| I met Carol through a mutual friend of ours, Marcella, and as we drove to her home I was taken by the beauty of this area of Panama that I had not seen before. There are so many gorgeous areas full of plants and trees here. Looking at her prints, I was impressed as it was of normal people, places and plant material, caught in a way as to preserve it in what I call – memory minders. I take thousands of photographs myself and am drawn to the little things in life that people seldom focus on, and I guess that is why I loved what I saw in her work.
Carol was born in the U.S. but moved as a young child to Panama. Her father instilled in her a love for art at a very young age – in fact he owned El Pincel, Panama’s first art supply store, so she grew up surrounded by art materials. This love continued to grow and she continued her studies at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida and then The Sutton and Cheam College of Art in Surrey, England. Her private study included: Printmaking, Drawing and Painting.
In Panama, Carol was one of the first people to own a Mac computer. That was in the early 80’s and at that time you would find her at a drafting table with rulers, X-acto knives, rubber cement, and rub on type. How that little Mac changed her world. Now, she is able to undo and redo, enabling her to try out countless approaches before she commits to anything permanent. Working on a computer gives her the ability to be more spontaneous than she was able to be with traditional media. It allows her to take chances, to try out different ideas, in short - to be more creative. Using the computer, she can combine media that would be impossible to combine traditionally - such as oil paint, chalk and watercolor - and this has allowed her to push her work to new limits.
Her prints are original digital images which can best be described as Digital Photo Painting or Digital Collage. In Digital Photo Painting, traditional photography and painting techniques are combined using image editing and digital painting software to add further expression to the image. In Digital Collage she combines two or more images from varying sources (photographs, or scans of drawings, paintings, fabric, found objects etc.) into one image. She uses layering techniques in image editing and painting software.
These prints are not reproductions of work done in some other media. There is no “original painting” of any of her prints. To be sure, there is a burgeoning industry of so-called Gicleé digital prints; these works are also inkjet prints, but are reproductions, like any other reproduction "print" of another work - such as: watercolors, oils, acrylics, etc.
The American Artist Magazine, April 1998 says: "An image that originates in the computer, but is printed in an edition of more than one print, becomes a multiple original print in the same family as etchings and serigraphs."
Now that you know a bit more about Carol and her technique, visit her site and see the results. Immerse yourself in the people, the plants and the colors of Panama.
Her Online Gallery is
http://www.pbase.com/carol_muse_skinner/digital_art
and if you know other artists that should be showcased, let me know
donna@icangarden.com owner www.icangarden.com & www.gardeningtours.com | 
