In my current project, I’m going to explore the ocean’s habitats, and maybe more specifically tide pools and their life forms. Living so close to the Pacific has already offered me so many encounters with the area’s wildlife — the uniqueness, beauty, but also vulnerability of which I seek to show in my glitch paintings and photo collages.
My new adventure — joining the wonderful Edgewater gallery collective up in Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, California — opens up so many more possibilities to explore and observe the local beaches, wetlands, and tide pools.
This is my first glitch photo collage in this series, all the materials for which I collected up in Fort Bragg. Making this collage helps me immensely to study the details for my acrylic painting.
Giant Green Anemones are carnivores, and their diet includes crabs, mussels, small fish, and even sea urchins. They’re able to paralyze their prey with their tentacles. (I highly recommend watching videos about this -It’s just… wow!)
Tide pools are ecosystems with an incredible biodiversity of plants and animals — different species inhabit different depths within the pools, and are dependent on the regular shifts of the waters. The effects of rising temperatures and sea levels are already visibly threatening these life forms. Let’s enjoy the beauty of tide pools and let’s make an effort to protect it by following tide pool etiquette.
The year couldn’t have started better. In January 2023 I’m the Featured Artist of the Month, followed by a three month long guest membership in the gallery. My current glitch paintings are surrounded by amazing works of the gallery artist collective.
The Southern sea otters, or California sea otters, live in a limited range between San Mateo County in the North and Santa Barbara County in the south of the Pacific coast. In the 1920s their population decreased dangerously close to extinction, now it averages about 3000 individuals, but since they live so close to humans, they’re still considered an endangered species. Seeing them out in the wild, sometimes hard to spot when floating in the kelp, is such a lucky moment. I was extremely lucky to be able to observe them nearby Elkhorn Slough 🙂
A few days ago, the Brown Pelicans landed on this little pond, and all birders in the area were out and about to witness this event. While everyone – including me – was fixing their eyes on the breathtaking show that the Pelicans delivered, a tiny inconspicuous Pied-billed grebe had a secret gourmet feast right in front of my. Just in the right moment her quick dive caught my attention.
I’m happy to have my 15 digitally glitched photo paper collages (from the series Silicon Valley Wildlife) alongside beautiful pieces from many other artists in the Pacific Art League’s Postcard Show: Wish You Were Here 🙂
Since we have to wait for the physical installation of the show in the gallery, the exhibition can be seen online here: Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, CA
Silicon Valley Wildlife – American Avocet, Collage, 18″ x 24″
Recently I re-discovered my fun in collage-making in which I combine my nature and wildlife photography with the extremely exciting art of glitch-creations. For me, it always starts with a hike in the nature (in this case to the Baylands Nature Preserve in Mountain View, CA) where I love to observe animals, take photos and videos. Even if it’s just around the neighborhood now during our shelter in place time: watching animals (mostly birds) is a meditative activity that slows down my hart rate like nothing else, and helps me to breathe all anxieties away! It’s often the smallest movements of these animals that inspire my next steps in the creative process. After digitally glitching some of the pictures or video footage, I print my favorite pieces on photo paper, and finally bring them together into a new collage creation.
Smaller sizes of my collages will be presented in an online exhibition at the Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, CA.
This Nuttall’s Woodpecker, a small Californian native, had hard time defending his stem of a Century Plant against a much bigger Acorn Woodpecker (see next picture) but when I left the scene, he looked like the winner 🙂 – maybe because of his loud voice?
This Nuttall’s Woodpecker, a small Californian native, had hard time defending his stem of a Century Plant against a much bigger Acorn Woodpecker (see next picture) but when I left the scene, he looked like the winner 🙂 – maybe because of his loud voice?
The New Krass 