To recap what I said in the previous entry: Virtual Reality is the tool whereby the painter of today creates language by reshaping reality. VR allows the 21st century artist to envision the language of tomorrow. Digital Information allows easy flow and manipulation of reality. Virtual Reality is the vision that guides the flow and manipulation process. It is up to artists to bring vision to the digitization and commercialization of reality. VR is the primary tool through which we achieve this.
And now let us proceed with this discussion. When we speak of VR, typically we think of computer generated images (CGI) for the movies. Nowadays, we are more expansive in our thinking because the Internet has expanded our view. Thus, images of creatures and consciousnesses trapped or carousing in our computers and on the Internet cascade through our minds. Virtual Reality is the domain of science fiction and movies. That’s changing. We talk of a virtual this and a virtual that, all seeming to be moving in the direction of AI – artificial intelligence – robots and androids. Virtual Reality is synthetic reality, a fabrication of the real stuff. The ultimate virtual creation is a virtual human: the android.
Am I suggesting that artists try as best as they can to duplicate reality? Is that what Virtual Reality is about? Is that what the vision of today’s artist is all about, recreating reality and duplicating as much as possible what’s out there, that is, the “real” world?
Not necessarily, though we all know that attempts to render nature through observation increase an artist’s skill. Any artist would find a difficult time of it attempting to make art without the training of having to render observed reality. The writer cannot only read books and go to movies and so on. The writer also has to actually observe life first hand, and so with musicians and painters and any other artists. One might say first hand experience of life is what gives life to the art, certainly gives it newness.
Indeed, all art is a form of VR, if not in the mind of the culture, certainly in the mind of the artist who created it. The artist has always taken whatever tools were available and used those tools to create an alternate world. The initial motivation may or may not be to create an alternate world. Regardless, that is what the artist ends up doing. If the art lacks this “other worldliness” it lacks vision and imagination. The painting recreates reality, as does any other form of art. Art is not simply the interpretation of reality. It is more than that. It is synthetic reality, VR, in other words. The ultimate drive of art is to create an altogether believable, synthetic reality that manipulates the experience of its audience. Why? For what purpose? For many reasons, all moving in the same direction, that of myth building. But also, that of language creation. Perception itself can become a method of communication. That is what art has been and will continue to be. In the future, this will become more apparent as VR becomes even more striking than it is now.
Visual art, one of the earliest forms of art – indeed all forms originated in images - stimulated language. It had to. We moved from grunts and gestures to words. Concurrently we moved from images to symbols to words. These two movements created language, spoken and eventually written. Did the cave dwellers believe that the drawings of bison were real bison? The images are even striking today. We can safely assume that our ancient ancestors believed that the drawings on the cave walls looked incredibly real, flickering as they did in the light of the evening fire. VR? Sure. And what direction did those drawings take? Images became symbols. Symbols became language. It did not happen that symbols came first. You might think that certain ancient images were too crude for the primitive to think the symbol was literally what it symbolized. But in studying ancient cultures, we find this to be true. Also, when we study primitives of today, we find this to be true. The symbols was first an image. That is, the picture was a literal depiction, not a symbol, however primitive and naïve the image might seem, that is, however like a symbol it might appear to us today. A circle with a dot in it was a depiction of the sun. In a way, it was the sun. And so the circle with a dot in it had magical properties. The artist was a shaman and a magician for his power to create the sun and other things with a piece of coal or a stick. Eventually, the circle with the dot in it came to mean sun without actually being the sun. In this way, we came to discover and create language, words, and literature.
