imagining

Progress is a good thing. My Disney Concert Hall project has been languishing this summer, as my homelessness piece and the Digital to Textile projects and Life have taken center stage. Now I have the luxury of time and have returned to two forms that delight my senses -- nudes and architecture!

I hope to produce a series centered on nudes I have drawn, and my own photographs of Frank Gehry's Disney Concert Hall. As is my wont, the works morph as they reveal themselves. For you Photoshop aficionados, I will explain my approach.

I first colored each of these two photos:

Then I made a new image, layering one image on top of the other:

The curves in this architecture, though angular, suggest the human form to me. I wanted to experiment with overlaying an image of a nude, lining up the body's curves with those of the buildings.

I sketched a figure in a pose that had many many angles, hoping I could line up these angles with those in my layered photos. I scanned the sketch, and removed the background, so I could transfer the image as another layer onto my colored  multilayered architectural form. This would allow me to manipulate the image over the color and lines.

Then I could play with each part of the image, lining it up to see how the underlying form and color responded to the image itself:

 I have moved the image around and printed multiple instantiations of various sections, all on my favorite cotton sateen. Now I am assembling them -- a very slow process indeed. I am not sure this first project will be successful, but as I work and study, other approaches rear their lovely heads.

What I am learning is that if one can tame the inner critic, the brain's playing-field is wide and long. And the process is wholly engaging.