Today I’d like to introduce you to a new form of artwork I’ve been perfecting. It’s a marriage between photography and painting, or rather digital photography and digital painting. I’ve been playing with this for the past few years and feel it’s the right time to unveil it as one of my creative passions. I’ve named this art form “Pel Maché”, which comes from combining the two creative disciplines of photography and digital manipulation. Pel Maché as I define it means to mash up pixels, and, as far as I am aware and for the record, I’m the first person to use the name Pel Maché to describe this form of art.
In the digital universe of zeros and ones a pixel, or pel, is defined as the smallest discrete component of an image on a computer screen. Maché is French and means to chew something up or mull it over. As a child in grade school I remember using the technique of paper maché to create three dimensional artwork. It was a somewhat messy process of mixing a concoction of torn up newspaper and wheat paste which stuck to everything and hardened into three a dimensional surface that could be painted or covered over with other materials. As a youngster art class was one of my favorite subjects and these memories of creating paper maché projects a half century ago are fond ones.
Somehow I’ve managed to come full circle. After a life long love affair in the creative field of professional photography I find myself back in class, learning new ways of fulfilling a need for creative expression, with new tools and methods, and a renewed passion. It’s an exciting time and I’m delighted to begin sharing it with you.
It’s ironic to me, and perhaps a bit mystical, that in the search for something to name this new digital art form I reached back into my past and pulled from those early memories of grade school art class in my youth. What’s more ironic is the fact that The French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is credited with exposing the very first heliograph in 1825 and so is credited with being the creator of the science and craft of photography. I’m sure that as an inventor of new mechanical and chemical processes he’d be delighted with the digital metamorphosis the art and science of photography has gone through in the past few decades. I hope that he would also be happy, if not amused, that yours truly has applied a French word to help describe a new form of digital visual art. Now that’s something to mull over, and chew on a bit, don’t you think?
I’ve got much more to share on the subject of art and its importance to the health and well being of both the individual and society as a whole. Let me know what your thoughts are on the subject. I’d love to hear them.
Michael D. Davis is a writer, artist and teacher residing in the beautiful Northwest of the United States. When asked what the most important thing he can contribute to world he will answer, “Helping people find their Smile”. For more information on just what he means by this please feel free to contact him at michaelddavis@mddastudio.com or visit him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mddassociates
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