Fun with Merging Images

Earlier this month, I agreed to work with a High School art student on a collaborative project, to create a really cool yearbook photo. As part of this, I took some time to work with merging images.

As a test, I started with a base image of myself, recently taken on another collaborative project. At this point, I'm just another middle-aged loser:

First, I erased the background using a simple pixel-level photo editor. The result is a very dorky looking middle-aged loser:

Then, I cranked up the contrast, just past the point of over-modulation, and reduced the saturation to remove all color, leaving this black and white image. It looks a lot like that surveillance photo the FBI never took of me. During the year that I was never in Central America. Coolness began to set in. I began to feel dangerous and accepted:

Finally, using the Philip Hayden's freeware program "merge 2.0", I added background art from my own collection to actually (almost) become transcendently cool:

Now, I do in fact feel unusually cool, not so dork-like, and possibly ready to be on an album cover even though I don't know how to play music.

The probability still remains high, however, that I'm still clueless about most things going on around me. That may take some more work...

Thanks for letting me share.

Chris

Creative Process Variations - Stop and Smell the Linseed

Thanks for taking a moment to take in my ramblings about digital art, life and a few words about the creative process.

I include Linseed in the title as a bit of a joke. Even though I do know what it smells like, and what it's used for, all of my art is created in a virtual studio that lives inside the PC box on my desk. It's not real, until I choose to transfer the abstraction to some physical medium, such a photo emulsion paper or perhaps pigmented ink on canvas. Until that time, it's just a bunch of ones and zero arranged in a cute, artsty way.

This, however, gives me a lot of freedom to explore variations on themes, with the added bonus of creating works that show well in diptych, triptych or larger configurations. Without spending a fortune on Linseed Oil.

The ditital medium also allows me to create variations that while different, all carry the same base mathematics and underlying geometry. As a result, the works seemingly "fit" with each other, and can be naturally arranged to draw on those subliminal currrents.

So, for your enjoyment, some thematic variations (all are available for sale)...

On Subliminal Geometry

"2113" Copyright 2009 by Chris Lombardi


"2151" Copyright 2009 by Chris Lombardi



"2156" Copyright 2009 by Chris Lombardi

~~~~~~

On Subliminal Geometry

People often ask me “How do you make that art?”

I usually reply that I make it on a computer. If they press further, I’ll likely tell them that it’s made using customized software, and leave it at that. The dirty details are nobody’s business but mine.

The designs I work with indeed originate from mathematics, and are recursive in nature. After some hundreds of hours spent coaxing palatable images out of numbers, I’m starting to gain an appreciation for the subtleties of the underlying geometry.

It’s that aspect of my art I’d like to throw down on the floor and kick around for a while.

All of my works are abstract, so there are some freedoms to be taken, lots of them. Additionally, I’ve never had any formal art training, so that makes me all the less accountable for some of the crap I create. Apparently there’s a whole set of things like Elements of Art and Principles of Design that people who “really” know what art is (and what other people should buy) are particularly keen on. Again, my ignorance is bliss as far as criticism is concerned.

Okay, back on track with the Subliminal Geometry thing… According to the all-knowing Google Search page, nobody else seems to be using the term right now, so I’ll jump on it and call it my own. Right here, right now, you heard it here first!

Imbedded within my art are recurring traces of the source mathematics. The contributing recursive elements are common enough geometrical figures – curves and arcs, cardioids, ellipses, hyperbolae, squares, circles and triangles are all represented. Smashing their formulae together in a somewhat random fashion sets the opportunity for interference to emerge from the mess. This mathematical “interference” creates what I call “Subliminal Geometry”.

Think of it in terms of physics. If you have a perfectly still swimming pool, and drop a pebble in each end, the two sets of ripples will meet and form a new shape. This new shape is different from either of the two original waves. That’s what the science guys call “interference”, and in my work it happens on a mathematical level.

Some of my works exhibit overt geometry, and that’s usually pretty easy to see when it’s evident. The geometry within other works is not so obvious. Subliminal Geometry comes into play by establishing patterns and rhythms within my work that - at first - escape sight and conscious recognition, but are still registered by the brain as looking and feeling “right”.

Think of another geometric shape that looks and feels "right", two parabolic curves side-by-side, yellow in color and seemingly perfect in shape and proportion. Yes, the Golden Arches that fed us so frequently when we were teenagers...

I’m looking forward to traveling down this road a bit further, to see where the implications of Subliminal Geometry might lead.

Peach be with you,

Peach pie,

Chris

All This Internet Majick

Hi and hope you're whole, happy and well!

The very latest work:

"2137" Copyright Chris Lombardi 2009

Busy, busy, busy! Getting ready for the Denver Annual People's Fair, where I'll get my first experience selling art with nothing between my work and the sky but a tent and a prayer. I needed an artistic break, however, so I took a few moments this evening to finish up a piece that's been stalled for a while, I think it's done now and is presented above for your amusement.

I'm pretty sure that I'm almost ready for this show, in additon to a gob of smaller images, I'll also have two larger works for sale - a couple of my favorites; pigmented ink on canvas at 36" x 24":

"1073" Copyright 2009 by Chris Lombardi

"2107" Copyright 2009 by Chris Lombardi

If you're in Denver, please stop by my booth at the fair on Saturday, June 6th and Sunday June 7th. I have a pretty easy to find space - on the south side of Colfax right where it meets Bannock (by the McNichols Building, near the Seal Pond), you can't miss it! To make it easier, my booth will have a Blue Awning, an a big sign with my name on it. Hope to see you there!

