Photoshop Play
I had an image in my head, something involving clouds, smoke and my body, something distorted and strange and surreal. I was inspired by the works of Jesse Treece and almost by accident included one of his most important techniques into my own art- the use of linear perspective to create the illusion of space. I did this with the coffee table that I planned to later cut out. When I loaded the picture into photoshop I immediately realized I had to put the table to good use. It was important to ground my figure in reality so that there is a sense of space which leads the viewer through the picture. Working on this project was interesting because it required me to think about how something should look, not how it does look. Unlike the chair project which required intense focus on what is true, this project allowed the truth to be distorted.
I was quite nervous to use photoshop for this project. I have used apps before that achieved similar effects (image blender). Therefore I was used to these types of experiments taking an excruciating amount of time and turning out nothing like what I had pictured in my head. Photoshop, while extremely complex, allowed me more space to work and more tools with which to make my dreams manifest themselves. I enjoyed the ability to isolate spaces on each layer I wanted to turn black and white. Learning maks was intuitive, exciting, and unlocked an entire realm of possibilities for me. I went back into the picture and changed up the background to experiment. Digital is flexible. I feel like I could keep playing with the image forever.
