Statements about my work

WHO DOES DIGITAL ART? HUMAN OR MACHINE?

Having worked in a number of media including most types of painting media, printing media, sculpture as well as sound and music, I would like to make some observations about digital art which is a medium I am now involved with for the purpose of creating fine art. There is a large amount of suspicion about computer generated art because some people mistakenly think that the computer is doing the art rather than the artist.

Although there are software programs that can make a picture it would be obvious to almost anyone that a human being had little involvement with the process assembled by software and computer. Still the notion persists that digital art is done by computers. It is not; it is done by artists using computers as very sophisticated and versatile art tool(s).

My view is that the computer coupled with software plus artist can be extremely diverse and powerful in terms of rapid change on a grand scale. The wide range of effects, colors and other broad changes in almost all aspects of an art work can be done faster and better on computers than by any other method I know. Entire color schemes can be changed into any color and sizes can be expanded or reduced to fit any format. What other medium can do size changes at any time in the creation, even at the very end to any aspect? Answer - none. What other medium acts as both an art tool and a storage bin for both finished and works in progress. NONE. I could spend some time going through the possibilities of changes possible but that would expand this short article beyond its scope.

Of course there is the nostalgic wishing for yesteryear and etchings, lithographs, woodblock prints, oil and watercolors but these mediums will not go away nor be replaced by digital art as these mediums are valued for what they are and what they represent. However, now that inkjet printing has developed to the point where pigmented inks are used on quality watercolor and other high end papers the door is now open for long lasting, archival, giclee (spray of ink) prints which will last as long if not longer than the other mentioned traditional printing techniques.

Currently, there is surge in new inkjet printers that can handle wide format and heavy duty paper using pigmented inks and it is developments like this that are of great interest to those of us working in fine, digital, art. Without these printer advancements digital art would have been limited to the monitor screen or slide show type presentations or the reproductions of images and forms originally created on the computer. I suspect that in time that large canvases of special materials may be painted with sprayed light
generated by computers.

In the minds of many the transition to accept these new forms of computer art will be slow but as with new mediums of the past it will be the artists who lead the way by what they do and how they do it. A computer with software is an extremely powerful brush and most artists that have experimented with the digital medium know what I am talking about. This is not to say that all computer generated art is high or great art because it isn't, but as with all art forms there will be those artists creating images that will speak strongly for art and the medium. As in the past the proof will be in the Art no matter what the medium as this is how art goes.

My recommendations are to open up your concepts about art so you can view and appreciate the cutting edge in fine art today. Digital art is the not only the creative wave of the future but is here now. If you do not think so point your web browser into a search for >>>digital art<<< and be sure to visit my galleries at my site listed below.

-Richard Waters - Multi Media Artist - year 2002 AD

I consider myself a multi media artist as I like working in 2, 3, and 4 dimensional art. My roots are in painting but I have genetic ties to metal working and a strong connection to sound and music. I have also been involved with bamboo for a number of years and it enters into my art. The Seven Graphic Series represented here were all created in about a 6 month period beginning in November of 2001. I attribute this surge of creativity to a lovely woman who had been the first romance in my youth when she was 16 and I was 19 years old. We reconnected some 46 years later in October of 2000 on email. Through an elongated series of email we rekindled our past interest in each other which surprised us both. There were a number of obstacles in our way so we both thought that we would not be together in this life. At that point it seemed to me the only way to be with this woman would be in future life times and other places. I created the "Future Date" series based on this kind of reincarnated, togetherness, thinking. During that period of time I came to recognize my romantic partner as also being my muse. As it turned out all of the obstacles blocking our coming together began moving aside until we saw the chance to develop our relationship. I was overjoyed at this new possibility and I created a large body of work of different types of graphics. At the same time I was writing poetry, and sending music, love letters, and these graphics you see here. I am extremely thankful and feel blessed for this inspiring woman to have entered into my life. She has had such a powerful, positive influence on my work and on me.

The 7 digital art galleries and the 2 watercolor galleries span all of my past styles and some. The “Future Date” series and the “Other World” series are new directions for me. Most of the other series relate to past styles of landscapes, waterscapes, cloudscapes, abstractions, mandalas and figurative works. The nine galleries presented here do cover a very wide range of my two dimensional work.

The watercolors in the East and West galleries are one of a kind while the digital art is offered as giclee prints in limited editions of 50. Giclee is currently the cutting edge of fine art print making (my opinion) and coupled with art using the computer as brush opens up the range of possibilities and creativity.

—Richard A Waters, August 2001