Then and Now

My previous post shows my early works in the fine arts and illustration. While there are many drawings and paintings from the past I could share, there is one in particular that interests me the most in relation to what I do now.

As a graphic designer, I embraced the computer. The use of the amazing computer programs available today (my favorites are Adobe products) have allowed us to really explore design and art in a whole new way.

Then I say to myself.... Do they really? I ask this because of a project I did many years ago in a class that used photography, film negatives and a 3m color process that allowed us to manipulate images in a whole new way (back then).

Here is the project in question:



I created these images (there are 4 individual pieces) by using old negatives of my grandmother holding my mother. With a camera mount, I exposed a piece of old lace to create another negative. After all of the negatives are processed, the images can be reversed, colorized and produced in several layers as you see here. Please note that the technical language here may not be accurate, this was a long time ago.

Every time I see this image I see that while some things change, some things remain the same. I still take many different elements... photographic images, illustrations, graphic icons and drawings and combine them to create a visual experience. The difference now is that it is streamlined into one neat package on the computer. It is much easier, faster, but is it new?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Please feel free to comment.

To see more of what I do today please visit... www.robertabolt.com

Thank you for visiting!