MYTH AND METAPHOR

This photograph was taken around 1985. The cloak worn by the dancer was one of many fabric pieces made that year by artist Ann Burian and myself in Kalamazoo, MI. The Wellspring Dance Collective created a dance piece, "Weightedness Will Make this Fly," featuring many of the capes and robes we had made.

This piece by Ann was a tribute to the myth of a weaver, a mortal maid named Arachne, whose beautiful stitchery was envied by Athena, who turned her into a spider. Actually in an earlier age, a Spider or Spinner was the totem associated with Athena, who wove the web of fate, affecting human souls, who were powerless once caught in the goddess's web.

My work often returns to the same subject, depicting it in a new way, as with the above photo.  I superimposed a slide image of a spider web, wet with morning dew, over a slide of the figure wearing the cape. This was the next stage of metaphoric imagery after discovering overlaying exposures of negatives on photographic paper in a darkroom. I did not work with Photoshop until the 1990s.

Working with Ann on the series of capes was part of the evolution of my interest in mythic themes, and resulted eventually in many etchings in the Women's Heritage series, 1980s and 1990s.


Images and Writing are the Copyright  © of/ by Ruth Zachary

THE METAPHORIC EYE

My Muse and I at the Sidewalk Cafe. Photo Montage © by Ruth Zachary

The process of creating art, for me, whether expressed in visual forms or in words, is an intuitive process, in which
connections between different images are noticed, and demand to be recorded. The connections between diverse images seemed to convey meanings beyond those of single images, as do metaphors in writing and language arts.

The experience of seeing a relationship between different images first happened many years ago while working in the darkroom in a photography class. Soon this way of seeing spilled over into other art forms, such as in etching and painting. I continued to be fascinated with connections created with double exposures in the camera, reflected images,

and with montages and collages.

Eventually I was drawn to Photoshop as a tool for creating art. Photoshop allows a person to place different images in the same picture plane, with layering or with cutting and pasting of multiple images.  I began to mix the effects possible by using many media in combination, including Photoshop, montage or collage or painting, with both objective imagery and abstractions.

I have been a closet writer as well, and often have been attracted to poetry. There is an obvious link between the two forms of expression. Metaphors are not limited to words. Perhaps image connections are the most primeval metaphors of all.

I invite others to share their thoughts about their unique creative process. Or if anyone has questions about these comments, I'd love to have a dialogue on the subject!

Much of this post was included on my old blog, Ruth Zachary Montage, posted August 25, 2008.

Go to http:// ruthzacharyart.blogspot.com

Images and Writing are the © of Ruth Zachary.

EPIPHANY WITH A POLKADOT PIG

Polkadot Pig 8x11" Experiment in Layering. © Ruth Zachary.

 

Scribble Paint 8 Abstract with Bicycle. © Ruth Zachary

In the previous Post and Abstract experiment, I had just discovered that a cut out object transplanted into a composition  offered new options in layering with different modes. I didn’t have time to explore it further just then.

I was also working to create more realistic work with a bicycle theme explained in my last post, and  had already cut out a bicycle in great detail, with a blank background. I moved the bicycle to a new document, and adjusted the size so it would fit into Scribble Paint 9. (Layer 1)  The  realistic bicycle worked pretty well without changing the mode with the linear qualities in the abstract background.

I loved Scribble Paint 9 as an abstract piece, but I could also visualize a pink pig, riding the bicycle, outlined in yellow, painted in the splashy style of the abstract Apple Works paint strokes.  I thought this would preserve the character of the abstract painting, so the pig image might be added and still be consistent with the rest of the composition. I created the pig twice before copying it into the composition. Then I tried all the modes available on the cutout pig . Some modes worked and some  didn’t. I adjusted the pig to 90% opacity, so some of the paint strokes beneath showed through.

Actually what I think I learned in that moment was that I had been painting the subject  so realistically, that the subject or the background were no longer consistent in character. I want to maintain an image that is true to the realistic form, for the ideas conveyed, but not necessarily photographically detailed, as in my Bicycle Café painting. To achieve the way of working I am striving toward,  I need to paint in a manner consistent with the surrounding impressionistic elements of the painting. It requires seeing the whole in a different manner.

The act of putting a cut out object into the abstract setting, could have ended with the same sort of inconsistency, not integrated into the whole. More adjustments were required.

When the pig cutout was copied into the image, I needed to adjust the size and perspective of the happy little creature. When applying different modes, the pink pig with yellow outlines was changed to pink and purple with white outlines, but it is in the same color scheme and works ok.

I deleted parts of the pig’s surrounding area paint strokes, so more of Scribble Paint 9 was visible. In one part of the  pig’s surrounding area (a semi transparent apricot tone) was  cut out, copied back in as a fourth layer, and flipped vertically  so it dominated the top of the composition.

Ultimately the original orientation of Scribble Paint 9 (layer 1)was flipped horizontally, as was the fourth layer.  I tried different modes on the top two layers again. Eventually, I erased small areas of the top layers so the composition retained some of the original color and character of the background in the normal mode.

 I decided eventually to change the mode of the bicycle, which in this variation, also picked up the other colors of the composition.

To Experiment means a lot of the time, the effort does not work out. However, it is possible to save the steps and learn from them to apply what you learn in the future. Eventually I rejected the pig composition. At present I think it is too busy. I took a similar abstract, Scribble Paint 8, and layered the bicycle image into that. The abstraction with only the bicycle is the one I will use for the coming show at Madison and Main.

To see another version of this composition, visit my Abstract Blog, MIXED MEDIA ABSTRACT ART.

 Writing and Images are the copyright © of Ruth Zachary.