Comments on Digital Artwork
in the show More Possibilities

by Michelle A. Hegyi

The computer is one of the many tools I use in my studio. I use it for studies, for mixing real and computer paint, and, as is the case in this show, for digital paintings created solely by painting on the computer. I use a cordless pen and a drawing tablet to "paint" these images on the computer using natural media painting software. The pen can be used to "paint" with chalk, oil, pastel, watercolor, ink, pencil, or even with mediums that don't exist yet (created by the artist on the computer) on an infinite number of "textured" substrates, eg canvas, silk, watercolor paper, made-up textured papers, etc. Mixed media takes on a whole new meaning as watercolor is painted over oil... The "pen" (brush) is pressure-sensitive, so that the size of the "brushstroke" varies with the pressure applied to the tablet, just as in real painting. Painting on the computer allows unending changes, making it a more direct method of realizing an idea or concept.

It is important to note that the digital paintings in this show are not reproductions. There is no original other than that created by me on the computer. The original exists as a digital file (bits made up of 1's and 0's) on a computer disk. This is analogous to the plate or matrix used in making fine art prints*. The only way to see these works of art is by displaying them on the computer monitor or by outputting them in some physical way (eg, printing onto paper, outputting to a slide, videotape, etc). These are limited edition fine art prints. They are printed using a continuous-tone archival process onto Fuji Crystal Archive photographic paper using a Lightjet printer.

-- Michelle A. Hegyi

* "Prints are not fundamentally different from other kinds of art, but the materials an artist uses to create an image do not appear in the finished work. The artist draws on metal, wood or another material, while the print is made of ink on paper. In printing, a matrix transfers ink to paper... Plates or matrices are made in order to make prints. The plates themselves are not the art...

Fine art prints are multiple originals, not reproductions. In fine art or original printmaking, the matrix is made by an artist... without the intention of reproducing a previously existing work of art."

-- Kathan Brown, Crown Point Press