If you wonder where technology came from, stop wondering. It came from art. Artists are the visionaries. They create new perceptions. These new perceptions evolve into language. VR and the Digital Information that fuels it allows artists even greater access to the ability to recreate reality and thus to create new language forms. We might not understand what it is, this new language we are creating. Nonetheless, that is what we are doing. We are using the tool of VR to create a new language. I will hazard a guess and say that the language we build today is for the telepaths of tomorrow. As with our current spoken and written languages, we will have variety and uniformity, grammar and slang, context and interpretation, shades of meaning, nuance, all that we have today and more, and it will be a language we can work with telepathically. A thousand years from now, our excursions into VR will have become the foundation of a telepathic language. Little did the bison artist in his cave have any idea what his art would become. So now do we have little idea what our art will evolve into. I have made a reasonable guess, that is all.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The 21st Century Painter and VR
What does it mean to be a media artist? Before I tackle that question, let’s get more pinpointed about the more overarching question: What are the implications of the current age for the fine artist, specifically, for the painter? Whether you are a media artist or you “just” work with oils on canvas or a related medium, this is the overarching question. What is it all about for the painter of the early 21st century? What do we know and what are we finding out and going to find out? And who is going to teach us? The amazing thing nowadays is that anyone can teach you, not just the celebrity, not just the famous person. Yes, you can learn from a teacher in art school. You can also learn from me. You can learn from anyone who claims authority and then exercises that authority with integrity and know-how. It seems that the world just keeps expanding. The art world has its explosions and implosions, but mostly explosions. Art is never satisfied with limitations, and will only box itself in when it has crushed the box and needs new limitations to get itself going again.
I don’t claim to know all the art happenings, what’s in and what’s out. I don’t claim to be a mover and a shaker. Yeeze. I think a lot of that is bullshit anyway. But I do…have a finger on the pulse. I try, anyway, to keep my eyes open.
What it’s all about, anyway, is what’s happening for you, you, the painter, you, the artist, regardless of what anyone else is doing, regardless of what art movement (Are there any? Quick, raise your hand. Shall we start one?) is about. And what affects you is the general flow, the zeitgeist of the era.
Well, enough BS. Let’s get down to business. Answer the question. If you have any doubts as to what the question is, well, let me copy and paste. Here it is: What are the implications of the current age for the fine artist, specifically, for the painter? Okay - deep breath – here we go.
The fine artist, the visual artist, has always been about creating a vision. Yes, other artists are about this as well. Everyone has to have a vision, artist or not. The creative and powerful person has to have a vision. Sure. Have a vision for your business plan. The painter, however, is at the forefront with this aim, this goal, this raison d’etre. It would stand to reason, right? Visual artist, vision… Not simple play on words. The fine artist is about vision. He must see beyond the ordinary. Well, he must see in an extraordinary way, even when he paints ordinary things. That’s why he is a painter.
Okay, I think you are with me so far, and I hope you can agree. Painters bring us vision. They are, and must be, visionaries. Perhaps they see the future, perhaps not. What they really do: Create new ways of seeing. The artist generally, and the painter specifically, carves out the new ways of seeing. They have always done this, the best of them. Sometimes we could get with that. Other times it took awhile, and the artist did not profit. Anyway, so this question of what the current age holds for the painter, it is an important question. The painter must be asking himself, “What new way of seeing can I create?” This is the question he asks himself. And the changes are happening so fast these days, he is bound to wonder what it all adds up to for him and his quest for the new way of seeing. So it is an important question, one that must be answered.
Two forces - and they are not exactly the same – dominate the artist’s world today: virtual reality and digital information. Virtual reality is mostly visual. Digital information is mostly communicated in words. Therefore, it is auditory. Digital information is about meaning. Virtual reality is not about meaning. It is about how meaning and everything else can be distorted and manipulated and controlled and synthesized. Virtual reality is not about meaning. Digital information is. And, of the two, digital information is what dominates our world today. The ability to easily and inexpensively digitize content and easily and inexpensively flow it into the global community, making it accessible to anyone, is…well, beyond words. This is changing the world at lightening speed. Virtual reality is not far behind. Hmm. Just what is the role virtual reality plays in this? You would think the visual artist would want to know since virtual reality is more visual than it is anything else. Sure, we get excited about throwing all sensations into the pot and brewing a virtual stew that will knock your socks off. But let’s get back to the meat of this thing. Virtual plays with the eyes. What you see is what you get… Is it? What is it? It’s…whatever you make it. And there we are. Yes, even though digital information is the more powerful force – and I maintain the two are distinctly different, digital and virtual – virtual reality is what the visual artist is working with these days.
