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Spring
2003
(Fall
2002) (Spring
2004) (MFA Exhibition)
During
the time between undergraduate and graduate school, I worked as a prepress
computer graphic artist. This position required that I learn a lot
about color separation methods used in commercial printing. This knowledge
has recently emerged in my studio practice.
This recent series of work uses my prepress knowledge of four-color, or CMYK, printing. I began by searching for images online and downloading those I was attracted to. I then took these small images into Photoshop and manipulated their scale and file size. The next step was to separate the color channels (CMYK) and run a filter over each of these channels that emulates the halftone pattern used in commercial printing. I then ran each separation to a printer and had hard copies of each layer.
Next, I took the hard copies and made that exact dot pattern by pouring the paint on freezer paper over the hard copy template. I have been working with pouring acrylic on and off the canvas for some time and had a lot of technical knowledge of this method. Finally, I reconstructed the digital image on the canvas by adhering each colored layer on top of the last. The result is a material manifestation of the digital information I gathered from the internet.
These images either referenced the slick, candy-like quality of the acrylic paint or a traditional painting genre. I experimented throughout the series between levels of abstraction and transparency. The titles of the paintings describe the original image taken from the internet.
I am interested in the tensions between art and craft, the handmade and the digital, abstraction and representation, traditional and popular. Since this process is similar to commercial printing, I hope to evoke in the viewer an interest in dissecting, just as I have, technical images that are so prevalent in our mediated daily lives.
This recent series of work uses my prepress knowledge of four-color, or CMYK, printing. I began by searching for images online and downloading those I was attracted to. I then took these small images into Photoshop and manipulated their scale and file size. The next step was to separate the color channels (CMYK) and run a filter over each of these channels that emulates the halftone pattern used in commercial printing. I then ran each separation to a printer and had hard copies of each layer.
Next, I took the hard copies and made that exact dot pattern by pouring the paint on freezer paper over the hard copy template. I have been working with pouring acrylic on and off the canvas for some time and had a lot of technical knowledge of this method. Finally, I reconstructed the digital image on the canvas by adhering each colored layer on top of the last. The result is a material manifestation of the digital information I gathered from the internet.
These images either referenced the slick, candy-like quality of the acrylic paint or a traditional painting genre. I experimented throughout the series between levels of abstraction and transparency. The titles of the paintings describe the original image taken from the internet.
I am interested in the tensions between art and craft, the handmade and the digital, abstraction and representation, traditional and popular. Since this process is similar to commercial printing, I hope to evoke in the viewer an interest in dissecting, just as I have, technical images that are so prevalent in our mediated daily lives.