Artsnova Digital Art and Space

I spent this weekend in the company of the Windycon Science Fiction convention and confess to having had a good time. In addition to participating in two panels and making a presentation, I also entered six giclee prints in the art show. Of these only half are included in my online gallery:

• Contemplating Infinity
• Femme Fatale
• Sands of Mars

With respect to programming, in my The 2008 Windycon Science Fiction Convention post I wrote about the panels and presentations I was giving. Personally, the most satisfying was the panel on which Artist Guest of Honor David Mattingly and I engaged in a wide ranging discussion of digital art. Unfortunately our third panelist - science fiction author Roland Green - had to miss the convention due to illness. David offered many insights on his transition from a traditional to a digital artist. I particularly liked that he simultaneously identified the digital "undo button" as being both the artist’s greatest friend and worst enemy.

I also attended a number of panels. Given that the theme of the year’s convention was military science fiction, the bulk of the programming addressed that topic. However, there was ample non-military SF programming. One of the most fascinating was that given by friend and physicist Bill Higgins. His talk How Antimatter Becomes a Plaything of Science discussed the history of antimatter, aka contraterrene, in both science and science fiction. A one page essay written by Bill on the subject appears in the September 2008 issue of Symmetry Magazine - a joint publication of Fermilab and SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center).

Back to the art show, Friday night there was a wine and cheese reception so that convention goers could meet and talk to the artists. While talking to a couple people, I put down my plate of brie and bread and glass of wine in front of my display. Perhaps because I was under the influence of the wine, I grabbed a bid sheet, wrote in the title of Unfinished - Still Life and my name as the artist, arranged/positioned the food and drink and attached the bid sheet to the plate - making it appear that my food and drink were actually a part of the show. What was great is that this did create a fair amount of buzz and folks were coming over to take pictures of it (something I unfortunately did not do.)

Unfortunately none of my six prints sold. I attribute this in part to the fact that my large framed pieces were at the high end of the bid scale vs the many, smaller unframed prints and originals available from other artists. Perversely, the one item I entered into the auction that did sell was, yes you guessed it, Unfinished - Still Life.

The highlight of the art show was the exhibit by David Mattingly of his work with lenticular 3D. Each print is actually the result of creating multiple viewpoints of the same scene, cutting each into small strips, assembling and finally overlaying with a carefully aligned lenticular screen. For more see David Mattingly’s page on depth-view prints

Browsing through the art show there were two other artists whose work caught my eye. One was Todd Johnson, a member of the General Technics group. Todd’s display consisted of a number of Shockfossils - a term of Todd’s creation. These Shockfossils are a form of Lichtenberg figures - created by zapping blocks of acrylic with millions of electron volts and then creating a fracture point through which the trapped electrons escape. See below the video that Todd created illustrating the process of freeing the electrons.

The other artist whose work caught my eye was Liz "Galindorf" Harper. Liz uses polymer clay to hand-sculpt figures and then uses metallic pigments powders applied by hand to color the piece. The colored sculptures are then placed in a shadow box on top of a black velvet backing. The effect is quite striking. I have used a photograph of Liz’s Sea Dream - Seahorse to illustrate this post.
You can see more of Liz’s work at her Astral Dreamers web site.

Now sit back and enjoy Todd’s video about the creation of Lichtenberg figures.

Todd Johnson creating Lichtenberg figure at lunchtime at Fermilab

MacDonald Bridge in Fog: Twilight oil on canvas by Ambera Wellmann.
Picture used with permission.

Last night I came across artist Ambera Wellmann’s blog and was captivated by her oil paintings of clouds. In fact I had planned to use one of Ambera’s cloud paintings to illustrate this post but as impressed as I was by her cloudscapes, MacDonald Bridge in Fog: Twilight, shown above, impressed me more - I’m glad I went back to her blog for a second look. To learn more about this painting, read Ambera’s post New Bridge Painting.

One of the aspects of oil paintings that I like is the ability to provide true surface texture, as opposed to the faux texture that is applied digitally to digital art. Photographically these textures allow digital art to look like their traditional media counterparts. Of course some oil artists abuse the oil medium’s capability by either overdoing it or using it inappropriately. With the advances that are being made in the digital realm, it would not surprise me if one day digital artists have access to printers that are able to reproduce the actual surface texture of oil paintings.

As to canvas itself, I have only printed one piece on canvas - Femme Fatale which I have not yet added to my online gallery but did use to illustrate the post Pirates of the Capricon Science Fiction Convention. Artistically, most of the digital art I create is, in my opinion, better suited to either a watercolor paper, photographic paper, or a textured paper.

