Since ladders are simple in form but complex in meaning, I chose them as the subject for my first digital painting series. They were an excuse to explore the possibilities of a medium then new to me, digital painting in Photoshop, in all its infinite permutations. I was painting ladders in oils at one end of my studio, and at the other end making covers and booklets in Photoshop for my sister Suzanne Ciani’s music albums, when it occurred to me to also paint my own creative work in Photoshop!

Following is a selection of more than a dozen digital variations of ladders. Later I pursued other series in this new medium. This image received an award at a national exhibition. Painted in Photoshop with no source image - nothing scanned, printed 30” x 30” or variable.

The leaves are like fingerprints, a texture I designed in Photoshop. This was exhibited at an art show at an ACM SIGGRAPH conference. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square, or variable.

An early game in Photoshop. Painted in Photoshop with no source image. This was printed 10” x 10” at the time, in the early 90’s.

I took inordinate pleasure staying up late into the night creating complex repeating patterns that I then layered using transparency and layering effects to create further designs. I would love to have all these carpets in my house, and walk between them in my red high healed shoes. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square.

I gave a demonstration at an ACM SIGGRAPH conference workshop on how to use Photoshop tools to make these complex radiating circular patterns that touched each other like bubbles. Created wholly in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square.

Collages of translucent colors in infinite variation. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square.

Another variation of Three Ladders design. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” x 30" square.

Staccato rhythms across a flat surface. Awkward, handmade ladders taped together. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square or variable.

From a very long series that was fun to do. This played with interaction of gradients. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square, or variation.

Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square and variations.

A second variation in the Glass Ladders series. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square or variation.

Barely viable yarn ladders. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square, and variable.

Some paths are more difficult than others. I imagine trying to climb these difficult ladders so different from each other. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 30” square or variable.

A mysterious image created using a technique native to Photoshop. Painted in Photoshop with no source image, printed 10” square or variable.

Boxes were the subject of the second series I painted in Photoshop. Once again, they were open to almost infinite variations of creative manipulation and symbolic meaning.

Cardboard Box was based on a drawing I made while I was teaching perspective construction and light. Created entirely in Photoshop and printed 10” x 10” at that time.

I was a greedy, empty seeker caught between a mouse (or Wacom stylus) and a brush, between a new form of art, digital painting, and all my years of painting in oils.

Created entirely in Photoshop and printed 10” x 10” at that time.

I drew the chennile yarn with an airplane-shaped brush.

What did the climber find?     Full or empty boxes?

Remembering the wars of the Bush administration: this is the first of four variations, each based on the same six images. Placed together side to side, the four variations will create a horizontal mural that represents the developing darkness and weariness of continuous war.  (As I looked back on these paintings in 2018, these violent, profitable, endless wars continued.)

Remembering the wars of the Bush administration

Remembering the wars of the Bush administration

Remembering the wars of the Bush administration

Warnings of the coming economic collapse of 2008. The violent tearing and rending of the collapse were foreseen and ignored in the universal euphoria.

Warnings of the coming economic collapse of 2008 were ignored.