The Weeks Gallery Collections: Digital media; Lopez

As the 20th Century emerged, the depths of the mind and dreams were researched and revealed by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Freud thought that dreams are portals to the unconscious mind - a new and significant frontier for researching and altering human behavior. Carl Jung imagined that dreams are no less real than physical reality. Psychologists, artists, and scientists participated in a twentieth century zeitgeist -collectively engaging parallel visions that created theories and symbols regarding dreams, consciousness, personal growth, and the mysteries of the cosmos.

Leonard Shlain, author of Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light, explains, "Freud's investigations gave meaning and value to everyone's nocturnal wanderings, and encouraged surrealists to transfer dreams onto canvas." The surrealist movement, led by Andre' Breton (a writer and one of the leading thinkers of the movement) aimed to engage and develop the deeper side of the artist - the irrational or intuitive mind, the intelligence frequently suppressed by Western culture. For Breton, surrealism was intended to express "pure psychic automatism"...free from reason...the true process of thought...surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of dreams, in the indirect play of thought...I believe in the future resolution of the states of dreams and reality."

The renowned digital artist, Martina Lopez engages the surreal vision by abstracting and blurring space, time, and light - mystically incorporating the past, present and future into a single otherworldly moment. She reconstructs reality by montaging images derived from personal and anonymous family photo albums and from original photographs.

The figures, spaces, and light captured in Martina's images transcend conventional corporeal reality, reflecting universal dream experiences. Although not her intention, her digital-world can represent a scientific model of reality. Artists and scientists frequently illuminate parallel truths. Their perceptions and theories dilate the "mind's eye" and profoundly expand the limitations of the physical senses and the rational mind. Einstein's Theory of Relativity (at the speed of light, all conventional references to space, time, color and shadow are broken) and the surrealist vision are abstractions of the same idea.

This idea is echoed by Shlain's suggestion that revolutionary art and visionary physics are both investigations into the nature of reality. Einstein said he discovered the theory of relativity by picturing himself riding on a ray of light - an imaginative visualization or dream image. Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory also presents a suitable illustration or scientific model that simultaneously depicts reality while traveling at the speed of light and represents a dream world. Space and time are as pliable as rubber bands or as warped as Salvador Dali's clock. However, Shlain points out that scientific theories and artistic visions allude and baffle contemporaries because of their complexity, deviation from direct sensory perception and irrational nature. Artistic vision, because of its visual nature and relatively accessible metaphors, will in time, become the media that provides universal access to scientific theories.

Vincent van Gogh's mystical masterpiece, The Starry Night, (1889) elegantly illustrates a vast, timeless and cosmic world - a world the physical eye and rational mind firmly deny. All physical objects: earth, trees, houses and the sky are caught in an all consuming fire and light. Every physical object in this painting is fluid or emits an aura or halo - like the Byzantine images of Christ and the Saints. Van Gogh wrote, "I want to paint men and women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to symbolize." His landscapes powerfully illuminate the same cosmic vision. The Starry Night can also illustrate the physicist's view of reality.

Similarly, Martina's sensitivity, perspective, spirit, and vision are revealed by the ominous specters presiding over her ethereal landscapes. Her artistic forms, manipulated by the creative use of shape, space, light, and color are simultaneously seductive, disconcerting, fragile, and powerful. There is a calm, graceful, and beautiful aura that serves as a distinct contrast to the disturbing impressions of the figures - reflecting one of life's dualities. The viewer is transported beyond space and time and guided to integrate everyday reality, dreams, memories, and eternal forces. She constructs bridges that connect the multifaceted worlds we can experience. These dynamic journeys can enrich our lives by engaging real beauty, power, and transcendence.

Although Leonardo da Vinci's scientific and artistic works are paramount and historians rank him as a genius among geniuses, several provocative and instructive comparisons can be made between Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Martina Lopez's Questioning Nature's Way 2. Comparisons between da Vinci's work and contemporary art can help resurrect his genius, timeless vision, and the misunderstood complexities hidden within his work. Note the obvious similarities: the central tranquil figure, the engaging eyes and smile, the placid hands, the graceful folds of the garment, and the soft and almost monochromatic color of the figures. These subtle details create a supernatural impression. The female figure is calm and graceful, like the Buddah or the Egyptian Pharaoh, both possessing a tranquil androgynous presence. The persona is detached, transcending space and time - symbolizing a connection to eternal forces. The figures also suggest divine grace - the love, power and protection bestowed freely upon men and women. Martina's digital dream world reveals earthly struggle and heavenly grace. Grace can be acquired instinctively or through experience, creativity, discipline and/or meditation.

