Roslyn Nelson

medium: photography

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Big Bouquet #1 2003 Photography	Big Bouquet #12 2004 Photography	Big Bouquet #3 2004 Photography
Big Bouquet #14 2004 Photography	Big Bouquet #7 2004 Photography	Big Bouquet #6 2004 Photography
Fragment 7 2004 Photography	Ice Road Raven 2004 Photography	Grand Gesture 2004 Photography
Feather Shadow 2004 Photography

Contact information
Artist resides in: Bayfield, WI
Email Address: ros@winternet.com
Web site: www.glacialdrift.com

Artist statement
Photography and Digital Imaging: How pieces evolved over the past ten years. Then: 35mm photos. Just me and the camera. I responded to what felt timeless, from quiet places: under a bridge crossing the Sioux River, or shifting ice at the edge of Lake Superior in early spring. Photos were deliberate, carefully composed and printed without cropping or enhancement--no manipulation of the subject. Creating the subject of the photo. Setting a stage. At this stage, prints and subject were staged and manipulated by, for example, color tinting with dye; creating "one word poems" in nature; or by using models. Creating the subject electronically. By converting prints to scans, I worked digitally, combining images. I made large continuous tone prints that "felt" like conventional photographs, wanting them to appear as if they had been photographed as-is, on site.

Now: digital drawings. I have left behind the aesthetics I had assumed about photos. With a digital camera, I collect images, primarily from nature, or bring objects into my studio to photograph or scan. I file hundreds of photos by color/subject and use them as source material for work which is made from the interaction of multiple electronic layers and from drawing into the surface. The process more closely resembles painting and drawing than photography. Layers of translucent images build a luscious, moody surface.

Biography
Professional experience:
1991-present, owner, graphic design studio, Watermark MN Inc.

Previously, in no special order:
Newspaper art director, waitress, teacher in a finishing school, illustrator, motel maid, graphic designer, security guard, silver polisher at art museum, department store display artist, restorer of contemporary art, innkeeper, vo-tech teacher of layout and illustration, writer, Christmas party sketch artist, Guthrie Theatre dyer/painter, silkscreen printer, children's art teacher and scuba instructor.

Education:
1965-1969: Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Ford Foundation Scholarship, B.F.A. Painting/Printmaking

1967-1968: Stichting Academie (Ateliers 63), Haarlem, Netherlands

1972: Mpls. College of Art and Design, Video Workshop

1976: Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, fabric arts

Ongoing professional courses: Splitrock Arts Program, Univ. of Minnesota-Duluth; ProColor Education Center; Creative Training & Consulting; Loft Literary Center; Minnesota Science Museum computer training