By Karen Soltero

cecelia webbers

Beautiful Mind

ifelike images, composed entirely of hundreds of replicated pictures of the human body

hat started out as a photo experiment by a neuroscience major during her last semester at USC has become an evocative hybrid art/photography collection that speaks to promoting a better understanding of how we react and respond to our natural environment. Using a basic digital camera on a timer, herself as a model and available light, 26 year-old, Montreal-based artist Cecelia Webber shot a series of nude images. As she combined them together in Photoshop, something unexpected emerged. It was basically an accident, She says. I took a bunch of pictures, I shot them of myself and edited them into the black background, and then I realized that one of them looked a lot like a petal. Webber was eventually able to create a lifelike image of a ower, composed entirely of hundreds of replicated pictures of the human body. Tinted in the vibrant hues and blended together so that the eye sees rst a rose or a daisy before catching the curve of an arched back or a tangle of ngers, each image unfolding like a beautiful brain-teaser. From owers, Webber moved to butteries and caterpillars, working with Barneys New York to design a collection, which sold in their stores in 2010. Shes continued to expand into more challenging conceptual imagery. Her rst bird image, a peacock with over 700 layers, made its debut in March at Infanitamente 2012, a neuroscience festival in verona, Italy. Her work is also on display around the United States, including the Milan Gallery in Ft. Worth, TX and on permanent exhibit in the radiology department at Renown Hospital in Reno, Nv. The motivation and inspiration behind these stunning and captivating images is two-fold. I feel really strongly about providing people with natural looking images of peoples bodies in an unPhotoshopped way, Webber says. Her commitment to show images of bodies

that have not been signicantly altered means that while her images are highly edited, she makes no changes to the shape of the bodies and does not retouch them to remove a blemish, tan line or other imperfection. And she plans to use more models from dierent age groups, genders and races. I want to challenge some preconceived notions, in the American culture especially, about the human body and the way that my views conict with the consumeristic push for people to nd aws within themselves so that products can be sold. Equally important is her concern for our impact on the environment. Shes candid about the reality of our world. Its kind of ironic that a lot of the stu that Im making in these pictures is stu that humans have the ability to destroy in the near future if they dont make certain steps that need to be made. In the coming years, she hopes to work with businesses that are intent on promoting green practices, as well as create images of species potentially facing extinction. It should not go without note that this thoughtful young artist is also a talented painter. Each rambling, darkly whimsical image is lled with a combination of people and surreal urban landscapes, a juxtaposition of natural elements in conict with an urban environment. For Webber, they represent some sort of approximation of how the world feels to be in. And in a way, they are like her body-art photography, representing similar conicts between humans and the world around them. Further serving to illustrate a point important to Webber. Art should be meaningful. I think artistic people have to have something to make art about, she explains, executing a blend of left and right-brained thinking with enviable skill. I went into science was because I didnt want to just be making art about making art. ceceliawebber.com
A Distinctive style . com

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A Distinctive style . com

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