The first study in a new series exploring the relationship (and experimental synthesis) between analogue and digital, tangible and virtual, old and modern, real and fantasy.

Hermitage Veterinary Hospital offers a variety of services to pet-owners in the Edmonton area.

Hermitage Veterinary Hospital’s website was outdated and in desperate need a fresh new design to bring them into 2011. Highlights include:

• Rotating Feature Banner
• Web Fonts
• Standards Compliant (meaning it is constructed using best practices to ensure greatest compatibility, usability, flexibility, and portability)
• pure CSS construction

www.hermitagevet.com

After way too long working on this, sometimes weeks in-between sessions, I have completed this print! It is a limited edition of 33, hand-printed on handmade Japanese Hosho paper. It is archival, and printed with waterproof oil-based inks. It is a 4 colour print that required four separate blocks to be carved. It was then lovingly and painstakingly hand-burnished to transfer the ink for each colour. A press was not used.

This piece is available for purchase from my Etsy shop here.

Each piece will come with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist, me.

Here is a walkthrough video I made to show the making of this piece:

I’ve been with my lovely wife for a while now, and for one reason or another I have never done any art of her as the subject. For shame! This digital painting of her is meant fix that situation.

If I only captured a fraction of her beauty, I will consider it a success. This is the first of hopefully many more portraits to come

This is a mixed media piece, that started it’s life a a sketch in my sketchbook, and then was painted digitally.

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This started out with me being in a mood where I wanted to create something dark and sinister. Originally, it was going to be a vampire image… but it soon found it’s way towards a new subject… the Crow / Common Raven.

I then started to do a bit of research, and found a lot of inspiration from “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe (this piece is named after the words the Raven mutters in that poem), as well as learning the many depictions of the Crow or Raven in culture and mythology. The movie “The Crow” also served as inspiration along the same lines. Generally, the Crow or Raven is seen as a bird of ill omen, and is often associated with death, or are even seen as messengers or “go-betweens” from the afterlife and our living world (as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” eludes). The lantern sort of serves as a contrast or counterpoint to that concept.

I was very honored to receive a Daily Deviation for this piece over at deviantART, which is quite a rare thing to get. Very nice indeed.

This is the first painting like this I have ever attempted. I was inspired by some of the great sci-fi concept artists around on deviantART like Andree Wallin, Tarrzan, among others.

This is a combination of many things. JacksonPollock.org, Alchemy, Painter, Photoshop, many custom brushes from various places (some borrowed, some made), initial approach inspired by leventep. The main background started with a photo from my honeymoon, which I then destroyed and altered beyond recognition… to start finding abstract shapes within the resulting chaos. Not meant to be completely realistic.

I listened to a lot of Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, and Pink Floyd to help get my head in a very loose and abstract place… a very “stream of consciousness” approach if you will

- all are Digital, 16″ x 16″ @300dpi

Universe01

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Universe02

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Universe03

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Universe04

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Universe05

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Universe06

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While the organization is open-minded in terms of content/subject (as long as it’s not blatantly offensive), their regulations regarding format were in need of updating (in my opinion). Specifically the acceptance of digitally created (or partially digitally created) art. In short, they didn’t accept digitally created art submissions for shows or competitions, across the board.

I’m not here to slam them in any way. Up until I came along, it seemed that the only art that came through the organization had been “traditional” media. You know, oil, acrylic, etc. In addition, many of the members are shall we say, more on the “senior” side of the age fence So, I think it was really about not knowing any better and just not “getting” this relatively new medium. I found that many of them had very stereotyped, pre-concieved notions as to what digital art is. The biggest problem seemed to be understanding the medium. I figured if I could try to show them what digital art was they would have no choice but to accept it as art… with the same merit as any other medium. After all, digital is just another tool. Right? Well I think so anyway.

The preconceived notions that many seem to have (not just the members of this group), is that digitally created art isn’t “real art,” because “the computer created end result.” They think:

• the computer disconnects the artist from the final result
• the computer is doing the work of the artist.
• because it isn’t created on a traditional physical surface like canvas or paper, it isn’t art.

Well, I can’t disagree more. I was able to set up an opportunity to make a case for the acceptance of digital at one of our meetings. I prepared my case, and nervously presented it to the members. Here’s a condensed overview of some of the points I made. I am sharing this in the hopes that it may help others like me, if they find themselves in a similar situation.

