Some
digital artists get wrapped up in the technology of huge gigabit images and all
of the equipment necessary just to get them into the computer and then out onto
paper. That’s not for me. That
takes the creativity and spontaneity out of the process. Even though a computer
is involved, I still feel the need to “paint”. I need to have some immediacy
of interaction between the image on the screen and me.
Because
I am a technologist, and have been working with computers all of my life, I feel
that computers should be more than just calculating machines, or even multimedia
Internet cruisers. Although I have designed many computer applications, and even
networks of computer applications, I
usually try to keep the technology hidden. In my world, complete mastery of my
tools is my ability to take a slightly souped-up
“ordinary “ desk top computer and turn it into a virtual set of
artist’s palettes and tools that can create extraordinary art.
I have always loved Stella, Lichtenstein, Dali, Picasso, Kadinsky, and Bosch. I often wonder what they would do if they were able to “do their thing”, with a computer. However, I would never try to paint like any of them. The masks and faces that I have created are definitely influenced by African and, Native North American cultures.
However,
I always just try to “do my thing” and be more me.
I
try to create “real” art, whatever that is, rather than something blatantly
digital. Sometimes that may appear to be a “useless abstraction” other times
it may be a stroke of genius that I’ve happened upon. There are other times
however, when blatantly digital is exactly what I want to do. Most importantly,
I always try to exceed all limits; color limits, size limits, abstraction
limits, as well as, the limits of the viewer’s imagination.
I also try to exceed the limits of what African American Art is expected to be.
I know that in the early days and even up to now, whole schools of artists studied painting for years just to chronicle day to day life, or the changes of nature. Others concentrate on still images of food or other “things”. Many still do. I have never even thought of doing this on any sort of regular basis.
I
think Cameras are for that.
Painting
has been my life long passion, driving me to create new work continuously – no
matter what else I may be doing. My subjects for paintings just keep popping out
of my head. I do, occasionally,
have “pseudo-realism” type moments, but thankfully, they go away quickly. I’m
a fantasy painter. I have now created over three hundred images and I have tried
to make ALL of them fantasies of some sort.
Even when I become representational, the fantasy shines through. If I paint a fish, I definitely do not want it to look too much like a real fish, or my fantasy has been blown. A black and white cow may have to be pink and yellow to satisfy my vision and it probably wont look very much like a cow anyway by the time I get through. I have to do it that way. I CAN’T HELP MYSELF. GOD is speaking to me when I paint. The spirits of my ancestors also speak to me and guide my pen. Sometimes this happens all at once, sometimes over several weeks.