From January 2008 to the present I have been working in a direction that is entirely new for me, constructing digital collages out of sections of my digital drawings using a creative approach I discovered in Second Life, an on-line virtual reality environment. The method is similar to process art in that the final image is not envisioned at the outset but emerges as a result of assembling, layering, and composing visual elements.
This method evolved while making immersive art in Second Life with Second Life tools, and so the inspiration comes from virtual reality experiences, but the bulk of the imagery is derived from clippings from my extensive portfolio of Real Life digitally-drawn landscapes, which I have been making for the last decade (click on "RECENT LANDSCAPES" on the menu bar for more information about this portfolio). The remaining imagery is drawn specifically for use in the wall hangings.
The physical presentation of the collages was inspired by Japanese art, specifically paintings which are displayed as hanging scrolls called kakejiku. At the Museum of Fine Arts Boston I studied how the scrolls were composed and constructed. The forms of my digital kakejiku are loose adaptations based on this research. For example, I consider the decorative material around the central images as akin to the patterned brocade that Japanese paintings are mounted on. This material also serves, like a conventional matte and frame, as a transitional space between the image and the wall.
The collages are printed in separate panels on Epson canvas with an Epson 4000 ink jet printer. The panels are varnished and then glued together to complete the image. The wall hanging is constructed with a pocket for a hanging rod, and the finished art is meant to hang unframed from a wall hook.
The digital drawings that are the source material for the wall hangings are drawn just like traditional charcoals, lithographs, or pastels except that I use digital tools, including a software program called Corel Painter 10 and a Wacom digitizing tablet and stylus. I create a file of the right size and resolution to produce the final image desired and select a paper texture, a brush-tool such as "Charcoal" or "Flat Pen," and a color. As I draw, the tablet and stylus electronically translate the motions of my hand into virtual brush, pencil, or pen strokes which I can see on my monitor real-time. I do small, limited editions of the finished drawings using archival inks on fine art rag paper.
If you would like to see more of these digital collages in the context of immersive art in the virtual world of Second Life, you shold look at the YouTube video of Atelier Alizarin. You will see the art and the imagery from this web site in a new context.
