Artist Hank Keneally creates digital art that invites the viewer to see the deeper layers of reality. See more of his work by visiting his website.
Art is a transformative process. In this “Diffusion Portraits” series I create a visual dialogue between the subjects and within the viewer.
Beginning with a love for modern paintings, I initiated my formal study of photography. My art workflow has eventually evolved into a process of making twenty to fifty variations of the subject and then choosing what is best for the final artwork.
In 2004, I traded painting for a computer. An integration of Adobe Photoshop into my workflow occurred. I began to dance with digital! One of my teachers had said, “Great things happen when arts merge.” What might happen if I combined photography with making a drawing, scanning it and then integrating that layer with the photographic image? It became what I call a “DrawPhoGraph.” Eventually I applied ink to the pigment print directly and then fluid acrylics. More transformative processes began.
How exciting!
This “Diffusion Portraits” series occurred while I was teaching a class on photography and digital processes. I conceived the idea of putting my camera on a tripod within the classroom, pointing it toward the door of the classroom and having the student place themselves behind that diffuse glass door. I closed the door with the instruction to each “model” being, “Move as much as you like.” I love the precision of photography, the spontaneous brushstrokes and color dynamics of painting and the free gestural flow of drawing. Why not utilize these strengths within each media together? A transformed, unique artwork emerged.
Journalists, collectors and patrons have suggested that my years as a clinical counselor add a new layer of perception to my figurative image series. Working intuitively, I use my right brain’s leaps of insight to make artistic decisions during the whole process of playful creation. I then use the left, sequential structure of my brain, for final corrections. Observing life, reading, watching cinema, hearing classic music, researching, observing human interactions, looking at other artists’ work past and present all combine to inform my holistic decision making.
I am a restless artist. I’m always in a state of experimental excitation during my creative process. I developed a conceptual series called “UnderFoot,” a nostalgic series named “Remembrance,” and an experimental series using my “foveon sensor of the future” camera. I am also continuing my “Walkabouts” photographic series as well as a series of pure digital paintings. There is variety between my series but each series is cohesive within. This is how I keep my work alive!
Creating art is my “joy juice.” I create every day. This gives me learning delights—about myself, the world and “the face behind the face” in viewing life with more depth. It also gives me humility before the many ultimately unknowable aspects of reality. I hope it can contribute an equivalent experience for my patrons.
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