Journal
Practice & process notes
Occasional writing on my art practice, techniques, process, and the ideas behind the work.
2 articles on digital art
July 12, 2021
Art & Life 3: Self Love/Self Harm
"Self Love/Self Harm", digital (Procreate on Ipad Pro), 2021 Although May every year is mental health awareness month, like many others I believe that every month, week, or day of the year needs to be considered a mental health awareness time. I started thinking about this topic, and then this digital drawing I made a few years ago, when I noticed a grocery store employee recently with some of the thickest self harm scars I’ve ever seen, covering both arms. As someone who’s struggled with self harm at times in life I’d like to think I get it, and I tried to psychically project understanding and compassion. Honestly though I think scars look cool and badass and I’m glad Laura at the grocery store is confident and non-stigmatized enough to rock her personal journey in full view. And anyway my perhaps controversial view on self harm is that it isn’t necessarily all bad in all scenarios—it serves a helpful purpose when other alternatives may not exist or would be even worse, and there’s a real fuzzy line between the accepted forms of self harm in society (tattoos, piercings, getting drunk, etc) and the often stigmatized forms like cutting. Of course context determines a lot, and in a perfect scenario you’d want to avoid emotionally-based self harm ever being an option or an urge, but having personal experience with those mind states, I see it all on a spectrum without judgement. The human mind will find a way to make it through a situation any way it can, and that’s one of our species’ most beautiful attributes. This image was originally posted to my Instagram feed, but was removed for violating community guidelines. Understandably, its content could be a trigger for some, and presumably someone reported it, or the AI censor bots caught it, due to the depiction of blade cutting skin. However, possible triggers aside, the intent of the piece and of the post was only positive, and in evidence of that intent were the half dozen or so heartwarming, inspiring stories of personal strength and perseverance through mental struggles and self-harm that various followers shared in the post comments...moments of beautiful honesty and vulnerability which are sadly now lost forever. Since this image inspired a bunch of people to reach out and share those uplifting anecdotes, I resolved to re-post it here on my own censorship-free blog. I invite any comments or stories related to overcoming mental health struggles or coping with self harm urges. De-stigmatizing difficult topics, facing our triggers in order to work through them, and compassion for self and others are the ways to healing and growth!
Read →
January 31, 2012
Photo/Digital Manipulation
I’ve always been just as in love with photography as I am with painting. Because I paint in a highly realistic style, they’re two disciplines that go hand in hand in supporting my overall aesthetic and conceptual goals. Photography is arguably the most convincing lie of the visual arts. It intersects with cultural conditioning and social norms in a way that I find intriguing and inspiring. What I mean is, as 20th and 21st century human beings, we’ve been more or less culturally and socially trained to accept the photograph as a factual–even scientific–representation of physical reality, due to its ubiquitous use and massive omnipresence throughout our entire lives. This belief, which can approach the level of faith, presents an irresistable opportunity for manipulation of perception by illusionists and countercultural provocateurs such as myself. Long having been an artistic obsession of mine–to subvert the audience’s assumptions and paradigms–the advent of Photoshop was a digital godsend. I’ve spent years honing my craft of button-pushing and mouse-clicking in order to take my illusions one step further into disorienting believability. Whether the end result is a reference image for a painting, or a finished piece of art in its own right, the aesthetic I attempt to achieve is the same. This is how the two mediums work in concert for my overall artistic advancement. This practice of “wanting-to-be-believable” manipulation to the visual field is also quite important to my conceptual mission as an artist: to inspire the viewer to question everything, to dig deeply behind the limiting surface appearance of not only reality, but their own selves, to take nothing for granted. In this way, I hope to make my art the embodiment of one of my favorite quotes: “Art is the lie that tells the truth.” –Pablo Picasso Here’s my latest experiment combining photography and digital manipulation: "Glass & Dust", photo/digital, 2012 And a few other favorites from recent years: "Call It A Day", photo/digital, 2010 "Archetype", photo/digital, 2009 "Capsized", photo/digital, 2008
Read →