CORNELIA RAVENAL



Photography is my springboard. So although the works here appear to be block prints and lithographs, they are, in fact, photographs that have been transformed through layers of digital filters and selective painting. When printed on paper with a subtle texture, the printer ink seems textured as well.
I often start with a macro closeup of an organic element, like a piece of salmon or a leaf. Then, through multiple computer filters and digital painting, I alter colors and configurations. My goals are both aesthetic - to create something visually engaging - and conceptual - to transform an image until it becomes a new expression of the original.
All the FOOD images on this website started with a photo of something edible. I then transformed that photo to comment on its sources or the way we consume it.
For example, the FISH series (image on the left) started with a closeup of a piece of salmon that I changed through filters and digital painting until it resembled the sea from which it came.
In BREAD (also on the left), I started by taking a photo of the head of a shaft of wheat, then magnified and altered it, to express how the wheat would be "woven" into dough, rise and bake.
That said, in the CITRUS series (on the left, which was my first experiment in transforming photographs, I used a whole orange cut in half. But as I experimented with more types of food, I became more interested in not just re-presenting, but in reconceiving.
That led me to the PATTERNS series (Bali, Morocco and Byzantium, on the site menu above), where I started with an image from the natural world from which I cut a small square, which I then multiplied to create a new image which I transformed with filters and digital painting.
I’m also inspired by places, so image names come from places in the world. Some are inspired by prints I’ve seen in India, where I’ve lived and worked, but I also use palettes from Sweden, my second home. Others are inspired by Byzantine mosaics I saw as a child. Still other are inspired by batik prints from Indonesia or blooming English gardens. The result is a mix of influences, both cultural and aesthetic.