Cyanovoids

Twenty years ago, I began my first colour collages involving photos or digitized images, 3d objects and digital painting. Browsing through my portfolio, I noticed Cyanovoids, one of my first (rather low res, by today's standards) attempts at photo montage. Bleu, a friend, kindly posed for me (thus the title, 'cyan ovoids'). And guess what? Its theme also seems to evoke rising, becoming visible, appearing, rebirth, origin, source... I guess the quest for ortus has been with me for a while...

I notice that I had tried to give the outer edges of the image a pixelated effect, trying to imagine a photo captured through frosted glass or framed through an alien spaceship's camera lens.

Fabric skins

Several years ago, in preparation for one of my 'skins' installations, I drew a concept sketch for a fabric skin, then had it fabricated by a seamstress. The womb-like skin membrane would allow someone to wear it and interact with it, going through various poses that evoked a struggle for birth, freedom and escape; the person could eventually exit the skin through a partial slit in the seam, shedding a now lifeless skin. This also evokes the notion of metamorphosis, not unlike the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis, or the chick from the egg.

A friend tried out the embryonic sac.

I'll be using the skin again in a future photo shoot with James, exploring the Ortus theme.

Ortus

a latin word meaning rise, becoming visible, appear, birth, origin, source

I am playing with electronic collages using some of my photo elements, exploring the theme of 'Ortus'. This first collage evokes the notion of fire and ice, contrasting elements that we normally don't associate with beginnings or births, but rather with suspended life or death. In the distance, I've brought back from Moonbeam a silhouetted skyline that seems to be on fire. I also photographed a beautiful block of ice... reminiscent of a snow globe. The creature trapped inside is shrouded in fabric. The overall effect is one of containment, yet of imminent new life... birth from ice and fire, eros and logos.

Collaging

I found a great tool, Shape Collage, that magically converts a series of photos or images to an electronic collage in a variety of shapes. I suppose one could also display text pages in a similar fashion. The overall effect is quite nice graphically.