DON'T BE BORING -- BE DIGITAL

Technology and visual art have always had a fruitful if troubled relationship. Photography was an early crisis for painters, since many painters made a living painting realistic portraits. Cameras could do it better, easier, and faster. This helped push painters to new levels and gave rise to impressionism, cubism, and many other developments in what was called modern art.

However, with the aid of the computer, non-painters can produce many of the images that we like to call modern art. Example 1, Palm Art, in the next section is such an example. This was produced digitally with the Photoshop program. With appropriate printing ink texture will make it look like it was painted. This image has been very popular in my store, felicianofineimages found on cafepress.com/jimfeliciano.

Digital art can be classified into three broad categories (my own interpretation here). First, there is art that is totally created on a computer without aid from any other source. Example number 2, Blue Optical, is such an example. There is a small optical illusion. Photoshop created the algorithm that created the art. I just manipulated the data that was used by the program. This design has not only been popular at my cafe press store but is featured in several online galleries.

The second broad category is an image that began as a photograph but was turned into computer art. Example number 3, My Grafitti Future, is an excellent illustration. This began as a photograph, but the picture was rather bland and didn't express why I took this dramatic and artistic couple walking from me and into a sunset. By turning this into a digital art image, I expressed why I took the picture. Once again, you can enjoy this image on products that carry this image at my cafepress store. I developed the basic picture and used the tools and filters in photoshop to bring you this image.

Lastly, the digital camera itself is a computer. Bet you didn't think about that. The image is not translated onto film to be developed chemically like with traditional cameras. Instead, binary data is generated that your computer reads to translate into color. The image actually consists of little pixels, dots. The pixels are so close together that it fools our eyes and we fill in the gaps. Example number 4, Road Rage, looks like a picture but was taken with a digital camera.

Lastly, there is a growing collaboration between traditional photography and digital manipulation. Example number 5, Taos at Night, is such an example. The picture was taken of part of Taos Pueblo. In order to capture the feeling of the dark night away from a major city, I knocked out the sky and substituted a pure black layer. The printing was digital. Of course, no sky is really that dark. Digital manipulation plus a realistic image combined to say what I really wanted to say.

So get on your computers and get out your paint program. Enjoy. If you have any free time, feel free to visit my shop at http://www.cafepress.com/jimfeliciano.