Artist's Statement for Metathesiophobia Series

     Change is an interesting concept:  It is political.  It is situational.  It is personal.  It is natural.  We change our hair, clothes, sleeping habits, our minds, and light bulbs.  Much like caterpillars metamorphose into butterflies, birds shed their feathers, or insects molt their exoskeleton, we change when our former existence is no longer sufficient to support our current existence. Life must thus be a process of renewal and transformation where we constantly metamorphose into the next developmental stage of our lives - like shedding dead cells to renew the skin underneath.  My recent work explores changes in nature and the human condition of metathesiophobia, an abnormal fear of change.  This series of work is designed to explore this unique dichotomy of how man and nature deal with change.

    


Combined Digital and Traditional Art

Arrythmia; Lino-cut and Gouache over Inkjet Print

 
  

Quill;  Feather and gouache over inkjet print

 

Pharynx;  Gouache over Laser Print

 
  

Germination; Lino-cut and gouache over inkjet print

 Digital Art

Metamorphosis 

 

Xerostomia 

 
   

Hyperhidrosis 

 Anterograde

Repeat Designs 


These images were created in Adobe Photoshop from scratch using the paint and draw tools, among many others.

 

     

 

 Autobiographical Collage

Bullets and Blooms 

This digital collage is meant as a personal portrait of me during a somewhat difficult period where I had just lost my Uncle Philip and my wife and I had lost two children due to miscarriages.

Images used to create the autobiographical collage

     

 

Visual Example of Digital Process 

Metamorphosis

Original

Alternate

Process

    

The original image is duplicated in step 2 and a gaussian blur is applied to the original image.  In the third and fourth steps, a moth wing was duplicated multiple times and overlaid on the image.  A callicore butterfly was placed into the image in step 5.  In steps 6 and 7, images of grasses and flowers were added.  The final step involved adjusting the saturation of colors and the opacity of the layers.

     

 

Visual Example of Combined Process

                                                                                     Arrythmia

     


  

The heart is cut from the linoleum in step 1.  In step 2, a test print is made on a grayscale image on copy paper.  Steps 3 and 4 shows the lino-cut being prepared with a water based ink.  The last image is the completed heart printed on the digital print on Rives BFK.

 

     

 

Overprinting

These images were created by printing an image on a previously worked piece of paper.  Before printing, the paper was dyed with tea, drawn on with markers, splattered with ink and colored with color pencils, or painted with goauche.

  

     

 

Underprinting 

These images were created by printing an image on a special paper, then painting with acrylic or goauche, coloring with colored pencil, or printing with a lino-cut.

 

     

 

Image Transfers

The top image combines both the overprinting and underprinting  processes and include painting and pen and ink.  The bottom fours images are transferred from an inkjet or laser printer onto gesso, packing tape, paper using spritzed water, and paper using xylene.

   

                                           Resolved Piece using Transfer, Underprinting, and Overprinting