I’m going to take a leap and tell you what I think this means. Digital information is about meaning and language. Virtual reality is about vision. Virtual reality is about seeing in a new way. VR is synthetic information composed in a way that makes it easier to think in images. So, painter, you have the tool of virtual reality. What are you to do with it? What are we all to do with it? We are to create a vision. A vision of what? Of digital information, the force that is changing our reality. What I am saying: The painter of today must use VR (virtual reality) and DI (digital info) to create a vision of a new language, a new way of communicating. Where in the past the painter’s task was to create vision and a new way of seeing, now that task has changed – evolved. Vision has been digitized and is now about using vision to create a new language. This is what VR is all about. This is what the digitization of your visual information is all about. You are carving out a new way of communicating. You are carving out a vision of a new language, a language that will no doubt be global and immensely sophisticated, complex, and technologically savvy. Let’s hope you put some heart and soul into it.
I don’t claim to know all the art happenings, what’s in and what’s out. I don’t claim to be a mover and a shaker. Yeeze. I think a lot of that is bullshit anyway. But I do…have a finger on the pulse. I try, anyway, to keep my eyes open.
What it’s all about, anyway, is what’s happening for you, you, the painter, you, the artist, regardless of what anyone else is doing, regardless of what art movement (Are there any? Quick, raise your hand. Shall we start one?) is about. And what affects you is the general flow, the zeitgeist of the era.
Well, enough BS. Let’s get down to business. Answer the question. If you have any doubts as to what the question is, well, let me copy and paste. Here it is: What are the implications of the current age for the fine artist, specifically, for the painter? Okay - deep breath – here we go.
The fine artist, the visual artist, has always been about creating a vision. Yes, other artists are about this as well. Everyone has to have a vision, artist or not. The creative and powerful person has to have a vision. Sure. Have a vision for your business plan. The painter, however, is at the forefront with this aim, this goal, this raison d’etre. It would stand to reason, right? Visual artist, vision… Not simple play on words. The fine artist is about vision. He must see beyond the ordinary. Well, he must see in an extraordinary way, even when he paints ordinary things. That’s why he is a painter.
Okay, I think you are with me so far, and I hope you can agree. Painters bring us vision. They are, and must be, visionaries. Perhaps they see the future, perhaps not. What they really do: Create new ways of seeing. The artist generally, and the painter specifically, carves out the new ways of seeing. They have always done this, the best of them. Sometimes we could get with that. Other times it took awhile, and the artist did not profit. Anyway, so this question of what the current age holds for the painter, it is an important question. The painter must be asking himself, “What new way of seeing can I create?” This is the question he asks himself. And the changes are happening so fast these days, he is bound to wonder what it all adds up to for him and his quest for the new way of seeing. So it is an important question, one that must be answered.
Two forces - and they are not exactly the same – dominate the artist’s world today: virtual reality and digital information. Virtual reality is mostly visual. Digital information is mostly communicated in words. Therefore, it is auditory. Digital information is about meaning. Virtual reality is not about meaning. It is about how meaning and everything else can be distorted and manipulated and controlled and synthesized. Virtual reality is not about meaning. Digital information is. And, of the two, digital information is what dominates our world today. The ability to easily and inexpensively digitize content and easily and inexpensively flow it into the global community, making it accessible to anyone, is…well, beyond words. This is changing the world at lightening speed. Virtual reality is not far behind. Hmm. Just what is the role virtual reality plays in this? You would think the visual artist would want to know since virtual reality is more visual than it is anything else. Sure, we get excited about throwing all sensations into the pot and brewing a virtual stew that will knock your socks off. But let’s get back to the meat of this thing. Virtual plays with the eyes. What you see is what you get… Is it? What is it? It’s…whatever you make it. And there we are. Yes, even though digital information is the more powerful force – and I maintain the two are distinctly different, digital and virtual – virtual reality is what the visual artist is working with these days.
