Using a camera as a painting tool, award-winning photographer and Peninsula College Multimedia Professor, Marina Shipova, will take guests on a photographic exploration, painting new uncharted worlds, and unearthing untold stories, at her October 3 Studium Generale presentation. The event will take place in the Little Theater beginning at 12:30 pm.
Shipova won Best of Show for her image "Message in a Bottle," and Photoshop World Guru for "The Lady of the Lake," at the Photoshop World Conference in Las Vegas in August 2019. The Guru Awards were created to honor and recognize design, photography, retouching, and creativity skills.
"Since their humble beginnings in 1999, the Guru Awards have now become the most prestigious and coveted awards in the international digital imaging industry," according to the Photoshop World Conference website.
“My work originates from Classic Portrait painting tradition,” Shipova said. “Such style has been a signature of my art for some years.”
Born and raised in Russia, Shipova said she was from a generation of artists who emerged through the influences of Marc Chagall and Ilya Glazunov. Her passion for art and illustration grew from her childhood interest in visual stories, and an “over active imagination”.
“I am a classically trained artist, but I see myself more as an explorer, especially when it comes to different medias, techniques, styles, themes, and artistic pathways,” Shipova said. “Digital Photography is a relatively new and exciting territory for me where I still stumble through winding trails, always excited about each new discovery.”
She describes the digital canvas as infinitely flexible, a conduit for limitless possibilities, upended in multiple dimensions and unified by apps and technologies.
“Digital Photography transforms the perception of image creation and pushes the boundaries of reality to new and infinite heights. Image editing applications provide the tools an artist can only dream about, breaking down the walls between imagination and reality. We are approaching an age where imagination reaches beyond the constraints of 3D dimensions and allows artistic possibilities previously unimagined. That new digital reality is my canvas, allowing me to create my very own visual and conceptual world emerging through the intersection between painting, photography and computer graphics.”
Shipova said when photography was invented in the 1800s, photographers used the medium as an artist would a canvas, but through the years, photography took on its own direction, punctuated by a billion "snapshots," and other poorly executed compositions.
“As knowledge and experience seem to have become inversely proportional to originality and creativity, I have endeavored to develop an alternative creative vehicle based upon my understanding of classic painting,” she said. “Digital photography is an avenue of self-expression for me. I form images to identify with hidden qualities within myself, to communicate with reality, and to translate the interpretation of the world around me into visual linguistics.”
The event is free and open to the public, with a reception immediately following. Visitors are invited to view Shipova’s work on display in the PUB Gallery of Art through the end of October.
For more information contact Dr. Kate Reavey at kreavey@pencol.edu.