About the lily pads collages

 

 

I had been contemplating my images and what I could do differently, to be more creative. Sometimes I look at my images and think "so what", it's a picture of a flower, a landscape, 

or something else. I like many of the images I've captured over the years (peppered here and there among the clunkers), and I think I've improved over time. But I feel there is something more creative I can do. Is there a more interesting way to tell my stories? 

 

I'm now playing upon my original lily pad subject matter for a more creative interpretation of

the images. By blending passages from several images I can present a stronger and more interesting story. The lily pads and flowers floating on the surface is the image I start with for each collage. In each of the images, the lily pads represent islands of rest amidst the dramas of life from all around us. Reflections of clouds or sun represent the Light and what's above. Marsh weeds, lily pad stems, and fish represent what's below our surface. To embellish the imagery of life below the surface I pull in fish or plants from other images—some that look down into shallow water, some through the glass of an aquarium. Images of sky or landscape add to the story of what's on the surface as well as above. 

 

I kept some of the hard edges of the merged images, rendering them soft in some places and harder n others, to incorporate a graphic element to the otherwise organics of nature. I wanted to also include a hand-drawn element for accent so I added just a few lines and dots.