Creative Departure

During this past year, my creative interests took a surprising turn... I found myself drawn to urban art. This interest was definitely born from following Shepard Fairey's influence on the Obama Campaign. From Fairey I learned about the work of Banksy, Ron English, and Sam Flores. Oddly, I was hooked. I started looking at graffiti as art, I collected a few rare screen prints, and I found myself secretly wanting the over-sized graphic t-shirts worn by urban high schoolers. I know, I know... I too am relieved that this new interest did not leave it's mark on my wardrobe.

Yesterday though, this rural kid made his first attempt at combining the aesthetic style of urban art with photography. Here is the result in low-res quality. To get a better view, click on the image.

The above image started as 12 vertical photos stitched together. Because yesterday's overcast weather was less than optimal for photography, the sky was completely washed out, leaving a natural blank white background. Noticing this, I thought that this photograph might make a great candidate for some experimentation. I then ran the composite image through multiple Adobe processes. After about 5 hours of tweaking and editing, I arrived at the above 200 MB file. If I ever learn screen printing, this would make a really sharp print. I don't expect this to be the direction that my photography takes, but nonetheless it was a fun creative departure for a day. Let me know what you think!