• Art is not medium dependent. We have been making art since tens of thousands of years ago on cave walls, and we’re making art today with anything and everything possible, including digitally created and/or altered art. I have seen artists create using their own blood (and other bodily fluids), coffee, Rubik’s Cubes, found objects in nature such as pine needles & twigs, animal carcasses… the list goes on.
  

  Art created using Rubik's Cubes

• To me, the question should not be about format whatsoever. It should be “what is art?” Well, that’s a tough one to answer with absolute certainty. But I don’t think that something that has been created by an artist should be excluded from being art based solely on the tool is was created with, or medium it was rendered in. That starts to sound a lot like the Nazi policies towards “accepted art.”
• Perhaps one of the best examples I can think of, where the artist challenged the viewers ideas of what art is, could, and should be, is Fountain by Marcel Duchamp. “It is one of the pieces which he called readymades (also known as found art), because he made use of an already existing object—in this case a urinal.” -wikipedia To me, he really made the philisophical case that art is about intent. In other words, if I as an artist create something with the intent of it being viewed as art, then it deserves to be considered as such. That doesn’t mean you have to like it. If a urinal is placed on a pedestal in an art gallery, we are being forced to look at it differently… and that was one of the biggest conceptual art statements I can think of.
  

  Fountain by Marcel Duchamp

• The truth is, that artists have been challenging the boundaries of what art is for a long time. That’s one of the reasons why the art world doesn’t stay the same forever… it is always changing and evolving. Thank goodness for that. From Duchamp, to Pablo Picasso, to Jackson Pollock — all of these artists (and many more) have challenged the audiences of their time. All of them, have been hated to some degree at some point in their careers, and been called fakes, and had their art labeled as “not real art.”
  

  Jackson Pollock painting

• Take as another example, the concept of Photography as art. In the early days of Photography, the idea that Photography could be art was not accepted by the masses, or major galleries. It took the efforts of many leading Photographers to convince the establishment that Photography could be raised to the level of true art. Today, I don’t think you would find a lot of resistance to this idea, but that’s the whole point. When something is new, it is often not accepted for whatever reason. It could be due to not fully understanding the new thing, or being threatened by it, or just plain old stubborn thinking and fear of anything different. But as time goes on, people eventually start to see thngs for what they are.
  

  The Tetons and the Snake River (1942), by Ansel Adams

• Another example that perhaps resonates especially strong in terms of digitally created art, is from the world of music. I’m talking about music that is partially, or fully created digitally. This can range from synth-based instruments (keyboards, electronic drums, etc.), all the way to fully digitally created music (sequencers, drum machines, software programs). For example, think of the early days of electronic music (like Tangerine Dream), and a lot of the music from the 80′s. Then look at electronic music today (trance, house, industrial, etc.). I remember many people saying/thinking that music created electronically was not “real music” when compared to what was then conventionally created music, using analog instruments and recording methods. Today, while you still might find some people arguing this case, I think you will find that most people have come around to accepting that electronic music can be just as creative and artistic as non-electronic music. If Mozart was alive today, he would very likely be using modern digital instruments and equipment.
  

  Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) in Studio

The concept seemed so simple and basic to me. I was amazed that I even had to make a case. But such is the world of organizational politics

What do you think? Is digitally created/modified art, still art? Does a high quality print of a digital painting deserve to be hanging on the same walls that the works of the “masters” hang on? I don’t see any reason why not. To say they don’t, is an insult to all the artists before us who paved the way for change, and pushed the boundaries of what “art” is, and the acceptance of that in the eyes of the public. That’s my opinion anyhow.

PS: I was successful in convincing the organization to accept digital art

- Doug Seidl

Here’s a couple of items to showcase some digital art possibilities today:

Northern Bear Golf Club is a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course located in Sherwood Park, Alberta.

While Northern Bear was happy with the original design I did back in 2006, they needed a fresh new design to bring them into 2011. Highlights include:

• Progressive Enhancement approach
• CSS3
• Web Fonts
• Standards Compliant (meaning it is constructed using best practices to ensure greatest compatibility, usability, flexibility, and portability)
• pure CSS construction

www.northernbeargolf.com