Collaboration in art is not a new concept. Master artists in the late Medieval and Renaissance periods made use of assistants, who not only did many of the preliminary tasks in the master's workshop, they also assisted in the actual creation of the master's designs. Indeed, the Baroque artist, Peter Paul Rubens had a team of specialists, who would work on particular tasks within their speciality, such as the painting of fur, or vegetation or possibly the human figure.Collaboration in art has also been carried over into the modern period and artists such as Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley and Robert Rauschenberg are known for using assistants. These modern artists, like their earlier counterparts, while employing assistants, nevertheless, were the designer of the work and thus would be named as its creator.In recent years, collaboration in art has taken a new and different twist, in that teams of artists are now working in total collaboration from start to finish the initial concept and design, to finished product. The entire collaborative team is named as the artists. I first became aware of this new approach to artistic creation about seven or eight years ago when I visited an exhibition in a New York, Chelsea gallery, that was exhibiting works created in total collaboration, in this instance by identical twins.During this past year, I have been hearing about similar developments here in Bermuda and on the evening of April 5, I had opportunity to visit and see such a collaboration between two local artists. They exhibited their efforts in a one-evening exhibit that took place on the seventh floor of Allied World Assurance. The two artists were Scott Stallard and Graham Foster and their collaboration consisted of five works. In case you were not able to attend, you can see the show on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?V=1-PcZ-XAzT8.These five works were amongst a larger exhibition of photographs by Mr Stallard including a series of works that employs photography, but is certainly more than photography. Let me explain. I gather that these particular works are the result of a series of experiments in that the artist used clear glass as his ground upon which he "painted", probably with a painting knife, a series of marks, made with lithography inks of varying colours. These inks are notably translucent, especially when applied thinly. The end result reminded me of stained-glass windows or possibly looking into a kaleidoscope. It is my understanding that the artist, Scott Stallard, selects a small section of the painting that is particularly engaging, to photograph it. These were then enlarged by Colour Lab and framed by Frameworks.It was while working this process that the artist began to see certain accidental configurations that reminded him of aspects from the visual world. It was then that he invited Graham Foster to collaborate with him in adding to what he had already done, certain surreal marks, such as spine-like additions or serpent-like configurations and in one case, a bull-eye. These appear to float in a multi-coloured, translucent sea.Theirs is a good beginning, but I would like to see them push their efforts even more. The creative potential is enormous.It is refreshing to see such a collaboration in our local art community. Indeed, it is something we need to encourage for in doing so, as in this case, new and interesting expressions will develop. I am aware of other similar goings-on in here and this is good and reassuring.