For me, art is a voyage of discovery. I am as surprised by the art I create as anyone else who views it. Though I constantly strive to improve my skills, I am much more interested in creating something new (and hopefully beautiful) under the sun than in craftsmanship. I feel that photography has superseded other forms of art when it comes to reproducing the external world -it is the interior landscape that I strive to explore and reveal.
BIO
Born in Paris, France in 1950. Moved to New York when I was 5 years old. From an early age, developed an (unhealthy? obsessive?) interest in fantasy, science fiction, surrealism and anything that was beautiful and mysterious. My parents called me "Jean de la Lune" because I was often distracted by things that they couldn't understand. Also had an aptitude for drawing from an early age, but never really pursued it seriously back then. Went away to college in 1967, at the time that the psychedelic zeitgeist was reaching critical mass & got swept up in the maelstrom. Ego disintegrated & a new one rose like a phoenix from the ashes. Began drawing & painting in a stream-of-consciousness mode, bypassing the rational mind. Fell in love, moved to Berkeley, California, and had a son. Took art classes (illustration, figure drawing, portraiture, color theory, etc.). In the late 70's, began playing with computers. Learned to program & wrote simple applications for generating visual patterns. Having no real aptitude for marketing my artwork, I instead embarked on a career in information technology, which lasted 22 years, at which time I quit (in May of 2003). My current incarnation as a digital artist began with the first release of Fractal Design Painter. I experienced a breakthrough with the first release of Bryce, which was the medium that enabled me to finally satisfy my creative impulses. I use many other supporting pieces of software (Amorphium, Poser, & several others), but they only provide me with input for Bryce. All of my images are rendered only in Bryce, with no post-processing at all. Each of them starts with a bare-bones idea or model or texture which I then attempt to allow to evolve in whatever direction "it" decides & which I have never been able to predict. I obsessively tweak shapes, colors, textures, & visual relationships until the image seems "right". If the final result is somewhat disturbing and disorienting, yet at the same time beautiful, then I have succeeded...
Comments (3)
zoren
as long as you challenge yourself, your intentions, and your own manifesto of creative vision, why do you need others to give you the answers?..... I believe a 'finished work of art', no matter the medium, should speak for itself to any viewer... I think the question is, what is criticism?
eyeland
I don't think there is an answer, just different points of view and modes of perception (which may or may not be biased in one direction or another). I just wanted to try to find out how others experience art & what critical filters they might apply. It won't change my approach to my own art or how I view others art - it's just something I have a curiosity about...
TwoPynts
In answer to your questions: 1. In my view, it is muddied, only because the original seemed clearer of purpose. There seems to be more randomness going on here than in the first version, and the central focus is no longer "as focused." 2. Yes, it probably would have been different, but still I find the image busy. 3. If is it is randomly generated by software, then it could loose some integrale value. If the effect is seemless and enhances the image, then I am all for it. 4. In THIS case, I would say an oil painting would be more impressive than a maniped photo, though I would still not find the subject matter of as much interest. I know you did not ask, but if it were me, I would have honed in on the mandala aspect of the blossom and cropped in tighter, allowing all other surrounding details to blur and fall away. I should not need to mention it, but obviously this is all just my view of things. If an image speaks to the artist in some way, then they should be happy with it.