Friday, July 20, 2012

Bombs away


People keep asking me to show the evolution of a piece. Generally, I fail miserably at capturing the process, because once I'm immersed in the collage, well, I forget to stop and take photos of each step.

I just tried documenting the making of "Seed Bombs" - part of my new "bomb" series - with mixed success. At top: the background I chose, an original Gustave Dore engraving from the 1880 Altemus Edition of Dante's Inferno. I knew that most of the "seeds" would be in color and wanted to spread them across a rich, dark backdrop.


As you can see, I'm well into the piece by the time I remember to stop and take a picture.


Next stop: more seeds. There should have been another photo before this to show that most of the brown seeds were added later. I wanted more colored images.


The final photo. I was tempted to add more large seeds in the bottom right corner, but decided not to. I planned to take another photo yesterday to show it with those seeds but wasn't able to find the pieces. Usually, every piece that might be used for a collage is put in a clear bag that stays with it. Yeah, "usually" being the operative word here!

In any case, this is the final version. I'll scan it later today and post a better image with full caption information. Now, it's back to the studio.