Outside the Lines

Andrew McCully

StarGazer
ink jet print

StarGazer is a self portrait floating within a larger picture. Our eyes revolve around and dart in and out of the centre. StarGazer’s world is layered with oscillating imagery. Microscopic worlds of orbiting spheres whirl about in patterns of attraction and repulsion. Stars come out, comets fall and planets are born. The spheres swim and sway, taking StarGazer to uncharted territories. The eyes ascend up through the strata. StarGazer circles back into familiar galaxies. With a fullness of experience. Compounds of interacting celestial bodies hold SarGazer as the universe unfolds.

It is not unusual to insert autobiographical Elements into fiction. In this case I have surrounded my portrait with fiction. I want to underscore the notion that art is and is not about the artist, even as it pertains to self portraiture.

This contextualization of portraiture informs me and places me in relation to others, as we are to nature. These relationships are inseparable from one another, as sight is to blindness and sense of self is to the perceptions of others.

This work is presented as a collection of computer prints. The medium is quite degenerative. The prints will fade and surfaces will degrade rapidly. This is comparable to the rods and cones of my retina. This degeneration is represented as the hallowed centre of the image which floods with light, like a holograph turned inside out, wherein the Individual images inform us as to the whole and reciprocally the whole illuminates the individual parts. It begs the question, how much vision is enough and what is the nature of that vision?

The images are essentially information and that is continually undergoing change. In conclusion I assert that given the mechanical loss of photo receptors I am no less a visual person. I am capable of informing myself as to the whole picture given a small fraction of the absorbed light.

Julie Milano