But enough about the texture of oil paintings and papers for digital printing. I’d rather be looking at clouds so visit Ambera Wellmann’s Blog and check out her great cloud paintings.Ad Astra, Jim

Trouvelot astronomical illustration: Sonne III

Earlier this evening while doing research for my upcoming presentation on space art at the International Space Development Conference (see Art and the Promotion of Space Exploration), I was looking for information about Étienne Trouvelot, an astronomical artist active during the 1870’s. Quite to my surprise, I found a small gallery of his art at the New York Public Library web site. The 15 images are all from his book The Trouvelot astronomical drawings published in 1881 by Scribner’s Sons.

Of the images contained in the gallery, my two favorites are Mare Humorum, from a lunar study made in 1875, and The planet Mars, drawn based on observations from September 3, 1877. To view these and the rest of the images, visit New York Public Library’s Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings gallery.

P.S. Trouvelot is perhaps more well known as being the individual responsible for the accidental introduction of the gypsy moth to North America.

Ad Astra, Jim

Quantumscapes - The Art of Stephan Martiniere book cover

I was in the book store the other day and came across a copy of Stephan Martiniere’s book Quantumscapes: The Art of Stephan Martiniere. I was surprised to see that it was published in 2006 - surprised that its publication escaped my notice. Either that or has escaped my memory. Surprising since in November of 2006 I had the privilege of moderating a panel - Designing a Spaceship - at the Windycon Science Fiction Convention and Stephan was one of the panelists. It was standing room only for the panel due entirely, I’m sure, to Stephan’s presence. 2006 was the year Stephan won the Chesley Award (named for Chesley Bonestell) for best hardcover cover art - although the award wasn’t given until 2007. He has also won a number of other awards as well. Check out Stephan’s web site at www.martiniere.com.

If you’re not familiar with Stephan Martiniere’s art, his speciality is science fiction art. The cover art for Quantumscapes is a piece titled Variable Star which was used as the cover for the science fiction novel Variable Star by Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson. Quantumscapes is divided into five chapters with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of Martiniere’s art.

Chapter 1 - Books

This is the chapter that shines. It consists of finished book covers which are truly original in concept and execution. Splendid art. Far and away the best chapter in the book.

Chapter 2 - Film and Commercial Work

This chapter consists entirely of alien character sketches and studies.

Chapter 3 - Games

Sketches of aliens dominate this chapter with some landscapes as well.

Chapter 4 - Personal

Composed of a small collection of alien life studies.

Chapter 5 - Process

This chapter takes the reader through the creative process using as an example the cover art Variable Star starting with rough sketches and finishing with the final artwork.

While Stephan’s aliens are original and very well done, it is his landscapes, cityscapes, and spacescapes that excite me and these are only really found in the book’s first chapter. If you are a fan of science fiction art, then you should check out Quantumscapes: The Art of Stephan Martiniere.

Ad Astra, Jim

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art

Today I visited the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University. I was there to see the Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print art exhibit.

Quoting from the Imaging by Numbers exhibition flyer:

“This groundbreaking exhibition examines the intersection of digital technology and the graphic arts by surveying the use of computers in printmaking and drawing. From electronic waveforms and plotter printer drawings to experiments with computer code and software and inventive combinations of digital and traditional printing techniques, Imaging by Numbers features approximately 60 works by nearly 40 artists… from the 1950’s to the present.”

There were works by Manfred Mohr, Jean-Pierre Hébert, Ben Laposky, Otto Beckmann, Michael Noll, Kamran Moojedi, C. E. B. Reas, and Richard Helmick to name a few. There were also two works by Joan Truckenbrod who taught the first computer graphics class at Northern Illinois University. I am happy to say that I was fortunate enough to get into that graduate level course. You can read more about this in my article Recollections of my Introduction to Computer Graphics.

Another smaller exhibit that is running concurrently is Space, Color, and Motion which features animated images and one very cool computer controlled magnetic ball creating patterns in a sandbox.

If you are in the Chicago area and art thinking of seeing the show, do it now because the exhibit ends April 6. Admission is free! The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art is located on the grounds of Northwestern University at 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL.

I found out about this art exhibit by way of the American Art American City Exhibit Calendar web site created by the Terra Foundation for American Art. The calendar consists of listings of current exhibitions in Chicago area art museums.

Here is a list of links you may find useful.

• Nine works from Imaging by Numbers
• Imaging by Numbers exhibit information
• Block Museum of Art Hours and location
• American Art American City Exhibit Calendar

Ad Astra, Jim