Clarity
Part of Double Layers, a story told in sky and skin, code and memory.
Keywords: Marine Layer
Media:
5x5 archival pigment print on 7x7 Hahnemühle German Etching paper with hand-trimmed edges;
Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe Matte Maple panel (7x7 on 8x10)
Artist Statement & Personal Interpretation:
This image began as a straightforward landscape—foggy, minimal, even forgettable. But when I layered in the soft, macabre tones of a dahlia—my favorite flower—it took on emotional resonance. That flower was once given away, during a tender exchange with a best friend. This is my first landscape in the series, and like the act of giving a bloom, it holds quiet generosity and creative transformation.
The etching print appears as a diptych but it’s disorienting: the ridgeline is abruptly interrupted by an awkward vertical bar. The Photoshop overlay suggests transformation, but it’s incomplete—there’s progress, but it’s stalled. Just at the far edge, a faint “Cancel” button lingers. You can’t take it back. The digital metaphor deepens: change has started, clarity is forming, but you’ve reached the peak, and you must keep going forward.
This is the first print in the series that is laminated and sharply trimmed. You cannot touch the texture now. This choice creates an intentional distance—one that protects, but also separates. A pristine, beautiful boundary. Something once raw has been made untouchable. And that says something.
Emotional Response:
Clarity feels both empowering and mournful. There’s a precision to it—lines, boundaries, digital artifacts—that seem to lock the viewer out just as they begin to feel close. The dahlia softens the landscape, but it’s behind glass. You sense that something delicate was once offered here—transformed, laminated, and preserved—but never fully received. The presence of the word “Transform” and the ghost of a “Cancel” option is both hopeful and sobering. There is no going back.
This is a portrait of the moment right before ease, when the path is visible but the decision to take it still feels impossibly tender.
Summary of Finishing Choices & Viewer Experience:
The panel print is rich, moody, and warm—an overlay of sky and bloom. The laminated etching is the most guarded presentation in the series so far: sealed, trimmed to an exact square, its once-tactile quality now protected by a sheen. The viewer is invited to look but not touch, to observe a transformation that feels both empowering and estranged. Clarity is less about what is seen and more about what must be left behind in order to see at all.
Let’s move onto Clarity and my impressions.
First, the panel print. This image came from a “straight” shot called Marine Layer at the Wharf. A simple landscape, the original lacked uniqueness. I took Marine Layer and overlayed a macabre colored dahlia (my favorite) using a blending mode. The new image is expressive and interesting with this addition. This is the first landscape we’re seeing in the building collection. This print, to me, expresses a day that I gave my favorite flower to a friend, creating artwork in the process.
The etching print appears to be a diptych but it’s confusing. You can see the ridgeline of the mountain but it’s interrupted right at the top of the mountain by an unattractive line. This represents being at the peak of the journey. It contradicts the text overlay which only show minimal progress. It also contradicts that the progress text appears to be an abstract progress bar. At the far right edge of the image you can see just the first two letters of the word cancel. You know there is an option for escape but you can’t read that it’s a cancel button. There’s no turning back on a long journey that appears to be getting clearer and easier. Transform is the action that is trying to be performed.
The presentation of the etched print is shockingly new. It’s been trimmed to an exact 7x7 print. It’s also been laminated. You no longer get to touch the beautiful texture. It’s been protected. You’re separated from the print this time although you can still see it. There are several new boundaries represented in this print. The sharply trimmed laminate edges, the unnatural barrier, the dissonance of the change. It all feels like it has devalued a once fine art print.
The image shows the artist is experiencing clarity and it’s asking her to transform in the sake of progress.