I’m going to take a leap and tell you what I think this means. Digital information is about meaning and language. Virtual reality is about vision. Virtual reality is about seeing in a new way. VR is synthetic information composed in a way that makes it easier to think in images. So, painter, you have the tool of virtual reality. What are you to do with it? What are we all to do with it? We are to create a vision. A vision of what? Of digital information, the force that is changing our reality. What I am saying: The painter of today must use VR (virtual reality) and DI (digital info) to create a vision of a new language, a new way of communicating. Where in the past the painter’s task was to create vision and a new way of seeing, now that task has changed – evolved. Vision has been digitized and is now about using vision to create a new language. This is what VR is all about. This is what the digitization of your visual information is all about. You are carving out a new way of communicating. You are carving out a vision of a new language, a language that will no doubt be global and immensely sophisticated, complex, and technologically savvy. Let’s hope you put some heart and soul into it.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Introduction to the Manual, part 1
This blog constitutes the creation of a manual for painting, which I will, when I have enough material, and it is comprehensive enough, title, An Alchemical Manual for Painting in the 21st Century. No doubt I will edit the material in the blog and thus condense it. What you get from reading the blog is you will see the creation of a great book in progress, for my expectation is that this will be a great book. It will also, as I plan it now, be a thick book. When the book is complete, will I leave up the blog? Probably not. I haven't decided, though. What you get from reading this material is not only the witnessing of the creation of a great book (okay, so I'm not modest.), but also, you get the book for free, part of it anyway, more and more of it as I continue writing it. Of course you get the unedited version, but I am feeling now that the subject goes well in a blog, and I will want to keep some of the blog flavor in the finished product, however I figure out to do that.
Unlike writing, painting is a medium that often keeps intact the underlying levels of the work. The lower levels peak out. Editing in a painting results simply from putting another layer of paint on. With words, and music as well, you take pieces out, reconstitute the work, and voila, it is entirely different, or different enough. Editing is rather a seamless activity. Not so with painting. You are as likely as not to see the editing marks. In this way, painting is exclusive in its freshness. More than any other medium, painting - and drawing and other similar fine art mediums - is fresh and spontaneous. Thus, it must be. Paintings must live. A dead painting is a painting that fails. The lack of life is immediately evident in a visual work, especially in a painting.
Thus, the blog flavor works well with this project, a project I have wanted to work on and produce for many, many years, by the way. I have had this title playing in my head for at least a decade, probably much longer. Only now am I beginning it. Why?
For many years I put my painting aside. The responsibilities of parenthood had something to do with that. I have made my bread and butter with sculpture. This is not the only reason I put the painting aside. In later entrees, I will say more. I have had a lot of pain around the painting, stemming not just from this life, but beyond it, if you believe in reincarnation. But I won't go into all that just now.
Now is the time to get back to it, and part of that endeavor is to begin writing about it. I love combining writing with painting. Often, in the past, when I would paint, I'd want to keep a notebook nearby. I'd have all sorts of ideas, many of them painting related. I expect the same to happen now that I'm getting back into painting. In fact, it's happening now. I'm fired up to write about painting. This is a direct response to the act of painting. Even though I haven't yet picked up a brush. But I'll tell you what I have been doing: I've been photographing the work, all the paintings I've produced over the years, and there are a lot of them. This act, the act of photographing the work, is about as exciting as actually painting. Why?
I have never taken an extensive inventory of my paintings. I had pretty much put the painting down - the reference to killing something could be construed as intentional here - years ago. I hadn't picked up a brush in God knows how long, too long. The Talking Heads song comes to mind. I'm painting again/Cleaning my brain. Yes, and when I've stopped and I come back, I feel like that: I'm painting again, cleaning my brain.
But I'm lucky. I get to paint. Most people do not. They don't believe they can do it, so they don't. Or, waiting for retirement. I hope I can convince my younger readers to start before that.
I suggest that the act of painting is a good thing for everyone. Set up an easel and get to it. You'll learn something, many things. I can yack on and on, and you'll learn nothing compared to what you can learn actually doing it - painting.
Be that as it may, you will learn something, a great many things reading this. And if you paint or will paint (hopefully, after you read and keep reading this), this blog will give you a tremendous set of tools and concepts that will help you achieve greatness in your paintings. I believe it, because I am essentially teaching you through this blog. It is as if you are with me every step of the way as I build onto my own work, my own oeuvre, which is already sprawling.
