A snapshot can evoke a detailed story. A word can create a rich image.
I’m a visual artist who finds most of my work grows out of words; the words come first. Yet sometimes I’ll see something that lingers in my mind until I translate it into written form or visually record it with a pencil or brush. Something usually happens in this interplay. I’m never sure what.
I shouldn’t be surprised by the importance of words in my otherwise visual life. My family surrounded me with books, magazines and newspaper subscriptions. My parents both loved poetry; mom the classics, dad the light verse of Ogden Nash and Dorothy Parker. We went to the library. We bought a World Book Encyclopedia and scads of non-fiction books in the 1950s. Even though I’m a painfully slow reader, I read most of them.
So it’s the evoking of words from images and images from words that interests me. I want to explore it at a deeper level here.
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Douglas Alden Peterson is a graphic designer in Brighton, Michigan who has spent the last 30 years doing freelance design for large and small companies under the name Visualeyes. You can learn more about his business side by visiting www.vizzle.com or emailing him at doug-at-words4it.com*
*Disguised to avoid spammers. Change the “-at-” to “@” to reach him.
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The tag IGPAANATUI means: “I’ve got Photoshop and am not afraid to use it.”
I retouch images. I’m not a purist like a “real” photographer. Wildlife photographers are the most vehement about not altering images. Screw that. I’m not a prisoner of conventions or reality. :-)
When I tag an image with this acronym, it means I’ve taken serious liberties beyond just optimizing colors or sharpness for web use. One exception: I don’t always announce that I’ve rebuilt the eyes of critters photographed at night. Their retinas shine back at me and seriously muck up images that are otherwise good ones. That’s sometimes true with humans in the nocturnal world, too.
