Wallace Koopmans Artlog

As I reach number #10 in my Interactions series I thought I would take a moment to speak about it again.

As I have stated previously the source of the images that form the basis of these paintings is from images seen through mapping software.  So why not just present the image as seen without the process of painting?  Well there are several reasons for this one of them being the necessity to make them stand out from the multitude of images we continuously see.  Another reason is it allows me to simplify the scene to make it about what I choose. By re-creating the scene through painting I can pick and choose what is relevent.  One of the side effects of Google Street view is it grants equal visual weight to a piece of garbage on the street as to a sign in a window or a person.  I as a photographer am not there to compose a scene as I would like it but as a painter I can address that.

As I reach #5 in my Interaction series I thought it would be a good time to re-cap what I am doing.  The basis of the series of digital paintings done on my iPad is situations of human interaction.  The source of these comes from Google Street view or similar.  Many of these fleeting moments are captured without the subjects being aware making the interaction feel all the more genuine and spontaneous.  Additionally using remote imaging allows me the opertunity to see places and events that I could not otherwise.  The down side is I can only superficially visit the world within the confines of the streets and only those moments at which random chance has placed the subjects and the camera together.

Interactions #1

This is the start of a series of digital paintings based on Google street views.
The way we interact helps to define us as humans. These interactions can be fleeting and no more so than those captured by chance. I wanted to separate the final images from being simple screen captures and so have recreated them as digital paintings on my iPad. I hope with this context the images will speak for themselves.

I still have a few unpublished iPad paintings from our trip to Barkerville this summer. Sitting in the evenings with no distractions either reading or drawing was very relaxing. Yes the images are skewed towards nostalgia, but the entire experience of being in Barkerville BC is a form of it.

http://www.barkerville.ca/