Martina Lopez's evolving landscapes shift and ooze, as if engaged in a dream metamorphosis. Observe Questioning Nature's Way 2 - notice the shifts in the landscape perspective adjacent to the figure's left and right sides. This fantasy landscape is disjointed and ethereal, breaking earthy space and time. The landscape appears elusive and generative, suggesting the power to participate in the evolution of our environment and lives.

The Mona Lisa reflects the same obtuse landscape vision, yet simultaneously represents a scientific perspective that grounds the viewer in the physical world - recording the scene as the human eye mechanically sees. This manifold perspective reflects the dual nature of reality and the dual vision of Renaissance and Surrealist Art. da Vinci's vision does not model a limited one-point perspective, mimetic technique, or a single-moment-in-time that is frequently mistaken as the "canon" of Greek, Western, or Renaissance Art. His vision is simultaneously mystical and scientific.

Visualizations, dream images, generative landscapes, and dual realities; why are they relevant? The power to create reality reflects a belief in the power of visualization and a belief in subsequent manifestations. The term "transmutation," (a process of transformation and spiritual development) suggests that mental states can change the physical universe. For example, we can transform an attitude - from hate to love or from fear to courage. This belief system dates back to an ancient Egyptian spiritual philosophy and was later adapted by Greeks and Christians. Those who give credence to transmutation believe that thoughts have vibrational, or energy levels that affect personal growth and the universe.

Martina Lopez engages the manifold realities of life - a powerful, transformative and liberating process. This experience can lead one to experience "The Power, Grace and Beauty of Power, Grace and Beauty."

Martina received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago and teaches photography and digital imaging at the University of Notre Dame. She received the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1992. Her impressive exhibition record includes solo shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Light Work's Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Syracuse, NY. Martina's digital images are included in the collections of several prominent museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC. Her work is published in Naomi Rosenblum's A World History of Photography, and in Aperture's article, "Metamorphoses: Photography in the Electronic Age."



