WORLD AS COLLAGE DAY 8 – Take Two

 

THE SHORT TAKE:

Collage work continues; today gluing began on Day 11. Tonight, though, I’ll linger a bit longer on Day 8, showing a series of new digital variants done today which expand on a scan of Collage Day 8 Recto.

So here again are a few new images for your viewing pleasure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always, there is more to explore in the LONG READ below, if you are so inclined.

THE LONG READ:
This sequential group plays with shifts of color and tonality, pushing the images quite far from the original collage. The last leap in the sequence makes use of a mirror image tool, resulting in a monstrous, symmetrical form suggestive of a mask or threatening creature. Symmetry can result in such strange forms, as was the case with preparatory work for the MIRRORED TEST / TÜKRÖZÖTT TESZT pieces of 2021. In the end, some of these newest images may be a bit too sci-fi for me, but the developments that unfold with this medium are astounding. The range of possible form and shape changing reminds me of the simple kaleidoscopes of my childhood.

In Hungary digital art is called electrographia, and many artists have broadened the range of digital imagery to bring a contemporary, even avant garde artistic thrust to an otherwise graphic arts medium.

There is a very active Hungarian Association of Digital Artists (Magyar Elektrigrafia Társaság). One of the best in the field is Borbála Kováts, a colleague of mine, who has taken digital art way beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Her work builds complex layers out of fragmented elements gleaned from photographs. Here are a few of her images, and for further reading, here a selection of online catalogs of her works HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

Can I end without a word of the daily events? No. As this Marathon continues to raise funds for refugees resettling in Central Vermont – at the moment over $58,500 has been donated by sponsors of the fifty visual artists, writers and musicians involved – a sea of new refugees washes over Europe, fleeing the fascist barbarism of the Russian dictator. Today a photo was visible all over the web which I attach here. We are doing something momentous here in our small community, as are thousands around the world.

 

 

To paraphrase… Saving one life is saving the world…

 

– Diane Sophrin
  Montpelier, Vermont
  March 6, 2022