STEPHEN ROCK

TITLE: Artifacts #1 (Driving the MGA)
MATERIALS: Pigmented inkjet print on canvas
DIMENSIONS: 30" x 44"
DATE: 2002

TITLE:
Artifacts #2 (Windup Drumming Bear)
MATERIALS: Pigmented inkjet print on canvas
DIMENSIONS: 30" x 44"
DATE: 2002

TITLE:
Artifacts # 3 (Tonka Truck, Christmas 1960)
MATERIALS: Pigmented inkjet print on canvas
DIMENSIONS: 30" x 44"
DATE: 2002

STATEMENT
Since about 1997 I have been creating work using my scanner as a lens to capture images. I have come to appreciate the artifacts that I get by using this process. Scanning 3 dimensional objects creates unexpected anomalies that can then be used to carve and embellish the surface of the image. While I do use Photoshop to shape the images I want, it is by no means the driving force for these images, only a vehicle to facilitate my ideas.

The start of this current series actually came about after creating vector images and observing that they would never come close to the feel that I was after. One evening I left my studio and went to a local park in West Seattle - there, I sat on the beach and after sunset returned with some interesting pieces of driftwood. While scanning them I realized that the organic input was what I had needed to get beyond the digital feel of my subjects. I have progressed to the point of working with toys from my childhood, artifacts from my life, the familiar and intimate souls of shoes and even standing on my scanner to get the source material I then transform.

My intention is not to collage a composition but to capture an object and extract its' soul.

CONTACT
Stephen Rock
Rock's Studio
Seattle, WA
http://www.rockeditions.com