Started on this fifth Meta-lithics image recently, in an attempt to get back into the right head-space for revising my artist statement. The focus of my work has changed significantly since the fall, and even my statement as it was in the January post no longer fits with my current aims.
Prior to the spring I was incorporating images of human-made and natural elements into my composites, with only very loose parameters for what type of material or setting I would use (wood paneling, concrete wall, construction site, etc). Since then I have realized that the "human-made" need only manifest itself in the reality of the medium as a constructed image. This gives my work tighter focus, not only in visual terms but conceptually as well. The strange dynamic I have arrived upon - fusing the geologic and digital as two extremes of temporal inaccessibility - has now become my primary concern and my revised artist statement will convey this.
In terms of the new image, obviously it's in the very early stages yet but I'm pretty keen on how it's shaping up thus far. Bringing back the circular shape that I felt worked quite well in Meta-lithics III, and also hoping to take into consideration the expansiveness noted in IV.
As an additional note, this fifth image will still be comprised exclusively of geologic forms of the Victoria area, despite the fact that I've now returned to the redneck backwater of my hometown on the other side of the mountains. It is a strange feeling of dislocation to be working on an image from photos taken very far away, but I'm fairly certain I have plenty of resources at my disposal without needing to re-shoot to complete the composition.
For a new project I plan to document the geologic forms of the nearby Rocky Mountains, in the Jasper National Park area. This Jasper project will still utilize the hyperphotographic technique of the Meta-lithics series, but I am curious to see if my method may change due to the different geography/geology. I intend to keep the Victoria series separate from the Jasper project; I won't use images from both areas in one composite as I feel that would compromise the locational specificity important to my work.
To the mountains, I go.