Drawing -

"Miniature Lighter"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

Something simple and quick - from the old sketchbook to the Secret Visual Laboratory - to close out the Labor Day weekend.

Let me tell what you've won! -

"A Brand New Car"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Once again I was just fooling around with the digital drawing program, an old car and the super secret array over at the Secret Visual Laboratory. After tumbling dry, here we have it. :)

Remembering old friends -

"My Photograph of Chun"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I'm still playing around in the new toys wing of the Secret Visual Laboratory. This particular piece is a fictional character but as I so often wonder, what will you folks come up with for the story of our precious Chinese beauty?

Where day and night are equals -

"A Night in the Tropics"
digital collage by Mick Mather

It's been a long time since I've installed new software at the Secret Visual Laboratory and I'm still in the playing around mode with it. Much of the work posted over the past few weeks has been passed through the new tools and is showing good potential. Here's another.

From beginning to end -

"Lamp & Glasses"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

I was going through some old sketchbooks as the winter past was edging toward spring. I show the original 1994 sketch here at No Matter What Shape-The Archive with a bit of insight as regards this particular period of study and effort. What you see here is the manipulated version. Yes, after shoving it through the super secret array at the Secret Visual Laboratory.

NEW from The Mister Existence Series -

"Sister Existence Revels in the Deep Shade"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I've been playing around with a new set of plug-ins while working in an old way of digital cut and pasting before running everything through the Secret Visual Laboratory. Can't stay to chat, lot's of work to do.

NEW from The Mister Existence Series -

"Sister Existence Realigns Divergent Parallel Universes"
digitally manipulated collage & digital drawing by Mick Mather

Once again I was puttering around in the secret visual laboratory with a number of new ideas that have been spinning 'round in my head. Pretty soon a digital drawing was created, layered over a digital collage and sent through the super secret array another time. By now my wild imagination is off into the field of quantum mechanics, parallel universes, Hugh Everett's relative state formulation and that darned cat ... Schroedinger's to be clear. Anyway, our good sister, convinced that she alone is the unifying center, is busy with realignment.

Strut your stuff -

"Steppin' Out"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Here's something old that deserved to be revisited. I never did quite finish this so I pushed it through the usual array at the secret visual laboratory one more time. I was just having a little fun when all of a sudden a left turn followed by an about face seemed to make sense. Enjoy.

Thursday Challenge: Childhood -

"Childhood"
digitally manipulated drawing & photograph by Mick Mather
original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett
- click on image to view full size -

The weekly theme at Thursday Challenge this week is childhood. One of the sub-themes was play and this photograph of my granddaughter doing just that in her sketchbook seemed a perfect fit. After putting her drawing through the paces at the Secret Visual Laboratory the finished manipulations were knitted together. As I look at this, it seems amazing that she was just 4 years old when she drew this selfportrait ... well, maybe it isn't a selfportrait, more likely it's Cinderella or the Little Princess, both of whom she adores.

The search -

"Shovel Ready"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Times are hard and pickings seem slim. Recently, as I was perusing the help wanted ads, an appropriate opportunity popped up and I wonder how many people will be after it. Either way, the advert itself was scanned, layered with a MEN WORKING icon and put through the usual paces at the Secret Visual Laboratory.

Illustration Friday: Cracked -

"Cracked"
digitally manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

The theme of the week at Illustration Friday is cracked. Not so long ago I posted a few images in the Database Series that fit pretty well, but I've already used them. What to do? A search of my fractal flame files was rewarded with a piece that I knew would work just as well after a detour through the Secret Visual Laboratory. I'll be off for a few days, although you're not likely to notice ... in the meantime, please keep those who fight for freedom in your thoughts and prayers over this Memorial Day weekend.

New from Fog Walk 2008 -

"Fog Walk VII"
manipulated digital photograph by Mick Mather

Here's something from late last fall taken on a photo shoot during a foggy morning and then put through the paces at the Secret Visual Laboratory. Busy, busy, busy ... can't stay to chat.

