Luna Blu + Jean's art=you win!

Hurry on down to Rogers and check out the lastest installment of art at our favorite Rogers locally owned coffee shop, Luna Blu.
Arts Alliance board member and past board chair, Jean Loy-Swanson is showing her art work at Luna Blu through November 30. The works are archival ink jet prints which Jean creates digitally from her photographs of nature. She has been working in this medium since 2005.

After receiving her master of fine arts degree in metals and ceramics, Jean worked for several years with precious metals creating jewelry and small sculpture and eventually she turned to drawing and mixed media sculpture. The drawing was later used with collaged photographs. With the advances in computer software and digital printing technology, Jean started collaging the photographs on the computer. The photographs are taken with digital and 35 mm cameras.

Collaging images digitally gives the artist greater flexibility allowing her to combine photographs in ways not possible through a hand cut and paste method. As an example, the digital method enables the artist to overlay photographs creating a transparency or a merger of overlapped images. Because the works are created as prints they can also be done in multiples and with the newer archival inks and papers they will not fade or yellow for up to 70 years or more.

The artist feels that working with color photographs digitally has many similarities to the dark room techniques used by traditional photographers. For example, digital programs allow the artist to create greater or less contrast and to burn and dodge parts of the photograph. However, the digital method of working allows the artist to do much more with the imagery such as repositioning parts of the photograph and altering colors.

The number of photographs and amount of manipulation with the original image vary greatly from one digital print to another in Jean's work. Of the prints being exhibited at Luna Blu, one work, Crucifixion, is created from as many as seven different photographs. Two other works, Autumn Wind and Spring Frost, are created from one photograph and have been only slightly enhanced digitally.

Jean's major intent with her photographs is to capture the momentary or transitory aspects of nature. The photographs combined to make up the final digital image may be from different places in the world, different times of the year or seemingly unrelated other than through the visual qualities which tie them together. The final print may retain the qualities of the original photograph or take the viewer to another place, one that is unfamiliar when seen as a whole yet has areas within the print that the viewer finds familiar. Then there are prints which the artist has created purely for their qualities of the design that can be found in textures, color, and patterns.

Luna Blu Coffee may be reached by taking Highway 144 east off of Highway 101 toward Rogers High School. They are in the 101 Marketplace Center at 14165 James Road. Stop in Luna Blu and check out Jean's work while sipping on your java or smoothie, and thank Cathy and Craig for supporting the arts and their community. Call the Luna Blu for hours: 763.428.0760.