Veil Series: "Burn Away The Veils"
Triptych - 73"x48", Digital Photo-Montage Prints, 2009
Artist: Anthony Vodraska
Artist: Anthony Vodraska
"The Hand of Divine power will, assuredly, lift up the veil, and expose to the sight of men that which shall cheer and lighten the eye of the world." Baha'u'llah
Inspiration: The word "veil" has multiple metaphorical uses in sacred texts, especially in the Baha'i Writings. The notion of veils as concealing, protecting, obscuring, or dimly revealing spiritual realities is intriguing to me as artist. The Veil Series is an abstract exploration of veils in which changing blended layers of luminosity, color, line and form are used to suggest possible meanings. Sometimes the title of the work hints at one interpretation but hopefully the viewer is free to creatively explore and find their own connection with the work.
Process: Serendipity stimulated this particular work. A chance visit to the Weisman Art Museum to view Frank Gehry's splendid architecture produced some interesting images of exterior stainless steel surfaces. Back in the studio, I process three or more different images in Photomatrix Pro software [more typically used for bracketed images of the same subject to create high dynamic range (HDR) images] to create a unique blended image that can suggest ideas for later photo-montage work. In this instance, the resulting preliminary images suggested translucent veils and the next direction to take.
After more systematic HDR blending of images in Photomatrix Pro, the composite images became layers for further blending, distorting and fine tuning using Photoshop software. This process allowed the structural surfaces to be transformed to refine the expression of the metaphor's meaning - the interposing nature of veils changing over time, thinning and revealing hidden meaning as expressed in the sunlight reflecting off the stainless steel surface. The scale of the work engages the viewer to create their own individual experience with the work, which may be much different than my conscious intent.
The work is printed on demand as an open edition print on satin fine art paper using an HP DesignJet Z3100. The surface is further enhanced with a Golden Gel Topcoat w/UVLS and Golden Archival Varnish w/UVLS. The prints are mounted on hardboard.
After more systematic HDR blending of images in Photomatrix Pro, the composite images became layers for further blending, distorting and fine tuning using Photoshop software. This process allowed the structural surfaces to be transformed to refine the expression of the metaphor's meaning - the interposing nature of veils changing over time, thinning and revealing hidden meaning as expressed in the sunlight reflecting off the stainless steel surface. The scale of the work engages the viewer to create their own individual experience with the work, which may be much different than my conscious intent.
The work is printed on demand as an open edition print on satin fine art paper using an HP DesignJet Z3100. The surface is further enhanced with a Golden Gel Topcoat w/UVLS and Golden Archival Varnish w/UVLS. The prints are mounted on hardboard.
Questions about inspiration or process can be posted in the comment box below. Inquiries about purchasing the work can be made via e-mail by clicking on the artist's name below.
Anthony Vodraska
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3 comments:
Very nicely done and interpreted Anthony.
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I like your questions, Anthony. I'm seeing more of your own personal response to these in the work. The questions, of course, transfer to more than the image, but to life itself...outside of the semantics of needing language to "describe" and communicate, what steps are needed to transport ourselves to the meditative state where all is one, the beginning is the end, and there is no need of labels of any kind. And how do we bring this true reality back down to the defined world of image or action without losing in translation?
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