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Remnants of the Soul
18" x 18"
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Artist Statement: One of the delights - rather the seduction - of working an artist in the 21st century is using digital
technologies (that continue to become more sophisticated). I think, no I know, that I am participating in an
authentic revolution. Before the revolution, I received my Master of Arts in experimental printmaking,
specializing in 3D intaglio prints, photography, and very early computer graphics. Since 1983 I have been
working with the computer and creating digital art.
The basis of my work is in using combinations and permutations of 'throw-away' corrugated cardboard
boxes and their inner divider elements. Now, however, instead of drawing the image on a zinc plate, I am
utilizing electronic techniques to scan in an image (my own sculptures, photographs or prints) using a
digital video recorder or digital camera.
Using digital images seem to be a natural evolution of the methods that printmakers have been utilizing for
centuries - layering. I take my intaglio prints, ghost prints and monoprints and then transform them by
adding or compositing portions of a new digital image to them. These new digital methods are an exciting
addition to the print vocabulary. I can print on a canvas, hand-made paper, transparent media, silk, metal
and then I can transfer images through a heat method ---- on and on and on. I end up with paintings on
canvas or handmade paper using large format printers. To these new creations, I add handwork of
encaustic, gold leaf and metal
I admit that there seems to be a little cognitive dissonance (and I like that dissonance) in my use of high
tech software and hardware to depict urban detritus -- the 'throw-aways', the 'quickly disposable' - and
the 'tacky'. In my hands, the digitally assisted and reworked images of corrugated cardboard boxes,
dividers and crates become an illusion to another world or universe. I am inventing a new world, new
landmarks to point to the familiar but un-acknowledged. I give visual clues of a dilapidated apartment
house, the slums along the border, or the foretelling of a 'blade runner' future for Los Angeles in the 22nd
century. I depict alternative universes. The creation of these new universes is a symbol of my search for
time without end or perhaps life to be continued --------- somewhere else.
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