More on my lily pads

I thought it would be nice to give you my artist's statement that accompanies this series...the first of many more lily pad prints:

I love the creative process and were it takes you. My Lily Pad series is about how your senses play a role in that creative process and how that process has a voice of its own....often resulting in something that was not originally intended. My original intention was to do five pieces, one for each of the senses. I started working on “sight” first since, to me, it was the easiest one to do. I chose a photograph of lily pads and then found myself remembering Monet’s numerous water lily paintings and wanted to do a modern interpretation of them. Why did I have to do a piece that represented each of the five senses? Why couldn’t I do a piece that implied the use of all five senses in the creative process? I started to run with this idea....

This new idea started with my camera, a walk down to the lake and the inspiration I got from the lily pads. I wanted to fuse modern technology with older, more “traditional” art mediums. I wanted to use that technology to capture the spirit of Monet’s painting technique and the

texture the paint creates. I listened to the sounds around me, studied the lily pads in the water, smelled the clean, lake air and touched the weeds by the shore in order to get that perfect shot of the lily pads.

Once I had the photographs, I started working on my computer. I scanned in some line drawings I had made and a piece of paper that I had dyed and aged. I combined these handmade elements with the digital photograph, collaging them and combining them digitally with some vector graphic paint drips I have, again to pay tribute to Monet and his medium. I then chose to experiment with mounting them. I did not want to hang them in a frame and behind glass. I wanted them to be on canvas, but not printed on canvas. I chose to mount the photograph to canvas, to play with the idea of new and old, painting vs. photograph. It is this idea that I will build upon for the next pieces in this series.

And now, like Monet, I have become smitten by the beauty of lily pads, by the serenity they create and by the environment they invade. And, like Monet, I will continue to visit them, study them and create with them.