On Process: Pt. 02
In the first part of my discussion of this process, I detailed how I came up with the source imagery for this project. I focused primarily on my use of the scanner to repurpose and/or deconstruct my previous work. However, as this is a multi-layered process of creating imagery, there is more behind the entire process than simply creating source imagery with the scanner.
The second main part of my process occurs somewhat simultaneously with the first. I use a stylus and tablet-like piece of hardware to create what I refer to as “digital sketches”, as they are operated using the same physical act of drawing with a pen or pencil on paper, but the output is digital rather than physical. These sketches are improvised and created in one go, comparable to a stream-of-consciousness poem or improvised musical performance, allowing the influence of environment, experimentation, and the subconscious reverberations of the source imagery I have created, to take precedence over calculated creation. By improvising within a set of restrictions, it allows for experimentation and accidents within what would otherwise likely be considered a rigid set of rules that I have laid out for myself. Each step of the process informs what happens with the other, either consciously or subconsciously and in varying degrees, as I go back and forth between steps of the process.
There are a few similarities that I have found between my process and improvised, or semi-improvised musical performances. For example, the same song may be played numerous times in different environments and contexts. Although the song is essentially the same, the exact performance, feeling, and aura can never be replicated, due to the fact that the musicians (multi-layered parts of a whole) are performing in reaction to each others’ changing energy, emotions, and creative direction. To put it more plainly, what the drummer is doing informs what the horns, etc. play and vice-versa. Similarly, my sketches, although improvised, may metaphorically circle ideas or aesthetic aspects of the scanned source imagery, and vice-versa.
The use of a reprise is another musical metaphor that can be drawn from this process as well. A reprise in music is a repetition and/or reiteration of a selection or entirety of a piece of music, often with additional embellishments. The original pieces that are used to create source imagery are subjected to a reprise within the process when they are scanned and manipulated, creating a unique piece that still retains some semblance of the original. Another reprise is subsequently carried out once again when the image is applied to the sketches, and once more when all of these parts are put together into what is considered the final piece.
Additionally, besides the reprise being a cog in the machine of my process, it also illuminates some very personal characteristics within my work that may reflect my thought process and psychological state. My work typically uses repetition, repurposing, and obsessive layering of elements. My thoughts and feelings are also often dictated by layers of ideas, obsessions, and worries that all interact and inform each other, making it difficult to process and express what I am thinking, especially when not much time is available to rearrange those thoughts into cohesive sentences.
This leads me to my final thought regarding my personal connection to this work, which is that while some (including myself) may argue that my non-representational work has nothing to do with me, in actuality, it is a more truthful representation of myself than a self portrait would be, considering that the work functions for the viewer in almost the same fashion that my mind processes my thoughts, decisions, etc. Therefore, the viewer is still able to interpret and experience the work as they like without it being inaccessible.