2021 is (finally) here and it seems like the perfect time to start some new things. So there's this blog -- which will start out about my new art project and life as an artist and then wander from there. Other art I love and cycling and our dogs are likely to be featured as well.
But first, the new art project: I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be an artist and photographer nowadays. Currently, 95 million photos are uploaded to Instagram every day. So rather than continue to add to that amazing (depressing?) total I thought I would try to make something meaningful and beautiful about all those images. Plus, it's still a pandemic out there -- and winter to boot -- so I thought it might be better to stay isolated in my studio in front of my computer with a hot cup of coffee for a while longer.
Taj Mahal x 25 (above) is my first new piece for 2021. It's what I'm calling an 'Insta Stack Art' piece -- a new photograph created by overlaying existing Instagram images to create art that looks at our relationship to photography. The Taj Mahal seemed like a natural subject to start with because, like so many other Westerners, I've never been there and only know it second-hand it through various media, especially photography. This x-ray like piece is composed of 25 stacked-up images of the Taj Mahal selected from the more than 1.6 million on Instagram.
Finally, it's an Instagram-based project, so of course it has an Instagram of it's own! Please follow along here: @Insta_Stack_Art