Scanography

Scanography--a new way I've  found to create pictures or images. As an artist I am always attempting to create images, whether in painting, collage, photography, computer generated or other means or a combination of media.  Recently, I discovered scanography. I use a scanner to create pictures. Initially, I simply placed objects on the scanner and scanned, much the same way as you would make a copy or scan images into  an image editing program.  Then I remembered what things were like in the early days of photocopiers. People would put anything in the copier.  Once when I was working at an iron foundry a worker put a one dollar bill in the copier and made a copy of it and  then used it in a vending machine to get a burger.  Once we convinced him he was counterfeiting money, he was terrified. And, of course, there are those stories of the office staff making photocopies of certain body parts.

At first I placed scraps of paper on the scanner and scanned them.  Then I arranged the multicolored scraps of paper in a pattern and scanned.  I added photographs and anything else flat and paper thin. You can compose a picture of these bits.  It's like assembling a collage without the glue. You are composing the picture on your scanner from front to back. The first abjects placed will be at the front of your picture. All the rules of composition work here just like in a painting or photograph. Adding three dimensional objects creates even more interest in the composition.

This is a great way to exercise you creativity. The images created can be printed  or edited with software such as Photoshop.

In the examples below I have used various scraps of paper, photographs, textile fabric, and solid objects to create the image.  One is a scan of a piece woven from newspaper strips with a red paper tear-out added.  Next to is is a scan of my hand manipulated in Photoshop.  In the two scanographs below I have used bamboo leaves with a photograph and autuum leaves with a marker drawing to create the images.

These are merely examples of what can be done. Think of the scanner as a camera. See the scanner as "new"  media!