Beginning a new work--of any type--is exciting and scary by turns. So many decisions, fears. "Will I succeed in producing something vital, or spawn a disappointment--worse still, an embarrassment?

Before the first stroke, the first word, there is that dawning world of light, hope, and endless, undefined potential. As the project gestates, inspiration and creative decisions suggest the shape and constraints of the reality being born, and suddenly, there is a horizon, there are boundaries, limits--a foundation.

I felt drawn to the use of  "sketchbook/notebook" background graphics as frames for these pages when I began thinking-through this project. As a writer and an artist, sketchbooks were a focal point in my life, seem almost iconic of, and for, me. Anything could happen on a piece of paper! In the context of a digital project, the sketchbook frame might seem a strange choice, at odds with the realities of the medium,  but I like the warmth and texture these backgrounds add. I have seen many well-designed websites with spare pages set on stark white or mono-colored backdrops, but while I can intellectually appreciate them for that elegance, few of those "high design" sites reach me powerfully on an emotional level. The challenge will be to develop a work which will be very much a product of its digital realm while working "artistically" within the confines of the artistic points of reference defined by my choice of backgrounds. So, a foundation is sketched in...a landscape lies, empty, waiting to be filled in.

I began creating the elements of my page, using scanned sketches from my notebooks, pictures, digitally created parts and hybrid mixes of "real" and digital pieces. It's fun sometimes to look at graphic elements on other people's web pages and try to guess how they were created. Creative software such as MetaTool's Fractal Painter has tools that emulate--very successfully--natural media like oil on canvas, watercolor on toothy paper, pen and ink, even dry brush and impasto techniques. The state-of-the-art in digital art is breathtaking now, so ripe with the possibilities of "undo," of mathematics. For this project, I have to keep in mind the "feel" of my graphics must be compatible with the tone set by my background "sketchbook" frames, yet I don't want every element to look like a "sketch." I need to be able to encompass photographic, collage and scrapbook type visuals as well, so there's more challenge there, in how to present that material. And pop-up windows? Hardly ever see that in a sketchbook....

Oh well. I have a start, and that's often the hardest step in any project for me.

Gen Aris,
March 10, 1999.