Moonlight Memory: A Caribbean Moonset Collage

Moonlight was the title of my first digital collage images, inspired by the moon setting over the sea.
More than twenty years ago, when I had just begun blending photography with painting and digital art, I asked myself a question that still lingers:

Where does inspiration come from?

When does that elusive moment arrive—when everything falls into place and you know you’ve created something that, at least for you, makes sense?

Changing Technologies

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, technology was just beginning its transition from analog to digital, and I was learning and experimenting, unsure of where my work was headed. The only thing I knew for certain was that sometimes I witnessed moments so beautiful that I wanted to hold on to them forever.

One of those moments happened during a trip to Providencia, a small island in the Colombian Caribbean. It was a clear night, with a warm breeze lifting the curtain in my room. From my bed, I could see the full moon slowly crossing the sky. Next to me, pressed against my body, my baby was sleeping peacefully. I could hear the waves sliding over the sand, the whisper of wind in the palms, the soft calls of coastal birds. Then, thin clouds swept quickly across the moon, forming faint circular rainbows that vanished in seconds.

Going Back in Time

That scene took me back to another moment, just as beautiful. I was about fifteen, camping with my family on a deserted beach. At dawn, I saw the moon turn from silver to yellow, then orange, and finally deep red as it sank into the horizon. It only lasted a few minutes, but it stayed with me forever.

That new dawn in Providencia brought the memory back with full force. I grabbed my camera and, without waking my child, captured the moment I had carried within me for so long.

Composing with Inspiration

A few months later, I started working on a new technique. I sketched my first composition using that moon photo as the central piece, but the image alone couldn’t express what I had felt. I needed the wind, the sound, the colors vibrating inside me. And so, I began building the final piece, an image woven from over twenty-five layers of photographs, oil paintings, and digital textures, trying to capture not only what I had seen, but what I had felt.

1. I Started with an initial image I took in Providencia.
2. Painted the wall, leaving a space for the window.
3. Placed the window and its reflections in the glass.
4. Photographed objects on a table and digitally added the fire in the candles and the smoke to give the impression of wind.
5. Illuminated the reflections of the moon and the fire.
6. Used a real photograph of a curtain, lowering the opacity to make it transparent.