Portraits
Cubist Influence
Artist's Comments On The Process
Digital Based Print (DBP) original is a way of working I developed with an Amiga
computer in 1985. As early as 1957, I had worked with wood block, and linoleum print
making. Partly because I have always had an unusual talent for painting, I turn to that
solution to get immediate results. "Printers" are charged with the responsibility of
consistent accuracy in their craft. Artists are restless spirits searching for all the
possibilities creativity may offer. As an artist I have indulged in the experimentation
within the print making process. Therefor I would take some copies, or a unique, of a
print and paint into it. There are stages, this type of work cycles through. It may be
a derivative variation of the print, i.e. changes in color and or embellishments
altering the character of the image, but essentially keeping the parent image in tact,
or it may evolve into a significant altering of the image so as to create a new basic
identity. This type of experimentation continued with etching assisted by
advise from Hirum Koppelman (1964), and later lithograph and photo re-processing with
Tom Piper (1975). I have always been a bit of a techno-geek. From learning old masters
13c fresco and secco methods & materials, to building my first program with a card
stack for a 1401 mainframe, my interest in process and creative flow has kept me in
the mix of unfolding technologies. In 1985 the computer offered the artist a new place
to create. Optical import of images combined with digital creation to export original
images. This way of working has dramatically increased in popularity with the advance of
archival pigmented inkjet printing. With a fade free factor of 200 years and getting
better as the print industry continues to compete for the "art" market, artists are
quickly bringing this new form to the canvas. I am pleased to be able to offer my
artistry and experience as a pioneer in this new art form.
Overview
Issues and concerns about this new way of working come from buyers, galleries,
museums, and artists. You might think the acceptance of new forms in art are slowest
in the market place. However popularity in the market is often disregarding the
fragility of media. The works of Jackson Pollack were said to be swept up off the floor
at the end of the week. This was a reference to the fragile nature of some of his works
of art. It turns out that those professionals resistant to accepting these new works
are not threatened by modernity. They are threatened by traditional values migrated
into new media. This is like cinema thinking actors will be replaced by computer
generated graphics. They are correct in understanding that this new art will compete
with existing forms. My own view is that the power of technology will frame artistic
quality, not replace it. TV was not the end of radio. There is also a challenge to professional credibility in that many of these works are difficult to identify. When an art dealer can't tell the difference between a DBP original and a traditional painting it may be disconcerting. This is not unfounded. I have seen several instances of DBP originals passed off as traditional oil paintings. As a point of interest, some of these works are so completely worked over that they are in fact physically an oil painting existing over a DBP original substructure. Is an oil painting which was started with acrylics an oil? What about an oil painting on an acrylic gesso? Many professionals take it in stride understanding that truth in advertising is always a standard upheld by people of virtue, merchants and artists alike. For collectors the name of the artist is only a starting point. Each work should be scrutinized for value. From a limited edition, to a one of a kind original artistry and quality are the baseline of value. There are some dealers and artists who specialize in modern antiques. Replicating methods of historical periods is a popular genera. In today's market there are many choices available. I am happy to bring the authority and classic values of the "old school" bushmasters into new media technology.
Permenance of the media.
In 1975 I was looking at a book of Goya etchings in the Bodleian Library which
appeared to have been created yesterday. At the Yale museum I had also seen a newly
"cleaned" painting on paper from ancient Greece, which had a fresh vibrant color.
Works of art which are cared for in what we call archival conditions may survive for
an incredibly long time. In the area of "Archival" quality digital printing, the life
span, (time before the color begins to fade) has increased from 120 years, to 140
years, to more than 200 years. That was just in the last 10 years. It is believed by
many that within the next 200 years technology will develop archival methods which may
stabilize the works of art for much longer. Now that artists are bringing this way of
working to the canvas and combining it with archaically stronger methods, such as
acrylic and oil painting, these DBP (Digital Based Print) originals make a giant step,
not only in archival quality, but a new artistic frontier. Compositional problems,
drawing accuracy, tonal relationships, and a host of artistic considerations may be
resolved in the computer. This dynamic tool is offering the artist a prepared canvas
where they may elect to take it to a level of completion only the hand, and painters
toolbox can achieve.
Authenticity of the esthetic vision.
Artists are always interested in the original idea, the process of discovery, and the arrival at an authentic vision. When I was doing the start of the Microgen works in the electronic environment, it was pure experimentation. I was seeing a fantastically rapid playing out of what seemed like the mind's eye of Piet Mondrian. I thought I was experiencing a lifetimes worth of experiments in the space of an hour. I was stunned.
