Digital Abstraction Photography - Allen Schill

An image that occurred via an anomaly in the visualization of a scan by the computer, quite unmanipulated.

Light Music, 2008

Archival digital pigment print, 41.2 x 32.1 cm. Limited edition of fifteen prints numbered and signed by the artist. (id#920)
In the tradition of the abstract sublime.
The product of sheer chance, an anomaly of the computer, in visualizing another image. As soon as I saw this bizarre preview from the scanner, I took a screenshot. (The source was, whatever it may mean, physicist Hans Bethe's crude pencil sketch (of 1939) of a nuclear reactor, which he made to suggest the drawing Werner Heisenberg had shown to Niels Bohr in Copenhagen in 1941 in order to convince him of German intentions about nuclear weapons. In fact the sketch resembles a four-year-old's drawing of a birthday cake.)

A color-field derived from a detail of a photograph, digitally manipulated.

Relief, 2008

Archival digital pigment print, 41.2 x 32.1 cm. Limited edition of fifteen prints numbered and signed by the artist. (id#918)

A digital elaboration of an originally photographic source.

Night Vision, 2009

Archival digital pigment print, 29.5 x 41.2 cm. Artist's proof. No edition yet established. (id#919)

A digital elaboration of an originally photographic source.

An homage to inspiration, using 120 separate scans of the embossed leather cover of an old edition of Shakespeare.

Willie Flips, 2009 (for Lord Buckley)

Archival digital pigment print, 38.5 x 32.1 cm. Artist's proof. No edition yet established. (id#922)

A wig bubble on the subject of William Shakespeare, and dedicated to the great Lord Buckley, the patron saint of saints, and of all the divinely inspired.

Assembled from 120 separate scans of the cover, in deeply embossed relief, of an old leather "Complete Works of Shakespeare".

A section of a scan of a rust-encrusted layer of paint, repeated 24 times to create a mandala.

Shield, 2009

Digital photoelaboration, archival pigment print, 65.8 x 65.8 cm. (26" x 26" ca.) @300ppi. Limited edition of fifteen prints numbered and signed by the artist. (id#849)

Derived from a photographic scan of a found material.

A section of a scan of a rust-encrusted layer of paint, repeated 26 times to create a mandala.

Seal, 2009

Digital photoelaboration, archival pigment print, 147.3 x 149 cm. (58" x 58 5/8" ca.) @300ppi. Limited edition of fifteen prints numbered and signed by the artist. (id#850)

Derived from a photographic scan of a found material.

A small segment of a scan, repeated many times to create an intricate motif.

Bargello, 2009

Digital photoelaboration, archival pigment print, 147.3 x 149 cm. (27 1/2" x 25" ca.) @300ppi. Limited edition of fifteen prints numbered and signed by the artist. (id#851)

Derived from a photographic scan of a found material.

A section of an image of a fresco of the Crucifixion, repeated 22 times to create a mandala.

Wheel (Crucifixion Mandala 22x16.4°F), 2009

Digital photoelaboration, archival pigment print, 57.4 x 57.4 cm. (22 5/8" x 22 5/8" ca.) @300ppi. Artist's proof. No edition yet established. (id#854)

Derived from a photograph of a landscape detail of a fresco painting of a crucifixion.

Paesaggio (Crucifixion Mandala 22x16.4°D), 2009

Digital photoelaboration, archival pigment print, 53 x 53 cm. (20 7/8" x 20 7/8" ca.) @300ppi (id#856)

Derived from a photograph of a landscape detail of a fresco painting of a crucifixion.

A section of an image of a fresco of the Crucifixion, repeated 20 times to create a mandala.

Paesaggio (Crucifixion Mandala 20x18°Z), 2009

Digital photoelaboration, archival pigment print, 53 x 53 cm. (20 7/8" x 20 7/8" ca.) @300ppi. Artist's proof. No edition yet established. (id#852)

Derived from a photograph of a landscape detail of a fresco painting of a crucifixion.

A section of a scan of a dried, transparent cactus leaf, repeated sixteen times to create a mandala.

Cactus Leaf Mandala, 2001

Digital photoelaboration, archival pigment print, 15 3/4" x 15 3/4" @300dpi. Artist's proof. No edition yet established. (id#808)

Derived from a scan of a dried frond of a Christmas cactus, seen by transmitted light.

A section of an image of a ceramic relief, repeated twelve times to create a mandala.

Margherita Mandala, 2007

Digital photoelaboration, archival pigment print, 28" x 24" @300ppi. Artist's proof. No edition yet established. (id#848)

Derived from an original digital photograph of an item of moulded ceramic with a daisy motif.

Digital Abstraction

This group is clearly a mixed bag, but in all these works the use of the computer was essential in one way or another. They are based in some cases on the repetition of forms, in some on the manipulation of a photographic image, in one case a multiple scan, and in one case a complete anomaly, a burp of the video card.

In a few cases here, images sizes given are as printed on A3 Plus format artist's paper, which is 13" x 19" (33 x 48.3 cm), with a maximum printable area of about 12 2/3" x 16 1/4" (32.1 x 41.2 cm). However, the master files are generally much larger, and so allow a considerably bigger print.

In some cases, image sizes are provided to give some indication of the quality of definition of the image file. Print sizes are given at 300 pixels per inch, which is the standard resolution for highest-quality digital printing. Most print-on-demand outlets for wall art allow enlargement of the file, when a larger file is needed, by reducing the resolution to as low as 100 pixels per inch, which is three times as large as the 300ppi standard, in both length and width, and nine times the area. For example, one of mine, "Seal", which measures 58" x 58" at 300ppi, would be 174" x 174" at 100ppi, but with a notable difference in quality. This makes no difference for a print not enlarged beyond its original file size at 300ppi.

But my example is too big even at 300ppi to make it clear. If I start with an image of a modest 8" x 10" at 300 ppi (an image file of 2400 x 3000 pixels), it should be fine if I don't enlarge it much bigger than it starts out, maybe up to 12" x 15" (at 200ppi). But if I go to 16" x 20" (at 150ppi), the quality will begin to suffer somewhat, and 24" x 30" (100ppi) is really too much. I think that print-on-demand companies are too willing to sacrifice on quality just to sell a bigger item. (And, let's not forget the framing, whose cost depends on size, and which may cost as much as the print.) The artist can stipulate that his or her works not be enlarged beyond a certain size, but otherwise, the buyer who doesn't know better may get a big print that is less than top-quality.

A few (the "Crucifixion Mandalas") include in their titles some figures that denote (1) the number of repeated sections used to make the image, and (2) their respective principal angles. For example, 22 x 16.4° (which you'd call eleven-sided) consists of 22 sections, each one about 16.4°. (Each set of figures multiplied is 360°, approximately.) The angles actually used in the elaborations were more precise than this - it's really 16.3636° etc. - but with a computer it is at least possible, though painstaking. (Angles like 45°, 30°, and 22.5° are fairly easy.) Still this is much easier and more precise than what I did years ago with the photographic mandalas seen elsewhere on the site, whose prototypes were made entirely by hand. With these I had to print as many as twenty identical prints (and it's not easy to process them so that they are all developed quite the same), cut them precisely, mount them together on a board, then rephotograph the whole in order to make reproductions.

(With respect to the mandalas here, my old essay for the Nicholas Roerich Museum Exhibit - to be found under Artist's Statements - is relevant here.)

© 2014 Allen Schill. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or used without prior written permission from the author. Anyone is welcome to link to it, or to quote brief passages, but I would like to be notified.