Interactive Catalog

Below is an interactive file of the catalog, so that it can be viewed and moved around online.

So much made

I realize its been a while since I updated so I'm gonna do that now. Created a lot of new images this semester and I am not starting to edit for my thesis show come this November. Below will be a few more I haven't posted and I will add more in the next few days.

Real Estate Realities?

This is the beginning of a series that I believe will become the main works of my final thesis show, aka those that hang on the walls of the gallery. The size, as of now, is still unknown, but I know they will be large. I have currently proofed them at 42 x 28 inches and really enjoy the interaction that happens at that size. There just needs to be some tweaking because for me to get them to that size off of original images that are no larger than 12 x 9, I have to sacrifice crisp imagery for blocky resolution. Which I happen to really like there are just aspects in each that would look nicer if I cleaned them up some, mainly the edges of the houses look odd when so blocky. But here are some smaller versions of them images.

Been a while

Been a while since I've posted, with the end of the semester and some time away over the break, I guess I lost track of time. Currently I am working on a lot of design aspects for my thesis. I have built a mock up for the magazine and am filling it with images and writings, don't think I will post it until its fully completed. So don't hold your breathe. More images will be posted soon, maybe thesis work, maybe a side project I have been playing with. Right now, I have to focus on printing for the Map(ing) project, a Mary Hood creation. I will be the head of a small group of printers that will be working with a Native American artist to create an edition of 25 prints. Woohoo! for only having a week to do it. Let ya know how it turns out later, peace!

Woo! End of the semester.

Currently, we are in the last few days of the semester and work is getting crazy. This would be why I have not posted much, but here are some more images. These going into the realm of reality and adding actual structures and urban pieces into landscapes. Lemme know what ya think.

Thesis Work (Real Estate Possibilities)

Alright, up to the present. I am currently knee deep in my thesis work and diving in head first. Basics, I am creating fabricated images, some obvious, some harder to tell but in the end its noticeable, but in the end I want to be "found out." The works all depict different possibilities for real estate, some past, some present and some future ideas about where real estate could be going and what could happen to the wilderness of the country. I start with creating images through the use of untouched landscapes (wilderness) and adding in architectural renderings, colored depictions of house designs, to represent the possible to the viewer. Now, I have expanded the series into adding in real structures from urban settings, houses, apartments, office buildings, gas stations, metro stops, and have been adding those into wilderness images and into historical American landscape photographs.
The full series with some installation elements is meant to have the viewer being to question or at least try to justify, our societies continued expansion into the wilderness and surrounding landscapes, which adds to the damage we have already done. Overall, the images are trying to motivate the viewer to question our predicament and begin to look for alternatives, like rebuilding on land that has become rundown, or building up instead of out, all aspects of smart growth.
 Below is a sampling of the first images created in this series, I will add more selections as I continue working on the project.

Carried Away

Seems I got carried away with my own work and such, since I have not posted in over a week. As always I am working hard on my thesis work and dealing with the stresses of graduate school. At this point I have gotten almost up to the present with my work, there is just one more semester to add. In my forth semester, I took only 6 credits worth of classes, the two were Digital Printmaking and Screen printing. Not a ton came out of the semester, work-wise, but I did begin to form my ideas for my thesis. I also began to explore digital printmaking and the digital translation of imagery. Below are some of the prints I produced that semester, not all because many I have discarded, but those I keep will be shown. There are two laser-cut relief prints and two screen prints. I have some other screen prints I need to photograph, but they are collaborations with my whole class, so not very specific in imagery or idea just graphic creations.
Now, quickly laser-cut relief printing is a new form of relief imagery. By creating an image in grayscale format in Photoshop, the artist can inverse the values, and flip the image. Then the file can be sent through a laser-cutter and the system will translate the image in a halftone pattern. Tiny dots will be burned into the piece of wood, and the value differences are created by the space between each of the holes. Where the image should be pure white, the cutter will cut it completely out, black will be left alone, and grays are created determinant of their value. This creates a photo realistic image in a woodblock printed form, but you have to have a piece of wood larger than your image to use the outer strips as runners because the halftone fills in easily with too much ink. Imagine, in the end, a wood block that is rolled up like a lithography, with thick, but thin amounts of ink.

"Up From the Canyon" Laser-cut Relief

"Up From the Canyon" (detail)

"Cowboy" Laser-cut Relief

"Desert Lighthouse" Screen print

"Phoenix, AZ" Screen Print