Telling the Story

Creating digital art during quarantine throughout the spring and summer was one of my favorite things to do. For me, art is similar to getting caught up in a good book. I could escape into photoshop and lose myself in creating my own little universe while working on a design. Before I left on this journey, I envisioned myself creating all this art from each place I visited along the way.

I was excited for all the inspiration my travels and life on the road would give me, but ended up finding myself overwhelmed and lost in content. Sifting through full memory cards of photos at the end of the day, I didn’t have the energy to translate the images into a design that I felt encapsulated the whole experience. There was almost too much inspiration if that’s even possible to imagine. Having to decide what to focus on was a challenge, so I just put it off. Instead, I found that writing and using my words was a much easier way to capture what was going on.

Some artists talk about needing a digestion period and distance from the subject before beginning work. I recently scrolled through photos and reread journal entries from the beginning of my trip and was surprised by how long ago those first weeks on the road already felt. Being able to look back and see what stood out to me, I was finally ready to tackle the project.

I decided to combine what have become my two favorite styles: collage and a print/painterly effect. I plan on creating a set of designs from each region I’ve visited by distilling aspects seen in this preliminary collage, but for now this is a start.

I felt a wave of relief this week as I began working on it, happy to be back in photoshop and creating again.

The collage can also be viewed on Instagram @ablaz_designco