Storybook Trees XVII Photograph - Limited Edition of 50

Artist Statement: I define my work as artography. While most of my images begin with a photographic process, I often desire more than a solitary frame shot through my camera lens. I enjoy experimenting with imagery - double exposure, adding paint, layers, shapes, or color to transform it into something “other." I began using experimental photography and darkroom techniques in college, inspired by avant-garde, Dadaist, and Surrealist artists that I greatly admire such as Max Ernst, Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, and Joan Miró. Black and white film negatives and silver gelatin prints were my first love, but adding other techniques of photomontage and hand-painted silver gelatin photographs brought in another dimension and allowed me to express my artistic vision more accurately. Currently I still use all of these techniques along with digital processes to create hybrid imagery that I find vibrant and exciting. My subject matter ranges from nature and natural forms to experimental abstractions. Bio: Katina Desmond uses traditional, experimental and hybrid techniques that infuse her images with enchantment and double entendre. Her passion for black and white photography, abstract art and painting is evident in her signature technique of hand-painted silver gelatin photographs. Katina currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She was raised in Topanga Canyon, California, a rural, isolated atmosphere that inspired her imagination. Both her parents were professional artists and her grandfather was an avid photographer of early 1900s’ Alaskan wilderness. Katina Desmond’s work is exhibited in art galleries, art fairs, and included in numerous public and private art collections and publications.