Lucinda Luvaas

My technical process produces pictorial effects much like impressions, imprints, fossil left overs from life. That's very much what drew me into the web of this technique. The process creates a feeling of historic iconography.

I'm drawn to capturing moments, and the passing of time. There is something timeless about the nature of what I do and create....the people on their bicycles, a woman walking her dog, a man reading the daily paper in a cafe. The timeless and recurring activities that make us who we are.

For two years I've been perfecting the exacting technique of imprinting and continue to do so. The content of these works revolves around actual scenes and inspirations from them--from New York City to Durango, CO, from Oregon to the Redwood Forest, as well as Los Angeles and the Southern California high desert.

I have been recording natural settings with my own particular twist as well as scenes from urban life. I'm not interested in simply recording what I see, but rather interpreting what I see. To achieve these goals, I change the natural color values, and embellish actual scenes by creating visual composites. This technique is somewhat similar to collage in that I bring different elements together to create the visual ambience of a picture. I started using this compositional technique while painting murals in New York City and I've worked this way ever since.

As an offshoot of larger works, I've started a series called, "The Times of Our Lives." These pieces are 12x12 inches and I plan to make at least fifty of them. The title sums up what these works are about: views of life from many angles; activities and scenes that depict people in their daily lives as well as imagery from nature.

I see this group of works almost like a symphony because the whole is the sum of its parts. Here I'm dealing with repetition of color and activities in order to hold all of the pieces together. Although each piece stands on its own, it also has to stand as part of a whole like a chorus of action and activity. I want to portray all of the teeming energy that makes up who and what we are. A sort of contemporary visual glance at history.