Amy Baxter

I'm a smart-ass with a deep introspective thought process … quite a contradiction!

Amy has always loved photography but also wanted to be a painter. In the days of using film, she was always experimenting in the darkroom. Now in the digital age, it's been a natural progression to use software to do what she used to do in the darkroom (minus the red glow). Discovering that I could mix my love of photography with the frustrated painter in me was an absolute epiphany.

Amy strives to create photography that is painterly. She always finds herself trying to explain the process of layering textures (other images) over the subject image, like sandwiching negatives. The texture images can be anything from an image of a stucco wall – one of her favourites – to an image of an actual painted canvas.

Because of the stigma of "Photoshop", I try to teach people that I don't manipulate the images but process them … that Photoshop is really just a digital darkroom. Back in the day of darkrooms, you could add textures by using pieces of canvas to add texture to an image... all sorts of things. It wasn't easy, but could be done… the computer is just as much a tool as a paint brush.

When asked what surprises her most about her craft, she says: That I'm actually good … and people like my work… and will actually spend their hard-earned money on my work.

I'm constantly surprised by how an image I'm working on takes on a life of its own. I've learned not to fight this creative flow.