Highlights — Wanda Oliver

This page features a small selection of my most recent work. I invite you to explore them, and if you find them interesting, please dive into all the delights presented here for your pleasure.

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Serendipity

Serendipity continues my exploration of both generative art and symbolic communication, using symbols rather than math to generate marks on the canvas. It is a fully algorithmic work of art drawn in text, using fonts that I created specifically for the project.

Glyphs II

In a world of war, habitat destruction, misogyny, poverty, and pandemics, it can be hard to maintain any equanimity. Everywhere we turn there is a politician or an influencer determined to keep each of us in a state of alarm to the benefit of their own status, power, and greed. And these pale in comparison to those actively and brutally imposing their will on others to the point of loss of life and liberty.

Glyphs II is literally made from strife and suffering. The work is composed of the headlines of the New York Times, gathered during the month of October, 2022. Through the use of asemic fonts and repetition, the words are eroded, effaced, and erased of meaning. By scrubbing the words into a thing of beauty, I defy them, rob them of their power, and turn them into messages of peace.

Wings

Created in September, 2022, Wings is my first piece of generative art, digital art created with code rather than paint. Uniting two halves of myself , it feels like a rich new vein of creativity opening before me.

Languid

Created in summer, 2022, in the midst of record breaking heat and monumental drought, as well as distressing news on many local and international fronts, Languid addresses my state of being. It is a self portrait of a chapter of my life.

I Dreamt

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”. Until very recently it seemed self-evident that US society had long since understand “all men” to mean all mankind regardless of race or gender. Suddenly, we have been thrust back into the 18th century and told that our Constitution can only be interpreted from the point of view of the original founders: white men, many slave holders. For women to lose control of their own health care and reproductive choice is staggering. The further implications of this Supreme Court opinion are terrifying.

I inherited the success of the Women’s Movement as I came of age. Fifty years later I stand agape as the rights of women, so hard fought and seemingly secure, are blithely stripped away by the stroke of a pen. I stand defiant.

Uvalde - SOLD

An homage to the victims of the senseless slaughter that occurred at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022. Created as part of a fund raising effort for the families of the slain.

Landscape of my Heart

This visual short story explores the bittersweet reality of a life lived into the third act. The words are my own. The images are remixes of one of my original chemigrams, with color and texture added using one of my Mutilated Polaroids. The process is a complex mixture of free-wheeling digital and analog techniques.

The Weight of Years

The Weight of Years explores my shock at finding myself living my 70th year. How on earth did all these years pass? How do I face with grace the years ahead? How does one become old? Am I not, in my deepest, truest self, still the same as the young woman that set out on this journey? When will the weight of the years descend?

Play

An experiment in constructing a digital artist’s book, and a reminder of the importance of play in maintaining a creative life.

Mutilated Polaroids

A video Short Story showcasing a few of the images in my Mutilated Polaroids series. Collectors are offered an actual Mutilated Polaroid at no additional cost.

Rainbow World

For Gwen, you know who you are.

Womb

Created in honor of Earth Day, 2022.