February 20th, 2008 by Dan Beck
seeing for the first time
Rooted Tree - digital art - finger painting - rendering from memory impression - Dan Beck 2008
There are trees like this at one of the places I frequent with my exercise craving dog - it took me a while to notice them.
But like with most things - once one finally sees something - one starts to see the same thing more frequently. Even though I am an artist and probably more observant than most, I am keenly aware of how much of life I miss, until I become finally aware.
Perception, attention, and understanding are all fascinating subjects - I paint from an impression - a memory - quite frequently - knowing that my understanding plays an even bigger role in what I project when painting.
The intention here is not fantasy, but fun and freedom to portray the essential double rooted nature of these trees on the hillside - blasting with my own color but attempting to convey
the beauty and oddness that strikes me and makes me smile when I see them.
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Relevant Tags:beck, composite nature, digital art, finger painting, intention, perception, trees
May 30th, 2007 by Dan Beck
originality and sameness
Three Way Figure 1 - original digital painting -Dan Beck 2007
Once again I shall try to defy the common sense meanings of original art and continue to demonstrate that there is more to original than one might originally think.
The above piece is one of three digital paintings. Each started with a very similar background - but I chose to fill in the emptiness in three different ways - deciding that all three were good and I would treat each piece fairly differently from there.
The figure is also mostly the same in each digital painting - but differs slightly in how I chose to fix some problems with the original figure and how I chose to embellish.
Each of of these three pieces is original - digital - intentionally much the same - but each of the prints is an original print.
Therefore - even in its sameness - it is all original - but then again - I think it is!
See Also
- What Makes a Print Original? - I think this is fairly in line with my understanding and use of the terms
- What is an Original Print? - this explanation is more designed to differentiate from individually done mono prints from other types of original - etchings, lithographs, and in my case - pigment prints from original digital paintings
- Digital Painting - additional info about the process and intention by artist Dan Beck and Outhouse Studios
Relevant Tags:beck, digital painting, digital paintings, intention, original art, original digital, original prints, pigment
August 31st, 2006 by admin
balancing impression and intention with work itself
Field Flat - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006
For me art is a give and take process. I had seen a strawberry picker in a similar posture - holding an empty flat and I wanted to capture that impression.
I created a backdrop - a non-specific but nevertheless somewhat accurate view of the Salinas Valley.
When I started I was expecting a larger figure and less background - but the painting pushed me in certain directions.
I may very well approach this theme again - to create something more iconic - but I actually find this image very pleasing and enjoy looking at it. I like the way my eye travels down to the other field worker and how it feels like the man holding the flat is on the verge of, if not already, moving down to join him.
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Relevant Tags:Art Prints, creating art, digital painting, impression, intention, Salinas Valley, strawberry picker
September 19th, 2005 by admin
Intention, Artistic Process, Improvisation, & Learning
There are two levels in which we generally talk about the creative process. The first has to do with intentionality - the dialogue of the time or intent prior to doing the work. When one approaches a work, one is bringing in to play that which he has seen and experienced before.
In particular art movements, such as, abstract expressionism, the artists were not only talking with each other but to the art which had come before. The New Nation writes: "In a famous letter to the New York Times (June 1943), Gottlieb and Rothko, with the assistance of Newman, wrote: ‘To us, art is an adventure into an unknown world of the imagination which is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense. There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is critical.’ "
The point is that having an idea of what one is going to create or at the least a starting point, is essential to the creative process and along with perhaps inspiration is the starting point of creating.
The second aspect of the creative process is the work itself. Since creating is ongoing - it is the process which is what is most important. From my own perspective, it is about being in the flow, not letting oneself get bogged down or stuck, feeling a rhythm and not getting caught in fear of making a mistake. Most errors can be fixed, but stopping will cement them.
In a quote from the Albuquerque Tribune: Visual Arts, the artist creating a lifesize stonehenge of old refrigerators says, "I’ve learned to embrace the process. The process can be more revealing than the completion." The Billings Gazette describes the work of a glass artist and says: "From blank glass to finished work, the process is all-consuming. Burton begins each new piece with a vision." In the Arizona Daily Wildcat, there is a story about an artist who creates sculpture out of books - she is attributed as saying, The artistic process forces you to question yourself, while also learning new things about yourself. And The New Nation writes about the abstract expressionists: "These artists’s valued spontaneity and improvisation, and they accorded the highest importance to process."
It is the journey not the destination - I am obviously not the only one who views the creative process this way - but then like all of us, I am part of a long tradition of different culture, art, and the same shared human race.
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Relevant Tags:abstract expressionism, art, artistic, creative, creative process, intention, learning
