Artist's Statement And Goals
Artist's Statement And Goals
Communicating to the viewer an awareness of the fragility of the rain forest and its wide variety of plants and animals in this environment is essential in my work. The motivation for these works of art comes from my personal experiences in the rainforests of Costa Rica and research about rainforests around the world. My painting goals are to create a painting technique where I combine the airbrushed images with the paintbrushed images for a striking realistic effect in a unique format. This format contains small animals which are enlarged on a scale not normally available to the viewer.
The paintings begin with a drawing which serves as the base for the painted images. Clear polymer is placed over the drawing to prevent smearing of the pencil marks. Freehand airbrush creates a blurred effect in the backgrounds of the subject matter depicted in multiple views. Each fragment is then hand painted to emulate patterns of texture and light. Airbrush is used to model the edges to give a more realistic effect on the images. My paintings are, in this way, made up of layers of airbrush and paintbrush, with paintbrush marks becoming the dominant technique in the piece.
These paintings are now evolving into more abstract canvases that still retain their representational qualities, yet contain abstract painterly qualities that take on a life of their own. I have created more abstract, painterly textures with dots of light in the more recent works in the Costa Rica Series. Borrowing from Cubist attitudes, I created multiple views of the same subject at different levels of magnification to give the viewer a wide variety of visual surface qualities to explore. I have also incorporated the use of drop shadows behind the fragments for added depth and dimension. The newer paintings force the viewer to look more closely to determine the subject matter which consists of very close up abstractions of realistic images from nature.
I am now working on a series titled the Computer Bug Series, where I have incorporated my passion for nature and technology into painting. Using photos of butterflies, insects, real computer chips and parts as a visual reference, these paintings are highly patterned backgrounds of motherboards, circuits, and various computer parts. The computer parts are hand painted and then airbrush is used to soften the hard edges and give a glow to the connecting patterns of line and shapes. Images of insects are placed on this highly patterned background and shadowed to give a three dimensional effect. The bugs themselves are manipulated by drawing computer parts onto the insects to make them appear humorously surreal. The relationship between nature, art and technology dominates the theme of the series. My technique is a direct response to my inspiration and enthusiasm for technology and nature. Marsden Hartley once said, ÒI am satisfied that painting also is like nature, an intellectual idea, and that the laws of nature as presented to the mind through the eyeÐand the eye is the painterÕs first and last vehicleÐare the means of transport to the real mode of thought: the only legitimate source of aesthetic experience for the intelligent painter.Ó My paintings introduce the viewer to new relationships between technology and nature and how essential they are to each other for coexistence.
Bringing my handmade paintings into the electronic arena is another aspect of my work, using Adobe Photoshop, RayDream Studio 5, Macromedia Freehand, and KPT Bryce. The images made with the 3D and 2D drawing and painting software are a way of mapping my paintings onto 3D digitalized models as a surface texture. With the computer, I am able to create complex scenes with natural forms and textures. My paintings are scanned and then mapped onto the 3D forms enabling me to print them at a service bureau or distribute them on the World Wide Web. The creation of a commercial web site that hosts my paintings and limited edition prints is a way of bringing the art to a wider audience. This site is at:
or my 3D world at:
http://www.vcu.edu/artweb/PAP/mis/obermey/ed3d.htm
The combination of computers and painting enables me to create original works of art that express my views about nature and technology. The impact of modern computer technology on my painting has helped shape and form a new type of communication between the viewer and the world. In the past, artists had to master the technological problems of oil paint and perspective. Today, I try to master the same technological challenges with paint and perspective, but have also added the computer to this problem-solving situation in order to interpret what I see in nature onto canvas. For me, the creation of a painting is the first step in the process. This satisfies my need to create an Òart objectÓ by hand, which is somewhat old fashioned according to todayÕs standards of visual expression in the electronic digital age. My multilayered, complex and fragmented paintings reflect the multiple disciplines of painting and computer digitalized imagery. Through this process, I can supply galleries and museums with valuable art objects (paintings) and with images (electronic digital paintings). ÒAdditionally, the artists of the future must be critically sophisticated and have an appreciation for the impact of electronic culture on their concepts of audience and community.Ó I have managed to keep the tools and products of my painting in a material place, yet have also created an electronic place where they are no longer physical objects and can be manipulated by myself and others and shared with a much wider audience. My paintings Òcan now be searched, extracted, added to, and commented upon by anyone with the interest to pursue it.Ó