Saturn-Impressionen

I had a tough decision on my hands, with my variety of drafts and disparate impressions of them when viewed on different equipment. Foreseeing this difficulty with the printer I came up with this contact sheet as a draft to choose on the basis of how well the printed image looked, as this was most relative to the final product.



Again the colors appear strangely here, I haven't yet figured out why. Anyway after deliberation one of the last two variations seemed to be the most favored. Rather than settle for one of the two I readjusted the original to make some attempt at compromise between the luminosity and contrast of the one and the perfect tonality of the other.



This was the final print but it's such low quality one can't make out much. If there was one thing I'd change it would be sharpening the background up a little. It would have taken half a day to render at this resolution so I did it at half quality to save time. There is some pixilation upon closer inspection only, which I hadn't intended. The effect is actually kind of ironic since the piece seems detached and digital from a viewers personal scrutiny.

I wrote up this artist statement as well.

The premise of the ‘digiscape’ seemed to me a romantic one. Taking an imaginative approach to banal traditional landscape is ideal to me as an artist as my goals are often focused on expression of abstract ideas. I had first thought of depicting a profound concept within the mindscape that encompasses it that works on various levels.

At the time I remember feeling a bit like Prince Hamlet, along the lines of; madness discrete. The Dane was haunted by his uncertainty of things and hindered from action by the turmoil of his ambivalence. I had it in my head at this point to depict our shared fantasy: somewhere that uncertainty does not exist. It seemed to me this would either have to be in heaven, underground or some combination thereof, I’m concerned by the ambiguity of this relationship. The apparent irony here is the uncertainty of a place where uncertainty does not exist. I should probably point out for posterity that heaven and ground are just analogies for any kind of spiritual and material existence one might experience after death.

Speaking of contradictions and psychoses In heaven or underground has an entirely different meaning. The opposition of the two recalls the mood swings of bipolarism; either a heavenly ecstatic mania or grave anguished depression. I could really relate to these wild mood swings in my poor health at the time, and perhaps because of them felt the need to express it.

The two abstracts are held within geometry reminiscent of existential spheres of existence, or perhaps merely the human brain lobes. These intricate organized and embellished patterns are an abstraction of thought and theology. There is both beauty and darkness to be seen here. Apparently obvious, this all looks very complicated. This seems only appropriate for the complex and at times confused ideas that lie beneath.