~~~

So, to change the subject, I've been trying to sharpen up my internet skills a bit, in preparation for my new job. Or at least, for the new job interview. Which I don't have yet. Still, in my line of work it's more likely than not that at some point I might have to answer questions about how Internet Stuff works. I found this great 18 minute video presentation which brings the concepts to life in a way even my tired old brain can understand. An introduction to the OSI Model that's worth a watch, if you are so inclined at:

http://www.professormesser.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=222

A heartfelt thanks to Professor Messer and the good folks at CompTIA! Good stuff!

~~~

Enjoy art, life.

All my best,

Chris

Two Year Anniversary Tomorrow!

On April 28th, 2009 at 7:40AM it will have been two years since I quit smoking. I'm not sure why we attach such importance to anniversary dates, but for what it's worth I feel better, even with the extra few pounds that a return to appetite brought me. Not to mention that 730 days times $4.00 per day equals $2,920.

Last week I got a new computer - I had just outgrown the old laptop I used to create much of my artwork. The results from the increase in computing power are dramatic, an order of magnitude above where I was before. Rendering a moderate quality image (that is, creating a file on disk from what's on the screen) could take as long as twelve hours with the old unit. With the new computer, a screamin' processor and gobs of RAM shorten that time to about 30 minutes for extremely high resolution images at really big sizes (36" x 48").

I've posted a couple of recent images for your enjoyment. When you have a moment, I've put a fairly comprehensive digital art gallery on Flickr as well, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ChrisLombardiArt

As always, there's lots of recent stuff on http://www.DeviantArt.com/ChrisLombardi if you have any extra time. That site gets a LOT of images posted up, so I wouldn't visit without my AV software at full strength. Additionally, as well meaning as they might be, the folks at Deviant Art.com are either niave, or chose to ignore their advertisers whose banner ads try to re-direct your browser (which personally pisses me off).

Have a great week!

Chris Lombardi

Smoke-free in Denver, CO

Showing at Hooked on Colfax

My wife and I like to support locally owned and operated businesses whenever we can, and I really love it when businesses take the extra effort to strengthen their ties to the community around them.

This Saturday night, 4-11-2009, we're having an art show opening at Hooked On Colfax coffee shop, at 3215 East Colfax Ave in Denver (one block west of the BlueBird Theater). The opening runs from 7:00 to 10:00 PM, and there'll be locally generated live music, along with beverages for those who might be thirsty.

I always feel honored to be asked to show my art, and for this show I'll be in the company of some pretty cool Denver artists:

Brian Bernazard, whose work can be found at http://www.homecollectiv.com/bernazard-bio.html and other places on the web, James Yeast IV, see picasaweb.google.com/JamesthefourthArt, and Seth Klekamp, whose website I can't seem to locate but his work is easy enough to find on Google.

As the new kid in town, I feel pretty honored to be showing with these guys!

I've posted up my artwork for this show on my website, at http://www.ChrisLombardiArt.com/Hooked_on_Colfax_Show

Please drop in on the opening if you have a chance! The show will be running through April if you can't make the opening, stop in and support Scott and Malissa Spero if you are in the neighborhood.

As promised, some recent art for your reflection:

It occurs to me that the act of creating art isn't really all that important.

The value is in the potential that the willingness to create art unlocks.

The nakedness of the truth about yourself when another's eyes are cast on your work.

When your art is hung in public, you cannot hide.

Hmm....

Here's some art to enjoy, from the past few days...