The artist and modern technology

When someone sees my art for the first time I often times get asked if they are photographs. Because I am a digital artist that prints my artwork on the same pro quality Epson printers that many pro photographers use, the question is understandable. Even though the finish piece (at least in my opinion) looks nothing like what would come out of a camera, the type of paper, matting and framing makes my art look as if they were digital photographs.

My, how times have changed in the world of art. Prior to the use of the vast array of new technological “gadgets” that we’ve become accustomed to, it was fairly easy to define the type of media artists used. In the world of flat, 2 D art, you were either a painter using oils, acrylics, watercolors etc. a printmaker that employed wood block, serigraph or other hand pulled ways to transfer your original to paper or a photographer shooting your masterpieces through your camera lens onto “film.”

Those old school method artists still out number us new “techies” a 100 to 1 and produce some of the finest art of our generation but technology is starting to make headways into the world of art, were we like it or not.

Take the way I produce art for example. I use mathematical algorithms to create fractals. These formulas are iterated (multiplied) over and over again to expose a graphical representation of the math I’m using. In most cases, these formula iterations are done millions of times in order to get the effect I’m after. Without computers this process couldn’t happen, thus this computer technology is most important in my work as an artist.

Other artists as well as some jurors that control who get into the art festivals I sell at, often look at my art as not as authentic as more traditional forms because I use a computer. That school of thinking is not only antiquated but also unfair to us using modern technology to make art. I’m sure the same thoughts were held when oil painters saw an influx of artist starting to use a more modern paint called acrylics.

The end result, the finished piece, the art hung on the wall can look similar no matter how it was created. There is no right, or wrong way to make art. It’s all right in my opinion.

Life's distractions

Sometimes I consider myself a prolific artist. I am able to sit with my computer, unobstructed with outside distractions and just create. There might be an image that I can’t get out of my mind that somehow just flow effortlessly from Ultra Fractal, the software program I use to do my fractal art. Other times, which are increasingly, becoming more the norm than I’d like, I can’t seem to concentrate long enough to finish a piece.

Granted it, most of my current work involves dozens if not more individual layers that make up the final image and that just takes time to do. I’ll sometimes work hours on a single layer of a fractal because it is crucial to the over all theme of the design. Times that by 25 and you start to see how long it can actually take to create a piece.

That said life is starting to interfere with my art. Doing digital art on a computer is often an envious position I hold with my fellow artists, the more traditional ones painting with acrylics or molding hunks of clay. Their art is created using various “tools” of their trade, be them, easels, paint brushes, welding torches or potters wheels. Mine is a MacBook Pro laptop that opens to reveal my studio wherever I am. At home, on a plane, a bench in a park or during slow sales times at an art festival I’m at for the weekend. My art studio sits on my lap or my desk.

Of course there are other devices I employee to finish my art. I use various printers with the workhorse being a 2 ½ year old Epson Stylus Pro 4000. This printer produces 95% of the prints I sell. Over the years, I’ve used many different printers. HP, Canon and other models of Epson’s but hands down, this it the best printer a digital artist can own. I’m considering upgrading to a wider format Epson, but I’ll hold off talking about that until a later post.

Back to my dilemma, I have too many distractions lately. Why do I need to have a browser window open on my computer? Do I really need to google that idea that popped into my head right now? Wikipedia is wonderful, I can’t remember what I did without it. Yes I can, I got up from my desk and walked to the bookshelf and pulled out the encyclopedia and hunted for the answer to my question. But do I have to go off on a tangent at that very moment; do I need the answer that bad? Of course not, it can wait, but the convenience a computer hooked up to the Internet through a WiFi connection makes this distraction from my art easy, which is addictive.

Do I need MailPlane reminding me that an e-mail has just came through from someone wanting my valuable attention more that I need to create art? I think not, but it is convenient, for the sender anyway. Are three different e-mail accounts that all need hourly feeding essential?

Hopefully you can see where I’m going with all of this. Life is one big distraction for an artist, especially for a “wired” digital artist. Am I ready to pull the plug? Not today, but I have come up with what I think is a workable game plan to curb the distractions. Like a diet, I hope I can stick to it. My MacBook Pro’s battery last about 2 hours, give or take a few minutes either way. In the morning, over coffee, I plan to do any of my Net essential chores while my battery power lasts. E-mail correspondence, web surfing, and reading blogs through the various RSS feeds I subscribe to, etc. Net stuff. Once I get the “low battery” warning me to plug in, I cut the wires to the Internet. Figuratively speaking of course. After that, I’m a distraction free artist.

Impossible? Maybe. But it’s worth a try. Of course my favorite music streaming through iTunes in the background is OK. And I could write a little widget that pops up every few hours reminding me to take a minute and see what earth stopping e-mail requests I have in my in box. And oh ya, there are the podcasts that feed my curious mind and that image file that has to be ftp’d to the publisher and ooo… what happens if someone posts a photo on my Flickr page that I need to see right now or what about Twitter, my FaceBook wall, MySpace? Let’s not forget my blog.

I’m doomed, just pass me the ADD meds.