Full Description
My process was quite simple and straightforward once one realizes that the 10 works in this series are actually the parts of the whole. In my efforts to respond to the tragic events of 9-11, a number of issues, emotions, images relentlessly presented themselves, and even competed with each other, to dominate my own personal handling of this most profound event in our lives. I realized that similarly, no one image was ever going to encapsulate the whole gamut of emotional response that often occurred simultaneously. Thus the work was conceived as such a charged, often conflicting and unsettling, emotional panorama that was then deconstructed, or divided out, into the 10 individual works.
Because of the radical new approach the computer allows, I actually worked on all 10 works compositionally at the same time, copying, cutting, pasting, importing and exporting masks and their object layers at will. Only after the 10-work body was compositionally complete did I then work individually on each in the painting program. The conceptualization itself was based on the constant torrent of imagery, emotion and response alluded to above.
Although the works were given a title only very late in the process, the titles nevertheless explore a good part of my own emotional response. From: shattered and tumult; to humanity, compassion and remembrance; to innocence and rebirth; to sorrow, melancholia and disarray; the 10 titles were formed. Only after the works were completed and signed did I thereafter go back into a copy of the digital file and explore some additional shadings of mood, color and tone, and thus designating them all as variations one through five on each title. On certain days one variation resonates more than another. I have made individual title montages of each of the 10 titled pieces. Each of these has the larger title piece and the smaller four variations. Lastly, I recombined all into the 11th work, 9-11, montage.
Reginald Brooks, February 7, 2002
Work metadata
- Year Created: 2003
- Submitted to ArtBase: Friday Apr 11th, 2003
- Original Url: http://www.brooksdesign-ps.com/Code/Html/netart4.htm
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Work Credits:
- Reginald Brooks,
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Artist Statement
Clicking on the vertical color bars on the left side will result in the computer randomly selecting which international flags and which 9-11-based images issue forth. If you get lucky, a "peace" pattern will form from the images.