works. I thought the results lend themselves especially to pareidolia.

Ball Moss

We have Ball Moss all over Texas hanging primarily from their host tree, the Live Oak. The following pieces were created from a photo of a beautiful Ball Moss that fell from one of our backyard trees that I had to snap a pic of. 

Shrooms

I was wandering on our property and came across a few small mushrooms that were coming up in our mulched beds. These were done from one of the photos that I took that day of this group of shrooms. 

Ox Beetle

Many people are freaked out by bugs, but I love them. I find them fascinating and so alien in their shapes and colors. This group of pieces all stemmed from a photo of an Ox Beetle that was living in our raised beds.

Industrial Building

This series was created from a photo of an industrial building in Austin, TX. Through various digital manipulation techniques, filters and layering, I arrived at the images below. I wanted to work on a series that was less organic for a change of pace and I liked the futuristic, almost sci-fi quality of how these particular pieces came out.

Dragonfly

I find dragonflies to be simply stunning examples of nature with their delicately veined wings, often brightly colored bodies and their slender and elegant shape. These works were done from a single photo of a common dragonfly that had fallen prey to ants.

Fritillary

We have a Moon Garden, also known as a White Garden where everything blooms white and can be enjoyed by moonlight. Among the flowers that bloom in that area are pure white Passiflora and that vine is a host plant for the Gulf fritillary, Agraulis vanillae incarnata . These were all done from a photo I took of a newly hatched Fritillary that was on our stucco wall in the Moon Garden.

Maiden Grass

The feathery seed heads of Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus, or Maiden Grass, are spectacular, especially when the is sun passing through them from behind. Light passing through the seed heads changes them from tawny brown, to silver or gold, depending on the quality of light. This selection of works was done from a photo I took in the early morning as the sun was rising.

Chalice Spots

We have a very cool vine known as Golden Chalice Vine, Solandra maxima, which has an abundance of big beautiful blossoms in the early Winter in our greenhouse in Austin, TX. This relative of tobacco, tomatoes and potatoes is very unique and I had to use it as the muse for a series of works. My original photo was passed through a custom filter that I made in Dreamscope and then I experimented with layering and mirroring which resulted in the final pieces:

Yam Baby

I don't know where to begin with this series of works. I was given a really creepy doll by my brother that had been nicknamed Yam Baby by one of their friends, as it had a long "yam-shaped" head. It is a rather odd find to start an art series with, but I was kinda compelled to, (maybe the doll has powers?) In any case, the doll itself was old, stained and all the color was removed from it, but it had cute little kids illustrations on the material that inspired me to punch up the colors of the final works below:

Mixed Misc. Images

This set of works was created from several other works that are shown above that I combined in various ways, and I decided to keep a similar color story across all of them. I am trying to embrace the more digital appeal of my imagery, less painterly and more computer-generated, which all of it is.