I spent many years just painting original work. I had no idea what a large format printer was or how to source or use one. In 2006 I had a chain of events that changed my entire creative process as an artist. I had a small studio in downtown McKinney, Texas. I was selling just my original work. One day I had a visitor, a gentleman that had experience in large format printing. He asked if I had ever thought of using a print as a way to scale and customize my art. At the time I was very "anti-reproductions", even had a t-shirt that said "Buy Originals", not really understanding how the printmaking process could be shaped and bent to an original work. We dabbled with a few samples over a few days. I had one large canvas print stretched, sitting next to the original painting in my studio. A client came to purchase the original, saw the canvas reproduction and said she loved the original, but needed a smaller size. She also wanted a bit of a color enhanced. That interaction was the foundation for what I have since refined into my business as an artist. Combining my original paintings with printmaking techniques gives me a very unique tool, a way to focus on areas within a painting, redefine them, and create a new work inspired and derived from that original painting.
The mixed media original starts with a digital capture of my original painting, a high resolution file created by a museum grade scanner. The quality of the digital capture is a key component. Each painting is a unique process. Once scanned, I look for small works of art, nuances within the original painting that have been captured so I can re-define them. Each nuance is a new opportunity for a new original. The mixed media original is forever linked to the DNA of my original painting, but in many cases the connection can be unrecognizable. The process is an unexpected game of hide and seek and has become so much a part of my creative playground.
After years of playing with my processes I have come full-circle to offering my mixed media originals along side my original paintings on canvas and board. These "MMO's" are not repeated images, they will be sold only once.