Featured Artist Daniel McPheeters

Artist Daniel McPheeters combines his love of art and science to create stunning digital collages of scenes drawn from nature. Visit his website to see more of his amazing art.

 

 

All my life I have been passionate about art as well as science. For years I have worked in the sciences professionally, but I was always drawing, photographing, sculpting and painting as well.

 

 

A few years ago, I began to work intensely in digital imaging. I am self-taught in Photoshop, Illustrator, and similar programs. Working in a technique called digital collage, I combine images and textures in many layers, adjusting positions, transparencies, and colors until I get the final image.

 

 

While many collage artists use images from publications and the internet, I have given myself the personal challenge of using only my own images. My works are a combination of my own photographs, drawings, paintings, and textures.

 

 

I manipulate these elements until I get the image I am striving for. I then print them on a special pigment ink printer to produce works that will last for generations.

 

 

My studio is in a log home that I built on a hilltop in the woods. Often the night sky is ablaze with stars silhouetted against the forest edge. This serves as an inspiration for many of my works.

 

 

I use the term “dreamscapes” to describe these works that have been called mystical and lyrical.

 

 

With my science background, I am always aware of the natural forces that shape the universe. I see not only the lyrical beauty of landscapes and skyscapes, but also the beauty of the mathematics of nature that a scientist experiences. I try to convey that beauty by including circles, lines and grids in my works.

 

 

Because the sphere is the ubiquitous geometry of the universe, from stars down to elementary particles, I often create pieces that are filled with circles to represent these spheres. I call these works my bubblescapes. I sometimes get mesmerized as I work on my bubblescapes and don’t know when to stop adding my circles.

 

 

I am very familiar with the night sky and know most of the constellations and the visible planets. I follow their movements as the seasons change.

 

 

I pay close attention to the phases of the moon and often represent that in my work. My creative drive is synergistically intertwined with my knowledge of the mechanisms of the universe.

 

Artist Daniel McPheeters invites you to follow him on Facebook.