Making Selections Without a Magic Wand - It's Showtime

These are the three images I selected for the show. I think they represent a little bit of evolution in my style and regard for the elements of an image. They also represent different paths towards the "silk screen" feel I was trying to achieve. I've talked about the technical process elsewhere in the blog so I will say a few words about other aspects of the images.

The first one, and perhaps my favorite, is the Caribou Hotel. I completed this one near the beginning of the semester. The background was a sketch imported into Photoshop. I stayed fairly true to the sketch.I was happy with the simple "folk art" , "boxy" feel and the composition. I liked the colors and the seeming simplicity. In fact it took countless hours of stumbling around to get there. Dolly Parton is quoted as having said about herself "it costs a lot of money to look this cheap" - analogously - It took a lot of effort to make this image look simple.
The next image (completed mid semester) was the Greek village alleyway. This was based on a photograph. Again I tried to keep it simple and clean looking. I was going for a "timeless" village scene. I think the evolution in this piece is found in the shadows. I tried to pay more attention to the shadows (around doorway and windows) and light (sunlight brightening the walls at the back of the alley). Even though this was based on a photo I felt more empowered to remove things I did not want and change or add other elements.
The third piece is the ferry coming into Auke Bay. This piece was completed near the end of the semester. Here, too, a photo was the basis for this digital image but I strayed pretty far from the original. The sky, the water, the boat, the mountains are nothing like the original photo (in fact the ferry does not exist in the photo). The step (that I think I made) in this image is the use of light as an element. To me the light in this image is as important and maybe more so than the the mountains, boat, sky or water. All of the drama comes from the light sweeping right to left across the image and involving the mountain peaks and the bow of the boat.
To me these images represent some technique improvements, some happy accidents, and some real places I remember fondly. Is it art? Who knows ? But it was fun.