From the sea #3
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Dreaming of the ocean

Another collection that’s represented in the Spectrum Gestalt show at bG Gallery in the Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica is my From the sea set of cyanotypes. 

The show features two works created by the alternative photo process technique – From the sea #3 and From the sea #5.

A swirl of seaweed that captured my attention in Bandon, Oregon is the basis for the digital negative behind this collection. From there, I used my brushstrokes to mirror or complement the shapes in the original, creating something slightly-different in each one-off cyanotype.

Stop by to see the show in person through August 3, and visit the collection here on my site to see how many different variations can emanate from one point of inspiration.

From the sea #3

From the sea #5

Koru
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Inspired by the streets

Koru is one of my cyanotypes inspired by street art. Because my brushstrokes used in this work are reminiscent of the Maori design that symbolizes new beginnings, growth and peace, that’s my secondary inspiration. 

But you might not have guessed that Koru and all of the works below were crafted from the same digital negative, that takes elements of SE Portland street art and re-imagines them via digital and physical layering, brushstroke variations and more.

Angles
Cityscape
Loops
Tsunami
Urban cloud
Urban hieroglyphics #1
Urban hieroglyphics #2
Urban hieroglyphics #3
Urban waves
Waves

That’s one of the ways that my cyanotype process differs from many other alternative process photographic artists, whose work is more reminiscent of traditional darkroom photography, where the artist endeavors to replicate the same image from the same negative, over and over. Instead, each new cyanotype I create is a one-off original, where factors including the type of brush and paper I use can create a drastically-different image from the one before.