Shadows of the World
Imaginary Gardens
Carmen Dell'Aversano
Angelica
(1 of 10)

Carmen Dell'Aversano is professor of comparative literature at Pisa University, Italy. She writes, "As an artist I am entirely self-taught. I started photographing and making collages and montages at a very young age and read every book about technique I could lay my hands on (I still do). As soon as digital graphics came around, I realized that the computer would allow me to do everything I had always dreamed about. The learning curve has been slow, but it's definitely been worth it."

Her website is called Shadows of the World. The ten images shown here are taken from her "Imaginary Gardens" series and from her "Variable Dimensions" series. She writes, "'Imaginary Gardens' is mainly montage: real objects put next to one another, then photographed and retouched digitally. The work in 'Variable Dimensions', on the other hand, is entirely digital: it starts with 3D objects and / or with my own slides, which are scanned and later composited into a montage using masks, layers and various opacity levels and blend modes."

Her art is influenced by classical Western Art, scientific imagery and , she adds, "Because I am a literary scholar by profession, and because I tend to visualize everything I read, my creative work has been shaped to a very considerable degree by my reading. The quirkiness, melancholy and madness are my own."

Carmen Dell'Aversano's website