Experiments
Technical notes, material experiments, and working methods. These posts explore the practical side of the studio, from photographic and digital processes to printing, layering, drawing, and the construction of finished artworks.
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Visual Information Transformation
I’ve been experimenting with using Processing software to present the information found in photographs in different, alternate visual forms. In this case, I’ve divided and simplified the image of clouds into a grid. In each cell, I use the code to evaluate the average light level. I then represent this information in a couple of…
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Frosted Mylar
Mylar was the drafting film used by architects before computers took over. You can draw on both sides of it with ink and pencil. I’m working on integrating this material as a layer in my artwork. This is an ongoing material experiment rather than a finished solution. I have begun producing sheets of frosted mylar…
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Cloud Collage
There is a famous example of the Rubin Vase. You can see either a vase or two faces. This is an example of bistable perception. Can this idea be expanded to more than two images? My Waves and Skies artworks combine three images into each piece: a water wave image, and two skies. The water…
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Horizons
These pieces at a distance depict the three-dimensional surface of water. Up close, the illusion breaks down. A different depth dimension of shapes behind the surface emerges. Starting from a photograph of water, I transform the image to a pattern of vertical elements that are 3D printed. THese patterns are then cast in tinted epoxy…
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Waves and Skies
My work explores perception as an active process, using the landscape of Georgian Bay as both subject and catalyst. Waves and skies are not presented as static scenes but as unstable, shifting images that resist capture. As in nature, where clouds and water continually change, the visual field in these works slips away just as…
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Perceptual Threshold
‘Perceptual Threshold’ This is a layered, multimedia piece consisting of woven tapestry, transparent elements and digital imagery printed on metal and Plexiglas. I like how you can see the surface of materials: the weave in the fabric, the lines on the plexi, and the grid in the image but then suddenly, you see through to…
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Wheelbarrows
The fragments of buildings I’ve included in this cloud are from 3D models of buildings here in Meaford that have been unceremoniously demolished. There was a beautiful little train station here and several nineteenth century factories. Meaford manufactured, amongst other things, turbines, flooring, and wheelbarrows!
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The Making Of: Eastern Gap
This mural / wall sculpture was commissioned by Daniels Corporation for the lobby of the DuEast condo project. It was installed in 2020. I started with a photo of water taken in Toronto Harbour in an area known as the Eastern Gap which is one of the two enterances to Toronto’s inner harbour. I then…