JTA0006-008 Artwork - Limited Edition of 5

Each artwork starts as a photograph. Some are photographs captured with a digital camera while others are taken with a film camera and then digitized. The subject is always something that is a part of my life. Some are historical locations I have visited with my family. Others are vast landscapes or stately oak tress. Some are photos of my wife and my son. Others are things I have painted. The intention is to capture these moments and transform them into digital files that can be used as the foundation for my artwork. Photography is important to the process because it forces me to focus on the smallest of details, whether it is the way the moment before a sunset gives everything a rich golden glow or how the sun enters the morning as a soft crescent of light over the ocean horizon. When my eye is pressed to the camera’s viewfinder the only thing that exists is the universe of light, color, and shadow in the small rectangle field in front of me. Many of the photographs incorporate intentional camera movement to purposefully blur the image. Others are sharp and crisp. Once a series of photographs has been taken, they are reviewed to determine which one would make the best work. The chosen JPEG file is then uploaded to open source image editing freeware such as GIMP or Paint.NET and is converted to a TIFF file. The reason for the file conversion is that JPEG images lose image quality each time they are edited and resaved but TIFF images do not. After the file has been converted, the colors are adjusted and the pixels are moved until the original photograph has been transformed into a work reminiscent of a time prior to the digital world we have come to know. My intention is to use digital art to remind us that we live in a analog world. I want to visually capture the warmth of listening to a vinyl record. I want to capture how we can resonate together during an evening conversation. I want to remind us that we are more than the manufactured contention that we have come to embrace. By accomplishing this, my hope is that I will remind us that we not only live in an analog world but that we live in a spiritual world. In Romans 1:20, Paul wrote “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.