As an artist with a history of creating photographic images with different media, I find the malleability of digital technology offers compelling imagery. The truth of the matter is that most of the special effects produced through the computer can be composed by a comparable analog method; the computer simply does it with greater efficiency. Throughout my career, I have worked the image by re-constructing it through various processes. This resulted from the desire to bring together a mark making response into processes oriented applications like printmaking or photography. In my estimation with the arrival of the digital age my technical aptitudes have crystallized.

As a photographic printmaker (who developed collotype, photo-lithography, photo-serigraphy, non-silver and special effects technique) I have insight regarding image support surfaces. The support surface is the sculptural aspect of the image and constructs the conceptual as well as the formal intentions of the artist. As far as outputting the digital image onto various surfaces one must be prepared to experiment. The printer responds uniquely to each surface. Minute changes in the software profiles will dramatically change the ultimate look of an image. Currently, the industry offers a variety of print materials such as mylar, canvas, rag and cover stock papers. Each surface will either hold the image with the amazing clarity of color balance and contrast or soften it beyond recognition. It is my experience that cover stocks and mylar surfaces tend to hold the digital image well. Certain rag papers like copperplate, Somerset, or a German etching paper makes for an exquisite print. Once the photographic digital image has been outputted to a well- suited surface, it lands between the chemical photograph and the photo lithograph/ collotype and thus rivals the graphic print.

The most rewarding aspect of digital imaging is the way the initial capture can be worked. The possibilities are endless. Yet with a little skill and vision those possibilities are edited to meet the needs of the designer. "Guadalupe En Piel", a window installation at the Andrew Smith Gallery (12/2000) in Santa Fe N.M., was precisely that type of project. The intention was to take an eminent myth and frame it by evoking an intellectual response to an archaic symbol.

The Guadalupe, a bi-cultural icon, denotes not only the international Baroque response immersed in Catholicism but references central parameters to Náhuatl thought. The apparition story is seemingly simple. On Saturday, December 9, 1531 , "Our Lady" first appeared to Juan Diego, a Mexica Indian and recent Catholic convert. She requested that a church be built in her honor. The "señal"/sign or proof that Juan Diego had spoken to Guadalupe or "Our Lady"/Tonantzin is her graphic appearance onto his cloak known as a "tilmatli" or tilma. Like the Guadalupe, herself, the collective understanding of the tilma has remained intact throughout the centuries and resonates in the consciousness of Xicano society.

The tilma references clothe as a symbolic "magical alteration of reality" and a metaphor for the second skin. The first skin of course is nakedness and the second skin conceals that state. In addition, for Náhuatl society the second skin evokes the "Xipe Totec's flayed skin garment, which was presented to this Amerindian deity following sacrificial rituals in observance of military and fertility rites." The Xipe Totec was considered the male equivalent to the earth and moon goddess. During the ritual the youth to be flayed wears a mask made of skin that was considered to be the sacrificed Earth Mother/ Tonantzin. Interestingly prior to the sacrificial flaying of the woman, who represented the goddess, she wore a tilma made of maguey. This act binds the tilma into the ritual practice associated with the "Xipe Totec." The tilma that Juan Diego was wearing when the Guadalupe's miraculous image imprinted onto the fabric was made of maguey. Like the Guadalupe, the maguey is native to the Americas and is associated with Náhuatl spirituality. The tilma that was worn by Diego hangs to this day in Mexico City at the basilica that was built at the request of Guadalupe and in her honor.

It is believed that without the Guadalupe myth that bridged the Spanish and Native American cultures, an absolute holocaust may have ensued. Her acceptance by the Catholic Church opened the door for the conversion of the Amerindian people by extending the spiritual views of both societies.

With all this in mind, the contemporary tattooing of the Guadalupe onto the backs of Cholos is not an odd coincidence that is, if one trusts the collective consciousness. This act in many ways is a ritual practice that is meant to provide protection against harm and also empowers the Cholo during conflicts. It is the protective symbol for the pugnacious person. In tattooing Guadalupe's images onto their back the ritualistic wearing of "Our Lady" is referenced. In following the myth, the tattooed Cholo can be thought of as the Xipe Totec who is the male aspect of Tonantzin. This act binds together both the male and female energies of "Our Lady."

The installation makes indirect reference to these ideas by displaying a Guadalupe tattoo located on the back as a rollout; creating a collage digitally: the left pectoral, left shoulder, back, right shoulder and right pectoral are displayed as a seamless image. The image resembles a garment or rather the second skin that has been flattened. In photographing the original tattoo work onto 8x10 black and white negatives then capturing them to a digital file, the final output has an impressive clarity. This clarity compares to the immediacy of a photographic imprint while at the same time is structured to my conceptual ideas concerning the tilma as the second skin. The ideas are further elaborated in that the tattoo work exemplifies the style of the Cholo Artist. On the left shoulder lies a depiction of Cristo Crucificado, the back has "Armijio" written in Old English lettering with the Guadalupe positioned below it, and the right shoulder displays the praying hands. This image, laminated onto three panels, is located on reverse side of a nine-panel mural that measures a total of eight feet. The digital image is of a Cholo/ Veterano handcuffed with a Guadalupe tattooed on his back. He stands in front of iron bars in a detention center.

Below the "Armijio" image is an additional rollout of a full-bodied female torso and depicted between the shoulder blades lies the Guadalupe. The image is printed on frosted mylar that gives it a front/ back view and then the rollout is suspended with filament wire. One is struck by the fleshiness that fractures the body into valleys and hills that conceal contouring crevasses. The form references the "earth" and the nipples suggest "mother". It is the visual kenning for Earth Mother, "Our Lady Guadalupe"/ Tonantzin. The image becomes fully awake during daybreak and twilight when the lights in the window back-light the "Earth Mother" and illuminates the image with a warm glow while the ambient daylight clarifies the front surface. The moment between night and day speaks of the dual nature invested by Nahautl thought concerning "difrasismo." It is a poetic technique in which a single idea is expressed by two words, either because they are synonymous or because they complement each other. In this case the daybreak express the crack between worlds as a creative act that moves between worlds.

Pressed, with white vinyl lettering, onto the window is a poem composed by Alurista that was written specifically for the installation. It reads:

corazón colonizado
como rosa blooms

guadalupe tonantzin
en la tilma de nuestra

xicana piel

The poem grounds the installation's concerns of presenting a contemporary Xicano expression of the Guadalupe. For the Xicano, she is our protector, a symbol of empowerment, and "Our Lady" of the Americas.

The installation is entirely constructed digitally and outputted with an Epson 9000 onto mylar and cover stock paper. It was then laminated with an UV protective film and then the photo-mural was adhered to panels made of Syntra. The viewer rarely stops to consider if the installation is a digital display. It is accepted as an art-piece and at times confused with the chemical process. At one point, I was asked, "So are you working chemically?" In General, the window installation, "Guadalupe En Piel", is discern as photographic in nature. In my estimation this verifies that the photographic environment has effectively implemented the digital electronic image into its paradigm and if the work is compelling the distinctions that divide the photographic imprint from the drawing become moot.