20_Manipulations_Show

Mixed media, oil on canvas 10 X 15 inch image on 13 X 19 inch canvas.

Manipulation concerns observation of image degradation and visual reformation. Procedurally, transparency images made by the artist as a professional photographer of art are degraded by abrasion and heat until the original image has disappeared.

Original images are not random. When photographing a work of art one attempts to make an interpretation within the limits of the photographic medium of an object or event that preserves some of the integrity of the original experience. The transparencies therefore begin with their own internal organization. Since the objective is degradation of the image, not destruction of the transparency, this is not ritual sacrifice, but a specific transformation or manipulation of the image beyond the point where it can make literal sense.

Unexpected consequences include lacunae, holes where the surface tension of the film has failed, and colorful miniature fractal events that occur from the molten flow of emulsion layers. The slide, remounted if necessary, is scanned in a transparency scanner and examined for excessively literal remaining trace images that would attract unnecessary attention to themselves. These are minimally manipulated with Photoshop’s tools until they subside in importance.

Prints are made preserving the slide proportions of two by three in image areas of ten by fifteen inches. Success is measured by the ability of an image to provoke associations, illusions or perceptions of objects and events which, by the nature of the process by which the images were created, could not have been intended.

The most successful pieces are printed on canvas and unified through glazing with oils and varnishes.