I had gone down to Oklahoma City from my home in Tulsa (about 100 miles) to drop off my presentation for the upcoming Photoslam event. I decided to take the day and check out some galleries down that way, something I really hadn’t done before.
When I entered the ‘Untitled’ [art space] gallery this woman was at the door greeting people, explaining the current show, etc. She was very helpful about explaining how the show came about (it was a year end showing of multiple grant recipients’ work).
We got to talking about me being an artist since I had my camera with me, and I asked her if she was as well. She turned out to be an art historian in training, going to college.
The gallery was somewhat dark, but there were large windows in the front that let in great ambient light. Her eyes, as is obvious, were brilliant blue. I told her about my reason for being in OKC, and explained the ‘truth’ project I would present at the show. I asked her if she would be willing to pose for a collage from the truth series as well and she thought it would be a cool idea.
One of the artists in the gallery had large constructions. One of the constructions had a shredder attached to it that was churning out shredded paper very slowly. Photos of that, with photos of her were the perfect combination for what I learned about her as we talked; her life, doubts, fears, wonderings, etc.
She wasn’t sure what the photos were going to turn out like, and either was I. I loved the light in the lobby where I worked and this student happened by one morning as the sun reflected off the granite floor.
I liked her red complexion but when I worked half the collage up in black and white and took out 2 of the 3 channels I also loved the porcelain look of her skin. This got me thinking about how others might perceive her in different ways; red, white, porcelain, ruddy, however, her perception of her self, her truth is the same no matter who she is in front of. That is how I came upon the title for this piece.
It is in the ‘Truths and Things I Made Up About This Woman’ series, even with the variant title.
This woman was a customer at my hair salon. I had just got my digital camera a few weeks before and was anxious to try some ideas. She was actually getting her nails done, not her hair. I took some photos of her and the nail lady doing her work then asked her if I could take some close ups of her eyes. We walked outside in the shade (but with a very very bright parking lot right behind me as I faced her. She had the most gorgeous green eyes. I took photos looking straight into each eye so I could just see the side of her head at the same time. I combined the one in front of the right eye with the one in front of the left eye to get this look. I then layered the words, copied the collage onto a new layer and turned it grayscale, then cut out all the grayscale image that did not act as a background for the words. I then spent a great deal of time manipulating her face and eyes to get the color and depth I was looking for.
This image of my step daughter Caitlin was a simple color image. I worked it extensively within Photoshop, using the unsharp mask tool quite a bit in getting the high contrast and high grain. The color overlays were relatively random.
The quote is one of my favorites. I read it first in ‘sketchbook with voices’, a photo sketchbook I worked within back in the 80s. I have liked it ever since and think it is a crucial sentiment when understanding what an artist does in the world.