Fiddling ... while Rome burns -

"After John Mora"
digitally manipulated fractal flame collage by Mick Mather
- click on image to view full size -

When it comes to inspiration, my blog roll features a few dozen individuals that have earned the right to sit where they do. I visit most of them every day and one of the more recent additions, John Mora's TYPOS.DAYLIGHT.FATE, has been playing with my head for months! Well, as I was aimlessly tottering about with a few fractal flames, my favorite digital drawing program and some of the usual suspect plug-ins at the Secret Visual Laboratory, up jumps the devil! It's impossible for me to deny the influence, John, so I dedicate this piece to you ... and, by the bye, it might be fun to see where you might take this after running it all through your chop shop! There's no urgency or pressure here, it just sounds like fun from where I sit.

Illustration Friday: Hierarchy -

"Hierarchy"
digitally manipulated fractal flame by Mick Mather

Something fun for this week's Illustration Friday theme, hierarchy. I ran an old fractal (that seemed a good, abstract fit for an ascending order of things) through the usual array at the Secret Visual Laboratory and posted it here for your perusal. Now, I'm closing in on the cocktail hour ... cheers!

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EXTRA! EXTRA!

You can see my final documentation of "Stimulus Package I (Final Documentation View)" that's part of Seth Apter's "Disintegration Collaboration". Where? At No Matter What Shape-The Archive.

Database? -

"Red River I"
digital collage by Mick Mather
- click image to view full size -

This will likely be the only piece to escape the Secret Visual Laboratory as I fiddle with the idea of database art. My early research tells me that I'm in the "after-the-novelty-wears-off" phase of layering data as a digital collage. While a valid way to express the voluminous amount of data available even in a single event or subject, I doubt that I'm making any meaningful inroads to new media. My suspicion is that I'm going to need more programming knowledge than I think I'm willing to tackle at the moment but, who knows.

Another flurry of activity -

"The Writing on the Wall III"
digital collage by Mick Mather

It's been a productive weekend and it's only half over. In about six weeks I'll be on vacation for a week and the plan is to go unplugged for the entire time. I have a few short walking art projects planned and, hopefully, the weather will cooperate enough for me to get to at least two of them. In preparation, I'll need a few dozen images ready to go that can be pre-posted. So, back into the Secret Visual Laboratory I go!

Sawing wood -

"Her Map to Dreamland"
digital collage by Mick Mather

I was relaxing in the Secret Visual Laboratory this morning, tearing things apart and having a bit of fun when out popped this piece. I don't have a lot to say about it beyond the introductory sentence since, as I say, I was just playing around, having a good time!

The BIG back yard and then some -

"Kings Court Walk I"
digital collage by Mick Mather

One of the things that struck me while running a set of topographic maps and satellite views of "the BIG back yard" through the super secret array here at the Secret Visual Laboratory is the way it all began to resemble walking trails. It also prompted me to take further notice of a walk to plan, in early spring, around that bright, green shape at the top. In reality, this is a small pond nestled into an area bounded by a commercial development site, I-695 and railroad tracks operated by the Finger Lakes Railway. I'd do it today if I had a pair of snowshoes but, no matter, you may be able to see documentation of the Milton Slough Walk in 3 or 4 months.

While I was out walking, again -

"All That I Survey"
manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

I've set myself to the task of scanning all of my old photographs that were taken with film using my trusty, old and beloved cameras: a Petrie 35mm fixed lens beauty purchased in the late 1960's and a rather modern (at the time) Canon Z115 with automatic zoom and lots of bells and whistles. While pleasantly occupied I came across some of the documentation of Greymoor Walk along with a number of other treks, that I was never certain how to apply to that task beyond matted and framed prints. With all of the technology that I have at my fingertips today, the process of creative interpretation is now as simple as the decision to press on. It's funny though, as I run things through the super secret array here at the Secret Visual Laboratory, I find myself dwelling on drawings and block-relief printmaking for some of the work. Who knew?

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Leighlund's Christmas Goose"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

Earlier this week, Tuesday to be exact, I posted a beautiful piece of land art created by my middle granddaughter, Paige. Well, you know how it is, you can't post one without representing the other so, here's another piece from the Drawing With Leighlund Series. To catch you up, and for newcomers, this series begins with one of Leighlund's delightful, scribbly drawings and then comes to Poppa for a run through the super secret array at the Secret Visual laboratory. This one reminds me of a fat, Christmas goose taking flight.