Endlessness can be present in our lives and especially in our work. Whether it’s wondering if the prints needed 5 seconds longer in the developer or if you just needed to wait till a different time in the day for the “perfect lighting” the process of fine-tuning work can be debilitatingly endless. I found this when trying to refine a process I was working on last semester. Every success was followed by a “godddd dammn it” when I ran to take note of another variable that could be affecting my product. Space was what first sparked my interest with the sublimity surrounding endlessness. Reading bookings relating to the chaos of what lies way way beyond our view or even our understanding. I aimed to make an image that makes the viewer feel a sense of endlessness. To be able to lean back into the image and fall into this endlessness.
While delving into this process that I have found to be endless I decided to take a step back. I would have to understand the fact that I may never have every variable defined. With this realization I decided to focus on one aspect that I felt had potential of its own.
In Photoshop I created an image that resembled space using the paint brush tool. I then printed these images onto the non-printable side of transparency paper then laying them onto printer paper to be scanned. Rather than scanning the whole image I chose to scan small pieces of them, in some cases smaller than an inch-by-inch square. Taking these small scans from an aspect of a bigger process gave me a new look on endlessness. While I have looked at the fine tuning of this process to be endless, that does not have to be a bad thing. It simply meant that there's an endless number of directions I can OR can decide not to take it. The relief of that pressure to “get it right” drew me in to making something with these small scans. Using clipping masks, the eraser tool, and blending modes I was able to create this image that creates a complicated sense of endlessness.