What's New

which curve?

digital art - 2 Much 2 Control - Dan Beck 2008

When I wrote about this digital painting before - I focused on the process and the secondary success not conceived of with the original goal in mind.  There are always secondary gains or successes which were not intended - just as in life.

I like to think that my work is innovative art - that I am always pushing the limits of the medium or my own limits - the limits of my audience which of course includes myself.  If I am doing my job correctly, I will not necessarily appreciate some of the things I do right away… a strange paradox really.

All art comes from somewhere else - all music, all dance, all theatre etc. is not created in a vacuum, but is built upon what is already found elsewhere in culture.  A term I have come to appreciate more than even originality or innovation is authenticity - whether the art is authentic or genuine - coming from the place of being done because it has to be - where appreciation and regard are not a thoughtful consideration.

Innovative - I think, is more about being ahead of the curve …

See Also

• Shape of Something New - a previous departure from the art I was doing at the time - but a road I didn’t travel down - and one which seemed too familiar and previously traveled by others - but a piece I like nonetheless
• Ahead of the Curve - this article takes the curve for granted - career with money
• Ahead of the Curve - clips from university musicians - some authentic - some cloning … obviously originality and innovation are difficult to measure - work that is too different has always been poorly received

observing the flow

Kitties - digital art - painting - Dan Beck 2003

Over the weekend, we held a giant yard sale in which I sold a few experimentally framed and matted pieces along with every other odd and ends thing under the sun. This particular piece was one I sold.

I have been too busy trying to move to be able to blog, but thought I could take a few minutes today - to share this piece. This digital painting was and is about pushing the limits.

I didn’t even know I could paint cats on the computer when I tackled this piece. Perspective was not as much of a concern as making the cats look cat like.

Even to this day, one of the things I actually like is that the medium is still not completely under my control. There are both happy accidents as well as a rather loose control over much of the ways I impart color and form. I can do things I couldn’t do with conventional paint and brush, but my control is not nearly as developed.

The skill is more about learning how to observe and duplicate playing with the medium. The freedom to let go and make mistakes is also the freedom to control the uncontrollable.

See Also

• Kitties - availability of original prints for the above digital art painting
  
• Slow Leadership: Getting comfortable with control - related by the notion of controlling the uncontrollable - seemed like sound advice though not so much about what I was referring - learning through observation

pushing the limits of matting and printing

Irrigation Man - digital painting / original prints - Dan Beck 2006

In the spirit of original - I have printed a version of this which framed is going to be 4ft by 5ft. At that size, it looks even more like pointillism than this detail .

Crazy me - I found a frame that size and knew I needed something that would look even enough in such dimensions and exciting that big. Despite knowing that the largest oversized matboard I could get measures 40 x 60in - 8 inches too small - I suspended my knowledge and had the image printed anyway.

Well - truth is I was pretty annoyed with myself because the best patch job would still look like a patch job. The enormity of the original print overshadows the seemliness of the pieced together matting but the challenge has also overshadowed any blogging this week.

In any event, this giant print is not just an original art print, but probably a one of a kind - it is more than I want to wrestle with ever again - too big for my workspace and just barely fitting in my wagon.

See Also

• Original Art - discussion of varied meanings and in particular at Outhouse Studios
• looking for oversized matt board - The Picture Framers Grumble - apparently there are larger matboards out there - but I was not aware and don’t have a source for buying them at this time.
• WebMuseum: Seurat, Georges - more information about pointillism and the artist credited with its beginnings