THE DIGITAL CADAVER

One of the images I am working on the most currently is from the Digital Cadaver series, which is an extension of the Five Questions series (in some respects). The "underpainting", if you still call it that, is created with a digital pen tablet in photoshop. I will then be oil glazing the portrait over the digital cadaver. Pasted below is the original artist statement and a series of in-progress images. Having never worked with a wacom tablet before, I will just add there has been a major learning curve.




THE DIGITAL CADAVER
This series focuses on combining digital anatomy models common in the fields of science and medicine with traditional fine art portraiture. In this group of hybrid works I will be combining a variety of pictorial methods with the goal of generating a more fully integrated conversation between these two disparate modes of representation. While I still consider the general direction and feel of the “Five Questions” series a success on many levels, it has become evident that the conversation generated through the pairing of these oppositional modes of representation is being minimized by the dominant “Fine Art” aesthetic inherent to the traditional methods used to create them. I now believe that in order for the work to capitalize on the conflict generated through the pairing of these distinct categories of body images the final work must transcend any one dominant aesthetic. I believe this will be accomplished by employing a range of working methods designed to maintain the formal characteristics traditionally held by each of these distinct categories of body images.

In order to maintain the disparate nature of the original source material I will be employing a variety of working methods designed to impart the aesthetic and formal qualities of each category of body image. In the anatomy based components of this project I will be utilizing software, such as Interactive Anatomy, and anatomy texts traditionally used my medical students and practitioners. This source material will provide me with a digitized view of the body. The resulting digital cadavers will provide the distance and detachment normally associated with images designed to nurture a dispassionate and technical understanding of the body. I believe this type of technical precision and implied detachment is essential in establishing the framework on which a body of likeness, imperfection, and familiarity can be built. These images will then be printed on a large format printer to maintain the scale appropriate for gallery viewing and in line with traditional fine art portraiture practices. In the portrait and figurative based components of this project I will be employing traditional mediums and methods to render the likenesses of the individual subjects. These portrait elements will be drawn and/or painted directly over the digitized cadaver in an attempt to reclaim it into the realm of the individual.