My first foray into an online photography class started with Kim Klassen two years ago...it was both a tutorial on Photoshop and a method to boost one's creativity...it focused on taking a single image and enhancing it to its most artistic potential.
My current class, Photoshop Grunge, takes a different approach. As you might expect, the focus is on a textured, layered technique...but more importantly, it takes several photographic images and meshes all of the images with textures and layering to create a unique artistic composition.
While the grunge is sometimes a little heavier than I would like, the idea of meshing several images together closely aligns with the work I do as a collage artist. I believe that every object tells a story...and by combining several images together, that story is clear to the observer.
When I embarked on my artistic journey 15 years ago, I was hesitant to use the one-of-a-kind ephemera I had acquired...once it was committed to a collage, that was it...never to be used again. Imagine my apprehension...was this the best use for a turn of the century handwritten letter...or a receipt for a 1930 grocery purchase of eggs or a family photo of a dear uncle in 1890...time clicks ahead...scanning, digital imaging, Photoshop and the internet all make huge leaps and bounds. The treasured bits and scraps that I have been hording now can be incorporated into a new type of digital collage...that still tells the story of the object...but doesn't limit it to a single soliloquy...
I've only scratched the surface of the course...but thought I would share what I have created thus far...
And though this digital technique can not replace the rendering of paint and paper on a piece of wood or a stretched canvas...adding in a smattering of rust and patina, I hope it will enhance my artistic repertoire...
Do you have any new creative adventures you've pursued? do tell...
