£30.00 – £195.00
Valkyrie’s Dream continues The Daughters of Eve Collection. It presents a meditation on the duality of one’s personality; one that transcends questions of race & identity. Each piece challenges us to consider who we truly are; within as much as without…
To explain the origin of this project, we should consider the ancient world. Lacking any scientific understanding, our ancestors devised a rich mythology to explain the world about them. Thunderstorms? Skirmishes between the Gods. The seasons of the year and the passage of the sun across the sky? Their divine will. Lowly Mankind? Little more than a pawn, to be toyed with…
This led me to pose a question: ‘If the Gods dwelled among us today, how might they appear?’ How could I, as an artist, ever hope to capture their likenesses? Not their roles (i.e. Lord of the Oceans Poseidon holding his trident), but rather their distinct personalities? After much exploration, I opted to show a distinctive ‘split’ in each character. Just as we show different faces to the world, so do these Goddesses. After all, were the Gods not as capricious – as extreme in their personalities – as us?
Of course they were: we invented them!
I utilise ‘AI’ (Artificial Intelligence) to uncover initial concepts for my artwork; whilst a radical departure from Ann’s use of traditional oils, I find AI actually enhances my creative process. However, AI is no ‘magic bullet’ to achieving convincing images. Rather, it requires guidance through select prompts: a time-consuming and frustrating process. Each piece may undergo just a few iterations or several hundred. Trouble is, any learning you might’ve made progress with on one job, doesn’t carry-over! The result? Each new project starts afresh…
After stumbling my way towards a promising image, my next challenge is to enlarge it for printing. The base images are too small to print from, resulting in jagged lines and blockiness once scaled-up. So my next task, is to use my Mac computer to enhance sharpness and detail as images expand. All-round, it’s a painstaking process that AI has yet to master. As a result, I consider each of these images to be products of as much of the same care and attention that Ann puts into her paintings… The only difference, is that where she uses a brush, I wield a mouse!
As a parting thought, I leave you with this: remember that Art is something of a magic trick. If it evokes an emotional response in the viewer, then it’s fulfilling the intentions of its creator and not the tools he used to make it…
Our Fine-Art Prints use archival papers in two weights. For everything up to – and including – our ‘Signature Editions’, we use 210gsm Fotospeed Smooth; a versatile paper that offers exceptional contrast and detail. For the larger ‘Premium Editions’, we use Fotospeed’s 315gsm NST. Thanks to subtle textures similar to traditional etching papers, coupled to bright-white bases, both of these 100%-cotton, fine-art papers deliver revelatory, impactful images that will stand the test of time. Furthermore, we only ever use OEM inks that are rich in pigments & offer a consistent level of reproduction.
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