Using the landscape in her travels as an inspiration and Nelson B.C. as her home base, digital artist Dana Marlese mixes photography with the Adobe Photoshop computer program to help create her edgy unique pieces.

“I take moments in time, record them with a digital camera then take selected images into Photoshop and interlay them as well as manipulating them with pre-programmed filtering effects. I am learning the program and its filters within the program to see how it affects the images differently.” For more on her process, contact Dana at (250) 505-0351, or email blackcatsnb@msn.com.

Since Sept 2007, Dana has been working on this series of eight images that are now on display at the clothing shop Seams Local in Nelson. Seven of the images are photographs taken of individuals in the Nelson area, and the other image is of Dana inter-layered with images from travels to Japan, Australia, and Nelson.

“I’d like these photographs to literally travel so they can be seen by more people…like through the web or through Art Walk here in Nelson. These pieces are created for the individuals in the portraits themselves. I am giving them to the people in the pieces; this way they would be travelling to wherever these seven people would be going.”

Travelling is an ongoing theme for Dana. After graduating from Lethbridge University with a BSC in physical geography, she travelled with a club team to Scotland, Wales, England, Bahamas, and Spain where she was playing provincial level rugby.

“Travelling has influenced my photography…being exposed to different cultures and artistic landscapes. I am interested in the interaction between the people and the landscape.”

The Calgary native moved to Vancouver from 1999-2003 to snowboard and play high level rugby. In 2003 she came to Nelson for its fantastic snowboarding opportunities and never left.

Nelson is now not only a venue to show Dana’s work but a place where she can work on her primary job with Cameron Concrete Finishing. One of Dana’s first projects was with the Castlegar skate park, next, the Kaslo skate park, the Lion’s Spray Park, and then worked on the floor in the new Craft Connection on Baker Street in Nelson.

Opportunities found during travels as well as working in and around her home base of Nelson keeps Dana’s work fresh with attention grabbing ideas ready to put to good use for her next photography show.