The final product of my efforts: Project 1 -- Digital Collage

Over the course of the past few weeks I've been composing this digital collage, mostly blindly and aimlessly. I wasn't exactly sure where I was going when I started, I just kind of started. This led me down a bunch of different paths--most with dead ends. What started as just trying to make a pretty image with my foils eventually grew to a hilly landscape, which quickly turned morbid as I decided to compose the foreground out of bones and introduce vicious semi-solar predators.

Take a look if you dare; here is my final digital collage.

a shout out to my favorite illustrator

So.. I decided to pay homage to one of the other leading lady influences in my life. I figured I'd already utilized appropriation once, I suppose another time wouldn't hurt. So who better than my absolute favorite illustrator, Hannah K. Lee. I don't think she's ever made a single thing that hasn't ended up printed out and referenced in my sketchbooks. I may be obsessed.

I needed a face (well two faces) so I decided to take advantage of this awesome little set of faces that Hannah made. They got pixelated when I blew them up to the size I needed, so I traced over them. I guess I'm a filthy, filthy thief.

Please take some time to check out Hannah K. Lee's personal website. She's wonderfully insightful and hilarious as an illustrator.

a shout out to one of my favorite artists

I discovered Valeriya Volkova through somewhat unconventional means: her art was shared on Reddit, where I saw it over the summer of 2013. Since then, I've constantly referenced her in my research and I love watching her release new pieces. I use her art for the wallpaper on my cellphone just so it's always with me and quick to access. I was hesitant to use any appropriation in my collage at first, but my composition has begun calling for a house, and nobody makes houses cooler than Valeriya's.

This cityscape of hers is the source of the house I decided to use in my digital collage.

To see more of her work, please visit her website, Valtastic.

scanning part 4 // put your whole body into it

"cassidy, I think you are forgetting something," says my brain. "I forget a lot of things," I reply, "and it's mostly your fault."

We argue for a while but eventually settle on remembering the anatomy book I made of myself last fall. "That could be interesting to work with!" says my intuition, and my brain and myself both agree.

I had cut up some spare prints of my bones and muscles at a certain point in time to make a collage in my sketchbook, and I had some of those clipped pieces intact still, which I scanned in for a total of 12 new objects -- or are they textures?

It seems pretty awful to just refer to my body parts as objects.

scanning part 3 // relief printmaking

"hey cassidy," says my brain, "do you remember that one time you made art?"

thank you for reminding me, brain! If you hadn't, I might never have had the good idea to start scanning some old pieces of linocut prints I made in past semesters. I like these as objects and as textures.. I'll find something to do with them.

scanning part two // tape

today I attempted to scan some tape clusters i've been accumulating for months, excited still by the success i found in scanning cellophane, and found some, uh, different results. NOT NECESSARILY BAD but I guess the tape had an inherent disadvantage to the cellophane just because it lacked the shininess that was so gaudy and exciting.

now, with all of that said, i really really like the shapes of these scans. I was searching initially for more texture when I though to scan these tape clusters, but i think they'd make nice little trees or something.

like this, this could be a happy little tree. but this one looks a little angry.

just foilin' around

sometimes we as a people make discoveries!

Today, I as a people made a discovery that was pretty fun. I've had this translucent, light blue cellophane laying around the studio for a few months, just waiting to be appreciated. And today, I found a reason to appreciate it. So, it turns out, when you cut a little bit off and cram it into a scanner and fold it and do it again and fold it and do it again and fold it and do it again and fold it and do it again, you can get some pretty cool, and pretty, and cool, results. All in all I folded and scanned and refolded and scanned this in 9 times to get a pretty radical set of textures. The colors were brilliant and wonderfully plasticine. Thank you, cellophane, for being patient with me.

To see the collective product of my scans, please click here.

the great texture and object hunt

Photography is a thing that some people use and I guess that I am one of those people. In attempting to find THE MOST FANTASTIC TEXTURES AND OBJECTS IN THE WORLD through the search for the "remnants of our culture" I took a few photographs of objects and textures that I thought interesting. I'm not sure if I will be able to incorporate any of them into my collage or not but we'll see--as of right now I guess theoretically anything and everything is fair game.

This slightly wet sink drain. 

A cliche view of some vinyl record covers.  

What about the pattern on my pillowcases?

And the way a rolled up spool of thread for books looks.   

And an abused studio wall.

I would be lying if I said I didn't have a little fun imagining this series of photos of a salt and pepper shaker set was a little narrative and dramatic: one, two, and three.