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ELENA RAY
American photographer and digital artist gets a lot of her inspiration from the ancient practices of alchemy, buddhism, taoism, yoga, shamanism and archetypal psychology.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK. I SEE YOU ARE INFLUENCED BY ASIA AND HOLISTIC THINGS.
I think of my work as meditative and archetypal. I believe we are nature, not above or apart. I'm exploring holistic energy systems in my work. There is a great body of information available to us from ancient cultures that I utilize in my life and imagery.
WHEN DID YOU START CREATING ART USING PHOTOSHOP AND WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT IT?
I started scanning negatives and transparencies into a MAC way back in the 90's! I've always loved how liberating digital technology is. It's useful to everyone, even those who wish to continue on with film. It's a neutral technology that you can make useful to your own particular work style. My style includes lots of mixed medium paintings and collage art that I scan into the computer.
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WAS THERE ANY PARTICULAR STYLE OR ARTIST YOU WERE DRAWN TO OR INSPIRED BY?
HOW DO YOU START ON A PARTICULAR PROJECT? WHAT DO YOU BEGIN WITH?
Constantly! I look at other artists work everyday. There's so much originality exploding everywhere these days! Here's just a handful of inspiring artists who work with cameras and photoshop:
Berinika
Jerry Uelsmann
Starn Studio
Dorothy Krause
I see something beautiful, I make a photograph of it, and then blend it with my paintings in layers. I used to conceptualize before starting, back when I was in advertising that was necessary, but now, in the making of art I just follow my process allowing the symbols to reveal themselves organically.
WHAT TOOL OR TOOLS IN PHOTOSHOP DO YOU USE THE MOST? ANY TOP TIPS?
Layers. My photo illustrations can have up to 30 layers or more. And I use the eraser more than the real masking tools; so many textures allows for it and it's so much faster. I also keep saved versions of the work as I go so that I can go back and regain something that might have been lost in processing.
WHAT ADVICE COULD YOU PASS ONTO OUR READERS FOR USING PHOTOSHOP TO CREATE ART?
The expression contained within the original photograph is still key. You have to be a "good" photographer and catch the moment. Depending on your style though the technical qualities of the original photograph is purely individual so you can use a low end amateur camera, a toy film camera, polaroid, or a high end DSLR, whatever turns you on, whatever gets you started and finds you where you want to be.
WHAT WAS YOUR LAST COMMISSION?
WHAT ARE YOUR THREE ART-RELATED FAVOURITE WEBSITES?
www.escapeintolife.com I recommend this one. I go there a lot as you can link to an infinity of great sites to experience art.
For Photo illustration it was Health and Spirituality Magazine, an article on chakras. I wish I could link you up to that published article but the search at the magazine site is impossible. Heres my personal blog entry about the job: CLICK HERE
WHERE CAN PEOPLE VIEW/BUY YOUR WORK?
You can license and download my images at:
Dreamstime
Prints and cards are available at : ImageKind
And my flickr stream is here.
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