GRPH 1325 - Digital Imaging

Enviromental Collage Project

Juarez, Zapata, Chavez

This collage is supposed to represent an environment. It was supposed to be based on a landscape but I kind of missed that part of the assignment. It is hard to pay attention to every little detail when you work full time and go to school full time! :->


I found a good book on design in the library and was inspired to think differently about my environment. Your environment is basically how you perceive the world around you, and art is supposed to be about challenging how you percieve the world around you.


I ended up looking at the environment around me and could not help seeing how big a part Mexican culture plays in who I am today. So in essence, this collage is about the landscape in my head!


I call myself Chicano, a term I prefer to Mexican-American or Hispanic. While I am of Mexican descent, I have lived in the US my whole life, so I am "American" not a "-American".

Being called Hipanic also bothers me a little, because it is too imprecise, blending my Mexican culture with that of every Central and South American country. While it is true that due to the Spanish influence I am "Hispanic", still it gives my Mexican heritage the short shrift.





This collage is composed of multiple layers, all with different transparency and effect settings. It is composed of the following images:

1. a red/green gradient
2. the central lettering, originally from a photo of white paint on a wood fence
3. Benito Juarez (b/w photo colorized)
4. Emiliano Zapata (b/w photo colorized)
5. Cesar Chavez (b/w photo colorized)
6. the eagle on the cactus (from a Mayan document)
7. the side column graphics (from a the same Mayan document)
8. the snake border is from a stone carving (doubled/flipped)
9. the skull border from Posadas (doubled/flipped/merged)
10. the Mayan calendar with a gradient
11. the center of the Mayan calendar with a gradient
12. the Virgen of Guadalupe (originally on woven fabric)
13. the sign carrying protesters
14. a map of Aztlan (the Chicano homeland) as the base, and
15. an assortment of adjustment layers and mask layers.

It took me in excess of 50 hours to get the collage to where it is at right now. I find Photoshop is pretty fun to use, and found myself spending hours working on this collage.

Getting each layer looking good and then getting them in the right order is a time consuming process, but it lets you exploit the power of Photoshop to the fullest.

Last Updated Tuesday, February 03 2004 @ 10:36 PM UTC