I became accustomed to that stunned stage, and proceeded to the assimilation and cataloging into the library of esthetic experience. Mondrian would not have been threatened, he would have been thrilled. I defined the point of human reference to that experience through his achievements. This is the validity of all artists. It is not the media. It is the intelligence brought to the perception and embedding it into the art.
Skill sets of the artist.
Where human expression ends and mechanical device takes over.
Artist's are sometimes concerned that the photographic process is replacing the ability to draw with authority.
I have been using the camera as an art form, and as a part of my print and paint
process for over 40 years. My drawing skills were influenced by all the art I have
admired as well as the instruction by Myers (Cleveland Ins. Of Art), Hogarth (Art
Students League), and Lightle (Silvermine College Of Art). It has been amusing over
the years to see the shifting attitudes among various groups about skill attainment
and degree of difficulty. The extremes are marked by the "artistic freedom" fringe, who
will not tolerate any definition of quality or standard of excellence, to the
"neo-academy" which are academic in the enshrinement of the old school. I myself enjoy
a full range of travel in the wide world between these inflexible dogmas. I love the
old school, and am grateful for the diversity it provides in my artistic freedom of exploratory choices. My experience in photographic drawing is that the re-working of the acute mechanical rendering back into a human scale requires a rendering skill set which relies heavily on a profound understanding of the "plumbing" of visual art.
|
Comission A Portrait
The following examples demonstrates various results from the convergence of traditional painting, photography, computer arts, print making, and re-painting.
|
|
015 Portrait of George Washington
|
031 Portrait of the author, Irene McGarrity
|
032 Portrait of the poet, Jose Peralta
|
034 Portrait of the artist, Judith Corigan
|
037 Portrait of Lisa
|
042 Portrait of the artist, Gus Moran
|
066 Portrait of a Shaman
|
Commission A Portrait
Simple Portrait (From 8"x 10" to 16"x 20")
Moderately Involved Portrait (From 8"x 10" to 36"x 46")
Complex Portrait (From 8"x 10")
Profound Portrait (Major Work)
Portrait Installation (Any Size)
Commision Form
|
|
|
029 (this is not a DBP work of art)
This is a drawing from 1958 of my Grandfather. It is the earliest surviving image of a
portrait. This is a good representation of Carl. It is a bit crude in the use of
line, but my education and experience were not yet in place. The nature of arriving at
a portrait is not dependant on an elegant style but in conveying the observation of
"characteristic" details which are associated with that individual. I have always been
attracted by the portrait. It presents the esthetic dilemma inherent in all art which
is the relationship of individuality and totality.
Back to Commissions Info. Page.
Top
|
014 (this is not a DBP work of art)
This was a study focused in Venetian glazing methods. My obsession with techno-process
at work. The metaphorical parallel of "building a painting" and the observation of
nature, are part of the artists history. 13th c, masters used this language to gain
insights into creating harmonious systems which echoed the music of the spheres. The
study of glazing systems has been a persistent endeavor which plays heavily in the
Digital Based Print originals. These subtleties of light are not captured by
the camera. But they do make the human eye involved on a deeper level.
|
|
Cubist Influence
This group of works started with oil paintings. I have always worked with ideas clearly
stated by the cubist. Just as I use a picture as a new point of departure, my interest
in the cubists is a departure into abstract art discovering elemental form. That part
of cubism which was a reaction to classical art, is an artifact of history. My
discovery of form needs all the tools and esthetic virtue available. The obvious
presence of the "hand crafting" comes from the old school methods of oil painting. The
digital sampling and re-painting is the incredible availability of experimentation at a
speed of realization unknown before the computer age. This group of paintings brings
together a synthesis into what I feel will be a classic modern form of art.
There is a popular view of the space where sub atomic particles and energy exist, which is somehow pristine, pure, mathematically perfect, and non-organic. My own perception is very different. I see that place as a crossroads of colliding dynamic exchange where field and object are difficult to differentiate. Where the border between the organic and the Platonic form are as blood and light. Co-existent in the instant of perception. These concerns are the foundation of the "Microgen" series of art works.
|
|
|
Abstract C-10 v9
~ 2010
Mixed Media ~
|
|
| |
Original Not Available
$ 390 Limited Edition Print is Available
$ 1,000 Retainer Commissioning an Original based on this work.
(about the process)
|
|
|