So, I am excited to photograph my paintings because I have needed for a long time to do that. Without going into it, just now anyways, I am finally acknowledging my painting. I am a good painter, possibly a great painter, though I have made my living as a sculptor. More than ever, I am now acknowledging that. I'm including my paintings on my web site. I will include a lot of other types of work as well, but that will all come after the paintings.
Aside from the healing I've done around painting, and aside from the excitement of coming to the work again, another reason exists for the thrill that normally accompanies painting, the thrill I feel in photographing my work. And I've got to say, digital has come a long way. (I hate those kind of rhymes. I do it all the time. It works in a song, but it doesn't work at all in prose, the blasted stuff. ) Young ones (I'm middle-aged, forty-five, which seems to me as middle as middle can get.) do not appreciate digital. It used to be, and not very long ago, you could not easily get a Canon Power Shot to photograph with fluorescents. Now you can and it looks good. A couple of years ago, $125 got me 4 mega pixels. Now that money gets me 6. Years ago, before the technology came along, photos cost a fortune, and you had to bend over backwards to get good lighting. Not so now, and it's getting easier and easier. You young ones can't possibly appreciate this. (I guess I sound old. I am.) I went to art school for film animation. I spent over a thousand dollars on my senior project, not to mention countless hours. With the software today, I could accomplish the same animation, or a similar one, for a few bucks and in a week. We've come a long way, baby.
What does this mean for the painter? It could mean different things to different painters. Is there some overarching principle, some guiding light (besides the soap opera) regarding how digital affects the painter? I'm thinking this is a theme to return to again and again in this blog. I'm not apt to come up with one answer, rather, many. But still, like Einstein and his unified Field theory, I'm looking for the overarching principle that will tie all observations and concepts together, so, with painting and the affect of digital.
So, let me go ahead and dive in here, as I for a second or two crack my proverbial knuckles, and literally do so as well because I had to remember what the word was for that action: The word is "crack" as in "crack your knuckles". Who came up with that one? I wonder.
Okay, so here goes, a working definition for how digital has affected and continues to affect and influence painting. Let me start with something that comes to mind as I prepare my definition or concept or whatever you want to call it.
What comes to mind is something I heard Peter Max say on a talk show. He said he thought that if Picasso were alive today, he'd be a media artist. In fact, Max was sure of it. Peter has comes up with gems. He really does. Decades ago, when Van Gogh's Sunflowers, I think the painting was, sold for what was then an incredible sum - thirty million? - Max said something else I thought was wonderful. We've heard it before. Possibly it was the way Max said it, or that he was saying it in a venue that would allow many to hear it. He said that the painting was a record of the artist's experience, and that what the viewer gets is a piece of the artist's experience in painting the picture. Sure. But Max put it succinctly and in a way we could all hear it and understand, or rather, through a medium, which was television, specifically, a news show.
Picasso would be a media artist... Max was almost sure of it. Or perhaps he was sure, as sure as anyone could be. Picasso, the giant, the king, or, at least, a king of painters. Picasso, the man who dominates MOMA. Which is kind of interesting. I have to give an aside here and recognize that Picasso quit his original last name of Ruiz - his father's last name - and take up his mother's last name, the maiden name of Picasso, the name that became mega famous. Interesting...that he dominates MOMA.
His father, who was an artist, is said to have quit painting, at a point when the son was young (those damn rhymes) and showed clearly his incredible ability as a draftsman and painter. The father is said to have handed his brushes over to Picasso. Here, take these. I won't need them anymore. A sad tale, I think, and one that does not, in a way, bode well for the master Picasso. One wants neither to have to stand in the father's shadow nor to have him stand in one's own. Shadows are not good things for sons and fathers. Yet they seem to be more existent than not. Oh well.
