At the end I knew I had some good photographs. I didn't know what for-I was responding to an opportunity, a situation. I was becoming very frustrated with my painting. He was trying to break away from that and to put figures in different types of spatial environments. Cogswell met with UM art historian Elizabeth Sears, who showed him books of illuminated letters from medieval manuscripts.
Illuminated initials are very flat.
I thought this might be a way to cut my imagination loose. He took out the photos again and for a while experimented with all different sizes and materials. Then he put the photos away and concentrated on the letters. He didn't want them to be individual images, but part of a series. He hid the letter rather than accentuate it.