Not the kind you use in a fish tank, which are horribly smelly but keep your scaly pets afloat, or the ones you pop into the pitcher to purify your tap water (even if you live in NYC, where the water is already awesome), but the kind that Adobe’s Photoshop supplies for those of us who love to play with images. Historically, I’ve been filter-averse, fearful of creating something that’s “too photoshoppy.” More recently, I’ve enjoyed discovering what they can do and taking the options as far as I can.

The source material is my not-so-high-quality snapshot of a collage. The in-between step adds a flip side, with effects from changing brightness, contrast, and saturation. Then we have the recent development: solarized oil paint. While the central figure reminds me more than a little of the Donnie Darko rabbit, that’s actually one of my favorite movies.

If you’re connected to a big screen, open this up to enjoy the full-size view!
Visions by Catherine Rutgers © 2015