Adventures of a digital painter
   For a quarter of a century I did not paint with oil, on canvas, with brushes, etc... I defied the desire to create hard copies, and firmly believed that the only representation of art that does not commit a crime on the environment, would be almost immaterial electrons, lighting up a screen.
   Then, lately, I realized how much fun it was to touch things, to create real objects with my hands. So I started painting again. I still use the computer to design complex fractal structures, but after printing the design on canvas, I paint with oil and acrylics to add all the subtleties that a print can't provide. Now I have a house full of paintings and came across this text:
“Don't you know about No Hands art and De-skilled art?”
Tom Wolfe on the Art Basel Miami in his latest novel “Back to Blood”.
     A.A.(the Art Advisor) said, “No cutting-edge artist touches materials anymore, or instruments.”
     “What do you mean, instruments, A.A.?” said Fleischmann.
     “Oh, you know,” she said, “paintbrushes, clay, shaping knives, chisels...all that's from the Manual Age.  Remember painting?  That seems so 1950's now.  Remember Schnabel and Fischl and Salle and all that bunch?  They all seem so 1950s now, even though their 15 minutes came in the 1970s.  The new artists, like Doggs, look at all those people like they're from another century, which they were, when you get right down to it.  They were still using their hands to do little visual tricks on canvas that were either pretty and pleasant and pleased people or ugly and baffling and 'challenged' people. Challenged...Ohmygod-- “She broke into a smile and shook her head, as if to say, “Can you believe the way it used to be?!”

   Now, should I throw away my expensive brushes, the Dammar-Varnish, the turpentine? I just got used to the pleasant smell of linseed oil...?  Of course I know that Warhol or Koons created by just supervising the production – but so did Rubens and Rembrandt.
   And so do I! Except, I don't have to hire wage-slaves to do the tedious, boring stuff -- I have a few computers to do that. They don't complain, they have infinite patience, but they do like to crash at times. Primadonnas!
   So I will not stop painting.  
   The paintings don't care how they come into existence and art fractal will have to stand on it's own mysterious, fractal feet...
   And they are all for sale – I need room for more – I'm on a roll!
January in Culver City,