He would be a media artist... He did work in many other mediums besides painting. Regarding painting, he was more of a draftsman. Though, please, let us recognize he was a painter. He commented, though, that color robbed a picture of its power. This is not a word for word quote, but the general gist. Let us agree that someone who can draw immensely well has many mediums available to chose from in expressing self and mastery. A draftsman can probably sculpt. He can paint. He can of course draw, and do all that are obviously related to that skill - illustration, graphics, cartooning... He can probably make a film. He can produce drawn animation, and probably the other types of animation as well, and the virtual stuff. And speaking of virtual, which is the subject of the day and of this blog entry (however meandering I come to it), someone who can draw has a lot of ability to communicate through virtual mediums. He cannot necessarily write, which is I think the heart of this digital, information age. But he can do virtual. The Image is a close second to The Word. Actually, for us, in virtual, it is not just The Image, it is the moving image, or the image with bells and whistles, the image that has a behavior, to use web building terminology. The image with an attitude. Someone who can draw has the ability to manipulate this attitudinal image, this image with attitude.
Unlike writing, painting is a medium that often keeps intact the underlying levels of the work. The lower levels peak out. Editing in a painting results simply from putting another layer of paint on. With words, and music as well, you take pieces out, reconstitute the work, and voila, it is entirely different, or different enough. Editing is rather a seamless activity. Not so with painting. You are as likely as not to see the editing marks. In this way, painting is exclusive in its freshness. More than any other medium, painting - and drawing and other similar fine art mediums - is fresh and spontaneous. Thus, it must be. Paintings must live. A dead painting is a painting that fails. The lack of life is immediately evident in a visual work, especially in a painting.
Thus, the blog flavor works well with this project, a project I have wanted to work on and produce for many, many years, by the way. I have had this title playing in my head for at least a decade, probably much longer. Only now am I beginning it. Why?
For many years I put my painting aside. The responsibilities of parenthood had something to do with that. I have made my bread and butter with sculpture. This is not the only reason I put the painting aside. In later entrees, I will say more. I have had a lot of pain around the painting, stemming not just from this life, but beyond it, if you believe in reincarnation. But I won't go into all that just now.
Now is the time to get back to it, and part of that endeavor is to begin writing about it. I love combining writing with painting. Often, in the past, when I would paint, I'd want to keep a notebook nearby. I'd have all sorts of ideas, many of them painting related. I expect the same to happen now that I'm getting back into painting. In fact, it's happening now. I'm fired up to write about painting. This is a direct response to the act of painting. Even though I haven't yet picked up a brush. But I'll tell you what I have been doing: I've been photographing the work, all the paintings I've produced over the years, and there are a lot of them. This act, the act of photographing the work, is about as exciting as actually painting. Why?
I have never taken an extensive inventory of my paintings. I had pretty much put the painting down - the reference to killing something could be construed as intentional here - years ago. I hadn't picked up a brush in God knows how long, too long. The Talking Heads song comes to mind. I'm painting again/Cleaning my brain. Yes, and when I've stopped and I come back, I feel like that: I'm painting again, cleaning my brain.
But I'm lucky. I get to paint. Most people do not. They don't believe they can do it, so they don't. Or, waiting for retirement. I hope I can convince my younger readers to start before that.
I suggest that the act of painting is a good thing for everyone. Set up an easel and get to it. You'll learn something, many things. I can yack on and on, and you'll learn nothing compared to what you can learn actually doing it - painting.
Be that as it may, you will learn something, a great many things reading this. And if you paint or will paint (hopefully, after you read and keep reading this), this blog will give you a tremendous set of tools and concepts that will help you achieve greatness in your paintings. I believe it, because I am essentially teaching you through this blog. It is as if you are with me every step of the way as I build onto my own work, my own oeuvre, which is already sprawling.
So, I am excited to photograph my paintings because I have needed for a long time to do that. Without going into it, just now anyways, I am finally acknowledging my painting. I am a good painter, possibly a great painter, though I have made my living as a sculptor. More than ever, I am now acknowledging that. I'm including my paintings on my web site. I will include a lot of other types of work as well, but that will all come after the paintings.
