Work Evolution

So this week has been quite busy and has really put a lot in perspective and made me think about what I want to do with my life, where I see it going and what I want to achieve with my work. 

I love my photography and I love that people love my work... a lot of love going on. But I recently looked at my work and thought 'whats my hook? what makes my work unique'... and to be honest I was confused. I look at the works of Susan Derges and I know what I'm going to be seeing, if landscapes suddenly popped up I would seriously be confused. 

[Susan Derges, 'Full Moon' series, 2003]

But then we look on my website or facebook and it's digital manipulated mixed in with landscapes mixed with some surrealism for good measure. I am a believer in continuity, I accept work has to grow but not out from every direction. However that is not to say you can't do many things but there has to be a running thread of continuity throughout it all. 

So I would say my hook is the ethereal side of art, I love using textures, blending and creating works with hints of Art Nouveau but there is an obvious foundation of what the subject is, I'm not so surrealist you don't know what you're looking at. 

I have decided if there was ever a time to change my work it is now, I want people to seek out my work because they like 'Elysian Fields, Ethereal' and 'Macrocosm' series. 

So what about my 'old' work, the 'pre-revelation' work? I am planning to slowly phase it out but not get rid of them all completely. Some I will edit into my new and 'hook' style which will roll over a few months. 

I see this as an exciting but daunting period of my professional work but also an essential step needed to define myself as an artist. 

And what spurred all this on? My newest series entitled 'Macrocosm'... I feel each artist will trundle along doing what they do on a plateau and suddenly BAM their work spikes up and something similar in style yet completely different in technique/application/feeling emerges.... the work evolves. 

[© Laura Ashford 'Macrocosm' 2013]

Above is that piece of work which I feel has evolved from my previous works but is still my style. I am really excited and love that I can share not only my work but my evolutions with you all.