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My art influences and inspirations include my wife Liz, herself an award-winning artist (oils and pastels), Diego Rivera ─ and a period of legal blindness that lasted from 2003 to early 2005.
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| A six-decade love affair with photography and involvement with computers since 1980 dictated my medium, digital graphics, and the tools I use to pursue it. |
| My awareness of art as something more than holy pictures and calendars began when I visited the Detroit Museum of Art at age 13 and was stunned by the boldness and impact of Rivera’s murals. A year in Rome (1945-46) while in the Army exposed me to a treasure trove of classical art. I trained as a journalist and began a career as a writer, editor and photojournalist (which I still practice) in 1947, but art always lurked in the background. |
I pioneered in desktop publishing during the early 1980s, which quickly led me into computer graphics. The primitive hardware and software available then were limiting, but I could see huge potential. That potential has been realized, with emergence, and convergence, of computers and peripherals that offer excellent graphics capabilities, plus ever-advancing photographic technologies.
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| Legal Blindness |
| In 1988, macular degeneration destroyed focusing ability in my left eye, leaving me legally blind in that eye. In spring, 2003, vision in my right eye deteriorated rapidly to 600/20, three times the limit for legal blindness. I could still see to some extent but everything looked off-kilter. My photos appeared as abstracts, assuming interesting new shapes and perspectives. |
| Using a large monitor, very strong glasses and magnifying tools, I began experimenting with digital images. It was time-consuming, with a steep learning curve, but gradually some arresting results began to appear. |
An operation to remove a puckered pre-retinal membrane eventually restored much of my right eye vision, though it took almost a year. I still focus, however, on the world of digital abstracts that I discovered during that difficult time.
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| The Tools |
| With a monitor as my canvas and a mouse as my brush, I use various software tools to create digital art: Some pieces, especially those I call organic abstracts, are morphed from photographs into completely new abstract images that retain the colors, textures and often a suggestive relationship to the original. (Forest Chorus, originally a picture of a palm tree stump, is one such piece.) For this work, I use bitmap-based software like Photoshop, Photo Impact and more obscure special effects applications – including one I have tweaked myself. I also produce some images from scratch using these same tools. |
Other pieces, all done from scratch with vector-based programs (Corel Draw and Illustrator are favorites), suggest a Cubist influence due to their geometric nature. Crusader Robot is an example of this genre.
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| Goals & Realization |
| I try to produce work that challenges viewers, that evokes emotional responses, whether they be appreciation of beautiful imagery, disturbing inner visions or a déjà vu - like identification with some facet of a given piece. |
| Results are encouraging. I sold eight pieces during a three-month period in summer, 2005. I have collectors (two or more pieces) in Seattle, Northern California, the Central Coast and Michigan. My work is displayed regularly in a Morro Bay gallery, has been in both open and juried shows in the San Fernando and Conejo Valleys, the L.A. Center for Digital Art, Artists by The Sea (Redondo Beach) and now Topanga Canyon Art Gallery. |
| Life is good; life with art in it is even better! |
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