Digital Assignment- Mary S. Taitt

"....imagik-image magic: magic is the effect that image play has on me."- Quote from Mary Stebbins-Taitt, the artist I chose as the 'muse' or 'role model' for my own digital self portrait.

In researching digital self-portraits online, I was able to narrow my list down to a mere 16 different artists that I had bookmarked having very interesting work. Several had wonderful depictions of self-portraits, while many others had aspects in their work I was drawn to, even if the composition as a whole didn't speak to me. Eventually, after studying and comparing some of the different artists, I decided Mary Stebbins-Taitt was the one. I found her on Blogspot of all places, and noticed she has several different blogs. I became quite enamored with her 'Self Portrait with Roses and Checkerboard Wind' that I came across on one of her blogs.

I think the first thing to draw me to Taitt's work was her use of color. I am always drawn to a bright palette and wide use of color in almost anything I see or do. As I shuffled through the many thumbnails that my search delivered, I immediately paused at the vivid colors that were unidentifiable at the time. Once enlarged, my eyes were dancing around the image taking in all of the vibrant activity. Smooth shapes, soft images, and unusual tones gave life to this two-dimensional piece. She states in her blog that her medium is Digital Composit/ Digitally altered photographs. I further read she uses Photoshop to do most of her work.

As I enlarged the portrait further, I realized there was some kind of screen or weave over the entire image. This lends to the softness and subtlety of the piece. I believe the artist then 'punched up' the piece with the color scheme. Various intensities of color highlight the roses, and the artist's skin and hair. As for myself, it appears that her eye is the only aspect that was somewhat unaggected or edited back to the original color. Possibly this was done to give a 'center' to the piece, giving ground to an otherwise dreamy composition. I feel if this hadn't been done, the entire image would have faded or just become lost, with all the colors swirling in the foreground.

Again, like almost all other aesthetically appealing images, this follows the rule of thirds. Showing only half of the artist's face, and having the roses not quited center lend a visual interest into the piece. I'm not sure what exactly is in the background, (top right area of the image), but it also doesn't matter. I feel enough information is given to suggest a background, but it is immaterial to the other aspects in the image.

I'm still learning how all of the pixel-editing programs work, but feel confident that I reach this level of skill eventually!