2024 is my year for exploring and learning. My explorations center around finding beauty in the everyday. While driving, I noticed the playful, gestural lines of tar used to repair my street. Something about their expressive, hand-made form caught my eye and one day I pulled over and began photographing the street. I brought my street compositions into my digital studio and played with transforming the grey and black of the street to bright color, which brought out the texture and gesture. The photos were printed on 100% cotton fabric, enhancing the tactile experience.
To keep the fun going, I added my own colorful lines on top of the fabric/photo using Golden's tar gel medium, colored with acrylic ink--something I didn't even know existed--creating a lively conversation between the original tar lines and my own gestural lines. It's a coincidence that I'm using "tar gel" to enhance my photo of "tar lines." The grittiness of the street and the texture of the fabric contrasts nicely with the smooth, shiny tar gel lines.
It’s like having a visual chat with the municipal road worker who fixed my street. The transforms a mundane street repair into a vibrant artwork, shows that there’s artistry in the most unexpected places. It’s an invitation to see the beauty and creativity in our everyday surroundings.
Do you have a suggestion of a title for this work? I'm settled on "Lively Conversation" right now. Any other ideas?
2 comments:
What I found so interesting about your project is the pure level of creativity that drove it. Not a show or a theme but just interesting lines. Would love to see the original photo
I'll show them to you at the next Westies meeting. They come from my habit of looking up and looking down when I go out photographing. It's a bit dangerous looking down while driving, but I was going slowly. This or one of my other variations, may get submitted to Re-Vision but instead of revising, I'm re-envisioning....
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