ABSTRACT ARTIST
DIGITAL ARTIST
MIXED MEDIA
PHOTOGRAPHY

Stan with "F-Stop" shaped canvas.

Also see Stan's
GICLEE PRINTING
business.

Stan has been making Giclee Prints of stunning appearance for artists and others for over 6 years. He is a perfectionist in search of the highest quality art prints. The premise of his Giclee printing business is:

"HIGH QUALITY ART PRINTS
FOR ARTISTS,  BY AN ARTIST"

"When I make Giclee prints for myself I am extremely exacting, seeking to create the best quality print that I can. And when I make Giclee prints for others I bring the exact same meticulous attention to color and detail as if these were prints for myself. I just cannot imagine doing it differently.

Stan printing 11 color print on
canvas for Ithaca, NY abstract artist Lynne Taetzsch.
Click HERE to visit her web site.

COMMENTARY
by Stan

PAINTING WITH PIXELS

At various times in my career as an artist I did a lot of painting using oils, acrylics, brushes, rollers, sponges, squeeze bottles, etc. You name it and I probably used it. The thing for me was that I really felt like I was doing something, holding and moving a brush, squeezing paint from a tube, smearing the paint over other paint. It was an action process for me and I could either move and apply paint quickly and expressively, or I could go slowly and methodically, layering paint very carefully. One way or another I would end up feeling and acting like a painter, using my body to do the action of painting. And usually it felt good to do this action, and even better if I ended up with something that pleased me, and something that others admired.

But I have realized I am not a one dimensional artist, or perhaps I should say NOT a one media artist. In the mid 1980's I started getting involved with computers and exploring digital imaging. I had an immediate fascination as it was on one hand a new and unexplored territory for an artist, and on the other I sensed a connection with the leading edge of our time. This was a media of the present, but also seemed to offer a glimpse of our future.

Now many artists still have a tough time with the computer, both respecting and hating it. And many feel that it is not something they can make art with. It just does not feel ... "action" enough. Using the computer one cannot make "hand" made art, or should I say art that looks like we know that has been created by the hand. And maybe therein lies the problem. We have the whole history of western painting to show us what "hand painted" art looks like. We know how the hand can take a brush with paint and smear it on a canvas surface. As artists we think of that as "real painting". Digital is just not that.

So is there such a thing as "painting with pixels"? I would argue YES. But it may look and feel very different from the type of painting we have known before. It means that to understand and judge it we must develop a new set of criteria based upon a mixture of the basics of western art composition and content combined with the skills and knowledge of contemporary computer and software technology.

But the hand is still involved in this. Surprisingly, the computer just sits there and does nothing unless your hand does something to make something happen, like typing on a keyboard or moving a mouse. Yes this is different than holding a paint brush. But your skills, knowledge and sensibilities are just as challenged when painting with pixels as when painting with oils. And in the end it is the skills and inspiration of the artist that comes through, whether with pixels on a display screen or paint on canvas.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

The most interesting part of working digitally is that nothing ever stays the same. There is always something new coming along.

Just recently Adobe launched it's new Studio CS3 which includes the latest version of Photoshop. The first question one might ask is "is it worth the price of an upgrade", being as it is not particularly inexpensive. Well I have to say for myself, definitely yes. New features have been added that expand the range of what can be done with the software for creating images.

However when new software comes out it frequently means that a computer upgrade may also be necessary. New software features require new hardware power. I have an Apple G5 computer bought 4 years ago that still runs the new software, but more slowly. So a computer upgrade is in the near future for me.

So many artists will say "wait, I can't afford this", But really, my G5 cost over 4 years has been $900 per year. In comparison a 40ml tube of Holbein professional oil paint can cost $10-30 and good canvas from $7-25 per yard. I will be willing to guess many active artist painters spend more than $900 per year on materials. And sculptors creating large pieces, well, I won't even speculate on how much they spend per year.

It is just a question of what is most important to you as an artist which in turn determines where you spend your money. New technology is and will continue to be ever expanding, and carries with it costs for new software and equipment. But at the same time it brings the possibility of new visual expressions which is, after all, what artists are about, creating new visual encounters both for themselves and other viewers.