Aside from the healing I've done around painting, and aside from the excitement of coming to the work again, another reason exists for the thrill that normally accompanies painting, the thrill I feel in photographing my work. And I've got to say, digital has come a long way. (I hate those kind of rhymes. I do it all the time. It works in a song, but it doesn't work at all in prose, the blasted stuff. ) Young ones (I'm middle-aged, forty-five, which seems to me as middle as middle can get.) do not appreciate digital. It used to be, and not very long ago, you could not easily get a Canon Power Shot to photograph with fluorescents. Now you can and it looks good. A couple of years ago, $125 got me 4 mega pixels. Now that money gets me 6. Years ago, before the technology came along, photos cost a fortune, and you had to bend over backwards to get good lighting. Not so now, and it's getting easier and easier. You young ones can't possibly appreciate this. (I guess I sound old. I am.) I went to art school for film animation. I spent over a thousand dollars on my senior project, not to mention countless hours. With the software today, I could accomplish the same animation, or a similar one, for a few bucks and in a week. We've come a long way, baby.
What does this mean for the painter? It could mean different things to different painters. Is there some overarching principle, some guiding light (besides the soap opera) regarding how digital affects the painter? I'm thinking this is a theme to return to again and again in this blog. I'm not apt to come up with one answer, rather, many. But still, like Einstein and his unified Field theory, I'm looking for the overarching principle that will tie all observations and concepts together, so, with painting and the affect of digital.
So, let me go ahead and dive in here, as I for a second or two crack my proverbial knuckles, and literally do so as well because I had to remember what the word was for that action: The word is "crack" as in "crack your knuckles". Who came up with that one? I wonder.
Okay, so here goes, a working definition for how digital has affected and continues to affect and influence painting. Let me start with something that comes to mind as I prepare my definition or concept or whatever you want to call it.
What comes to mind is something I heard Peter Max say on a talk show. He said he thought that if Picasso were alive today, he'd be a media artist. In fact, Max was sure of it. Peter has comes up with gems. He really does. Decades ago, when Van Gogh's Sunflowers, I think the painting was, sold for what was then an incredible sum - thirty million? - Max said something else I thought was wonderful. We've heard it before. Possibly it was the way Max said it, or that he was saying it in a venue that would allow many to hear it. He said that the painting was a record of the artist's experience, and that what the viewer gets is a piece of the artist's experience in painting the picture. Sure. But Max put it succinctly and in a way we could all hear it and understand, or rather, through a medium, which was television, specifically, a news show.
Picasso would be a media artist... Max was almost sure of it. Or perhaps he was sure, as sure as anyone could be. Picasso, the giant, the king, or, at least, a king of painters. Picasso, the man who dominates MOMA. Which is kind of interesting. I have to give an aside here and recognize that Picasso quit his original last name of Ruiz - his father's last name - and take up his mother's last name, the maiden name of Picasso, the name that became mega famous. Interesting...that he dominates MOMA.
His father, who was an artist, is said to have quit painting, at a point when the son was young (those damn rhymes) and showed clearly his incredible ability as a draftsman and painter. The father is said to have handed his brushes over to Picasso. Here, take these. I won't need them anymore. A sad tale, I think, and one that does not, in a way, bode well for the master Picasso. One wants neither to have to stand in the father's shadow nor to have him stand in one's own. Shadows are not good things for sons and fathers. Yet they seem to be more existent than not. Oh well.
He would be a media artist... He did work in many other mediums besides painting. Regarding painting, he was more of a draftsman. Though, please, let us recognize he was a painter. He commented, though, that color robbed a picture of its power. This is not a word for word quote, but the general gist. Let us agree that someone who can draw immensely well has many mediums available to chose from in expressing self and mastery. A draftsman can probably sculpt. He can paint. He can of course draw, and do all that are obviously related to that skill - illustration, graphics, cartooning... He can probably make a film. He can produce drawn animation, and probably the other types of animation as well, and the virtual stuff. And speaking of virtual, which is the subject of the day and of this blog entry (however meandering I come to it), someone who can draw has a lot of ability to communicate through virtual mediums. He cannot necessarily write, which is I think the heart of this digital, information age. But he can do virtual. The Image is a close second to The Word. Actually, for us, in virtual, it is not just The Image, it is the moving image, or the image with bells and whistles, the image that has a behavior, to use web building terminology. The image with an attitude. Someone who can draw has the ability to manipulate this attitudinal image, this image with attitude.
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