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The Cochran Art Gallery located in downtown LaGrange will see a vivd taste of Bruce Checefsky’s unique artwork this week as a new exhibit opens in the gallery.

Checefsky, native of Cleveland, Ohio, works to create unusual photography using creative technology to depict colorful displays of life and garden flowers. In order to do such, the artist uses office scanner technology just like the type seen in a normal office setting to scan documents.

Because of the color and texture of his artwork, Checefsky has been compared to a modern day Claude Monet— only without the brushes and canvas.

The first time Checefsky was able to create a piece of work using scanner technology, he was attempting to scan a picture of his cat.

“She didn’t want anything to do do with it,” Checefsky said. “So, when she jumped off the device, I decided to take the top off the scanner and took it out to the garden with a laptop and extension cord and plopped it down in the middle of some flowers and took a scan.”

It was from this moment on, Checefsky had a feeling he was onto something. Checefsky has always been interested in art from a young age. After studying photography through several writing projects in high school, he went on to continue his passion for art at the Candrook Academy of Art.

Checefsky has been friends with Wes Cochran, owner of Cochran Art Gallery since the 90’s. The artists had met each other at an exhibition, where Cochran asked Checefsky to come down south for a while.

“When he asked, of course I went,” Checefsky said. “I have been down south every year since to visit LaGrange.”

Checefsky’s goal through displaying his art in the Cochran Art Gallery is to portray the experience of gardening through his artwork.

“Down in Georgia, so many people have gardens,” Checefsky said. “Through that process, gardens are grown through seeds. Through my artwork, I want to relay the experience of having a garden through this scanning technology,”

Checefsky is very thankful for the work that Wes and Misty Cochran have done in LaGrange to showcase artists both local and national into their gallery.

“Artists really rely on people like the Cochrans to show work and get it out there,” Checefsky said.