image/david-sanborn.com

Designed Flash introduction to the official David Sanborn web site at
www.david-sanborn.com

Ambient:
Content, Context, Form, Technique

Content:
The meaning of this work is personal and societal. Its about the choices we make in our lives. The give and take between the digital world and the tactile world. The spectrum of spirituality and materialism, and where one places themselves on that line. Ideas of self representation and personal symbolism. Personally its about my choices and the options that I am faced with at this time in my life's journey.

Context:
One environment surrounding this work is the University system. I have
been influenced by my professors and their ideas about art and art theory. I
am also living in an age that is increasingly devoted to the progress of the
machine and digital technology. While this is extremely interesting and exciting, it also makes one long for a more Earth based reality, like the tribes that I have been studying.

Form:
Like the ideas surrounding the work the images are balanced in opposing
forces. Two rocks, two communities and two kinds of Earth, reflecting the image's
theme of choice. The female figure is loosely symmetrical and placed to one
side in attempt to make the picture more interesting.

Technique:
I developed the elements that I wanted to use into a loose sketch. I then scanned that pencil sketch into the computer and painted certain objects in Painter. I scanned additional images and cut them to fit my needs. I layered all objects in Photoshop and manipulated them.

Research:

"Take these," said the old man, holding out a white stone and a black stone that had been embedded at the center of the breastplate. "They are called Urim and Thummim. The black signifies "yes" and the white "no". When you are unable to read the omens, they will help you do so. Always ask an objective question."
--The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Webster's Dictionary
Ambiance: environment, surroundings
Emotion: an intense mental feeling, like love or hate. Expression: a word or phrase, a look that shows ones feelings.
Cliche: a hackneyed (having lost its original impact through long overuse) phrase or idea.

Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, "The Origins of Decoration" from Beyond the Milky Way

Lectures by Matthew Looper Feb. 2000, CSU Chico.
Video: "Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia"
Tells of personal symbols that cannot be legally appropriated by others because of their strong indexical meanings.

I've adopted the spiral to be a my symbol of my existence and lineage, like a coat of arms in European cultures.

Lecture by Prof.Looper on aboriginal art discussed the images of Mimis: thin female figures, that coexist with people, teaching them.

The Elema people of Orokolo Bay, Papua New Guinea, spend 15 to 20 years making huge masks representing their ancestors in order to parade them to the beach in a huge ceremony.

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