So! An exciting day today so far. In processing a new image for my next painting, I was letting the ink run/move/drip on each print (I really liked the drippy/dissolved woman in the recently failed painting - photo in August 3 post), but today the results just weren't what I wanted. The distortions, particularly in the faces, were too dark, too disturbing. To clarify some of the facial distortions, I began to crop details of the image before printing them. The details are SO much more interesting. The fragments become not just mere fragments of an image, but new images unto themselves. And the enlarged fragments allow the ink to separate/bleed/blend in more complex and unpredictable ways - and offer so much more visual information from which to paint. But the best part is that I think these latest images can be really strong images on their own - before I've even painted them. It's made me think that photographs of these ink prints could be a really interesting addition to my work - and create an interesting dialogue with the paintings that translate the combination of these inky fragments into paint. I also think it will begin to clarify/emphasize the important role photography has in my work - offering a painted image that manually "reproduces" a photograph, and a photographed image of a mechanically "improvised" image.