Thesis work has been in the works for sometime, although I don't think I will end up showing a key piece or two due to setup of the gallery and lack of time on my part. I don't really see this show as an end all, only the beginning, so that's ok. I have been working with technology since at least 1995 when I studied graphic communications at my high school and downloaded my first version of Photoshop. Actually, it was all an "accident" I never had an art class until my senior year of high school, and I had only transferred to Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School because the day before classes started in the 9th grade I had gone to the dentist and one of my best friends James was there. He told me that he was changing schools... So I asked my father if I could too, I didn't even know what a vocational school was. I remember being called down to the cafeteria to sign up for "shops"... later I learned that this meant that I only had to study "academics" every other week, but really it meant so much more. I changed shops three times while I was there, Electronics, Information Technology, and Graphic Communications.
Actually, I really hated commercial printing, I found it to be so boring at the time. Printing calendars and brochures was not fun at all, but luckily somehow I learned enough which transferred over to my Printmaking as an undergraduate at Rochester Institute of Technology. My first real experience with fine art printing was when I met Keith Howard and David Jay Reed, that changed everything. I miss those years because I used to do everything that you weren't supposed to do, when you're young and clueless you just don't know any better. I remember asking Keith if I could develop a photograph (photo paper) in the developer... which turned out to be "soda ash" and not photographic chemical. He looked at me and said he didn't know whether to laugh or not because he couldn't figure out if I was being serious.
The way I work has changed and evolved over the years but in general it starts with sketches/drawing that I redo in Photoshop or Illustrator. Using scanners, commercial printing techniques, and photographic processes... They all usually end up being mixed up together. I really do not see a difference between any of them and I never have. I've had this discussion a lot lately... it always ends up really abstracted and people telling me that this is not that or that is not this.
No comments:
Post a Comment