James Stasiak

Statement

I love photographing natural and man-made forms, designs, colors, and scenes. I love creating images from these photos in a directed meditative process that I call Improvisational Development. For me, overlaying pieces of digital film in a relatively unconstrained environment opens the construct of my creative process to a universe of possibilities and surprises. After decades of using digital imaging systems and software, I continue to become more comfortable and adventurous with their interactions. The JMM Art Shows give me the perspective to better appreciate the math behind the art.

Artworks

Event Horizon brings me to a very still meditative state, at the tipping point of being pulled in or backing away. Developed from a photo of backlit wooden slats behind a stained glass window, i used polar coordinates to create circles from the optically distorted slat edges, tessellation to ensure circular symmetry, and layers of color interactions to create the meditative mood and evolve this piece.

There are photos I take that I know can develop into interesting art. Planes and Perspective began as dark red painted metal stairs descending in a short hallway of old yellow walls. The perspective in the shots held up well as a 2D image, so I set out to construct a 3D interpretation. As I combined layers with tessellation and color interactions, I saw a cubic structure emerge with multiple planes and interior spaces. The excitement of creating this perceptual object may, I hope, give viewers a chance to stop, investigate and play with their own spatial interpretations.