Artist Highlight

"My hybrid optical art printmaking process can be used to create either animated graphics or three-dimensional imagery. The basis for my art is a technique invented in the early 1900s to make 3D pictures that could be viewed without special glasses or viewing instruments.  The ability to create animated art with this process was discovered years later.

Making hand made prints of this nature is an exacting meticulous procedure using rather obscure materials. Multiple images are screened and interlaced creating a pattern of very fine alternating lines, each approximately 1/1,000 inch wide. The screened images are used to create a film sheet, which holds all the multiple interlaced images in a positive rendition made up of the subtractive primary colorants of cyan, magenta & yellow. The film sheet is the same size as the final print.  A lenticular lens screen that is flat on one side and ribbed on the other is used to complete the finished art. 

The art is created by hand-aligning the ribbed lens screen over the film sheet using a specially built optical bench I developed for this process. The screen and film must be parallel to each other to within 1/100 inch.  Once the screen is hand aligned; the film/screen sandwich is then permanently bonded together using an optically clear adhesive. I do this by hand, running the materials through a roller press under pressure. The art is mounted, matted and framed using traditional techniques and all the art is produced in editions and each piece is hand crafted by me from my original photography or graphics".