Kokomo
‘Kokomo’ is an art piece that combines flowers photographed by me in Jamaica, Aruba, and Cabo San Lucas. The name derives from The Beach Boys’ song about a fanciful place named Kokomo. The song lyrics mention several Caribbean destinations including Aruba and Jamaica. My objective was to assemble a flower montage where the photographs have a location authenticity. In the art piece, the flowers are arranged in the form of a comet on a textured background representing a dark sky filled with stars and whisps of clouds. The comet’s wide plume comprises 9 streams, with each stream largely photographed a single Caribbean location. Counting from the upper right, I photographed the first 4 streams including the comet head in Jamaica, the next 3 streams in Aruba, and the final 2 streams in Cabo San Lucas. The diversity of color and form of the flowers is apparent, with more than 55 different species represented in the art piece.
I took all the photographs using an iPhone 12 Pro Max. Using Affinity Photo for editing, I resized each photograph to promote effective image segmentation, segmented each photograph to isolate the primary flower, exported the resulting photograph on a transparent background, and then combined each of the roughly 60 photographs in the Kokomo document. The time to segment a flower from its surroundings was typically 30 minutes or more, with some particularly difficult flowers taking more than 10 hours.
I have chosen to print the art using a substrate of Dibond, which is an aluminum composite material. The process overlays the Dibond with a silver halide print that supports 610 dpi resolution. A satin laminate covers the print for protection, and the entire assembly is placed in a slim white wooden float frame. I have chosen the satin finish to accentuate the visual impact.
‘Kokomo’ is an art piece that combines flowers photographed by me in Jamaica, Aruba, and Cabo San Lucas. The name derives from The Beach Boys’ song about a fanciful place named Kokomo. The song lyrics mention several Caribbean destinations including Aruba and Jamaica. My objective was to assemble a flower montage where the photographs have a location authenticity. In the art piece, the flowers are arranged in the form of a comet on a textured background representing a dark sky filled with stars and whisps of clouds. The comet’s wide plume comprises 9 streams, with each stream largely photographed a single Caribbean location. Counting from the upper right, I photographed the first 4 streams including the comet head in Jamaica, the next 3 streams in Aruba, and the final 2 streams in Cabo San Lucas. The diversity of color and form of the flowers is apparent, with more than 55 different species represented in the art piece.
I took all the photographs using an iPhone 12 Pro Max. Using Affinity Photo for editing, I resized each photograph to promote effective image segmentation, segmented each photograph to isolate the primary flower, exported the resulting photograph on a transparent background, and then combined each of the roughly 60 photographs in the Kokomo document. The time to segment a flower from its surroundings was typically 30 minutes or more, with some particularly difficult flowers taking more than 10 hours.
I have chosen to print the art using a substrate of Dibond, which is an aluminum composite material. The process overlays the Dibond with a silver halide print that supports 610 dpi resolution. A satin laminate covers the print for protection, and the entire assembly is placed in a slim white wooden float frame. I have chosen the satin finish to accentuate the visual impact.
‘Kokomo’ is an art piece that combines flowers photographed by me in Jamaica, Aruba, and Cabo San Lucas. The name derives from The Beach Boys’ song about a fanciful place named Kokomo. The song lyrics mention several Caribbean destinations including Aruba and Jamaica. My objective was to assemble a flower montage where the photographs have a location authenticity. In the art piece, the flowers are arranged in the form of a comet on a textured background representing a dark sky filled with stars and whisps of clouds. The comet’s wide plume comprises 9 streams, with each stream largely photographed a single Caribbean location. Counting from the upper right, I photographed the first 4 streams including the comet head in Jamaica, the next 3 streams in Aruba, and the final 2 streams in Cabo San Lucas. The diversity of color and form of the flowers is apparent, with more than 55 different species represented in the art piece.
I took all the photographs using an iPhone 12 Pro Max. Using Affinity Photo for editing, I resized each photograph to promote effective image segmentation, segmented each photograph to isolate the primary flower, exported the resulting photograph on a transparent background, and then combined each of the roughly 60 photographs in the Kokomo document. The time to segment a flower from its surroundings was typically 30 minutes or more, with some particularly difficult flowers taking more than 10 hours.
I have chosen to print the art using a substrate of Dibond, which is an aluminum composite material. The process overlays the Dibond with a silver halide print that supports 610 dpi resolution. A satin laminate covers the print for protection, and the entire assembly is placed in a slim white wooden float frame. I have chosen the satin finish to accentuate the visual impact.