		The renowned digital artist, Martina Lopez engages the surreal vision by abstracting and blurring space, time, and light - mystically incorporating the past, present and future into a single otherworldly moment. She reconstructs reality by montaging images derived from personal and anonymous family photo albums and from original photographs. Martina Lopez's evolving landscapes shift and ooze, as if engaged in a dream metamorphosis.
		As the 20th Century emerged, the depths of the mind and dreams were researched and revealed by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Freud thought that dreams are portals to the unconscious mind - a new and significant frontier for researching and altering human behavior. Carl Jung imagined that dreams are no less real than physical reality. Psychologists, artists, and scientists participated in a twentieth century zeitgeist -collectively engaging parallel visions that created theories and symbols regarding dreams, consciousness, personal growth, and the mysteries of the cosmos. Leonard Shlain, author of Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light, explains, "Freud's investigations gave meaning and value to everyone's nocturnal wanderings, and encouraged surrealists to transfer dreams onto canvas." The surrealist movement, led by Andre' Breton (a writer and one of the leading thinkers of the movement) aimed to engage and develop the deeper side of the artist - the irrational or intuitive mind, the intelligence frequently suppressed by Western culture. For Breton, surrealism was intended to express "pure psychic automatism"...free from reason...the true process of thought...surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of dreams, in the indirect play of thought...I believe in the future resolution of the states of dreams and reality." The renowned digital artist, Martina Lopez engages the surreal vision by abstracting and blurring space, time, and light - mystically incorporating the past, present and future into a single otherworldly moment. She reconstructs reality by montaging images derived from personal and anonymous family photo albums and from original photographs. The figures, spaces, and light captured in Martina's images transcend conventional corporeal reality, reflecting universal dream experiences. Although not her intention, her digital-world can represent a scientific model of reality. Artists and scientists frequently illuminate parallel truths. Their perceptions and theories dilate the "mind's eye" and profoundly expand the limitations of the physical senses and the rational mind. Einstein's Theory of Relativity (at the speed of light, all conventional references to space, time, color and shadow are broken) and the surrealist vision are abstractions of the same idea. This idea is echoed by Shlain's suggestion that revolutionary art and visionary physics are both investigations into the nature of reality. Einstein said he discovered the theory of relativity by picturing himself riding on a ray of light - an imaginative visualization or dream image. Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory also presents a suitable illustration or scientific model that simultaneously depicts reality while traveling at the speed of light and represents a dream world. Space and time are as pliable as rubber bands or as warped as Salvador Dali's clock. However, Shlain points out that scientific theories and artistic visions allude and baffle contemporaries because of their complexity, deviation from direct sensory perception and irrational nature. Artistic vision, because of its visual nature and relatively accessible metaphors, will in time, become the media that provides universal access to scientific theories. Vincent van Gogh's mystical masterpiece, The Starry Night, (1889) elegantly illustrates a vast, timeless and cosmic world - a world the physical eye and rational mind firmly deny. All physical objects: earth, trees, houses and the sky are caught in an all consuming fire and light. Every physical object in this painting is fluid or emits an aura or halo - like the Byzantine images of Christ and the Saints. Van Gogh wrote, "I want to paint men and women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to symbolize." His landscapes powerfully illuminate the same cosmic vision. The Starry Night can also illustrate the physicist's view of reality. Similarly, Martina's sensitivity, perspective, spirit, and vision are revealed by the ominous specters presiding over her ethereal landscapes. Her artistic forms, manipulated by the creative use of shape, space, light, and color are simultaneously seductive, disconcerting, fragile, and powerful. There is a calm, graceful, and beautiful aura that serves as a distinct contrast to the disturbing impressions of the figures - reflecting one of life's dualities. The viewer is transported beyond space and time and guided to integrate everyday reality, dreams, memories, and eternal forces. She constructs bridges that connect the multifaceted worlds we can experience. These dynamic journeys can enrich our lives by engaging real beauty, power, and transcendence. Although Leonardo da Vinci's scientific and artistic works are paramount and historians rank him as a genius among geniuses, several provocative and instructive comparisons can be made between Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Martina Lopez's Questioning Nature's Way 2. Comparisons between da Vinci's work and contemporary art can help resurrect his genius, timeless vision, and the misunderstood complexities hidden within his work. Note the obvious similarities: the central tranquil figure, the engaging eyes and smile, the placid hands, the graceful folds of the garment, and the soft and almost monochromatic color of the figures. These subtle details create a supernatural impression. The female figure is calm and graceful, like the Buddah or the Egyptian Pharaoh, both possessing a tranquil androgynous presence. The persona is detached, transcending space and time - symbolizing a connection to eternal forces. The figures also suggest divine grace - the love, power and protection bestowed freely upon men and women. Martina's digital dream world reveals earthly struggle and heavenly grace. Grace can be acquired instinctively or through experience, creativity, discipline and/or meditation. Martina Lopez's evolving landscapes shift and ooze, as if engaged in a dream metamorphosis. Observe Questioning Nature's Way 2 - notice the shifts in the landscape perspective adjacent to the figure's left and right sides. This fantasy landscape is disjointed and ethereal, breaking earthy space and time. The landscape appears elusive and generative, suggesting the power to participate in the evolution of our environment and lives. The Mona Lisa reflects the same obtuse landscape vision, yet simultaneously represents a scientific perspective that grounds the viewer in the physical world - recording the scene as the human eye mechanically sees. This manifold perspective reflects the dual nature of reality and the dual vision of Renaissance and Surrealist Art. da Vinci's vision does not model a limited one-point perspective, mimetic technique, or a single-moment-in-time that is frequently mistaken as the "canon" of Greek, Western, or Renaissance Art. His vision is simultaneously mystical and scientific. Visualizations, dream images, generative landscapes, and dual realities; why are they relevant? The power to create reality reflects a belief in the power of visualization and a belief in subsequent manifestations. The term "transmutation," (a process of transformation and spiritual development) suggests that mental states can change the physical universe. For example, we can transform an attitude - from hate to love or from fear to courage. This belief system dates back to an ancient Egyptian spiritual philosophy and was later adapted by Greeks and Christians. Those who give credence to transmutation believe that thoughts have vibrational, or energy levels that affect personal growth and the universe. Martina Lopez engages the manifold realities of life - a powerful, transformative and liberating process. This experience can lead one to experience "The Power, Grace and Beauty of Power, Grace and Beauty." Martina received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago and teaches photography and digital imaging at the University of Notre Dame. She received the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1992. Her impressive exhibition record includes solo shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Light Work's Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery, Syracuse, NY. Martina's digital images are included in the collections of several prominent museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC. Her work is published in Naomi Rosenblum's A World History of Photography, and in Aperture's article, "Metamorphoses: Photography in the Electronic Age."