Digit-All Art Exhibit
Artist Statement
1968 - - the war in
Viet Nam was raging on, the Tet Offensive had occurred earlier in the year and
had signaled a turn in the direction of war.
In the summer of that year I was drafted into the U. S. Army.
Having left high school with a rank of Captain in the Jr. Army ROTC and
proficient as an expert marksman, I was, as I thought at the time, prepared to
go serve my country. At that time, a
majority of all draftees were headed to Viet Nam right out of basic training as
infantrymen. In the short time I
spent at the induction center, I realized that this option was to be avoided at
all costs, within the law and personal convictions, of course.
I was given and took the option to resign from the 2 year draft and
enlist in the regular army for 3 in order to select the training of my choice.
I chose the longest and highest technological choice available to me at
the time, my goal being to make myself as valuable as possible at least in the
eyes of the military. The training I
chose had the ominous title of Fixed Station Cryptographic Equipment Repairman.
By the end of my first year, I had a secret NATO clearance, I was adept
at repairing and installing high speed computer-based encrypting equipment, and,
after 30 days leave, was on my way to a headquarters company and a secure
communications center in Germany.
These turns of events would be instrumental in drawing me toward computer
technology to further my artistic explorations which, prior to being drafted,
had been limited to brushes and photographic film.
This exhibition is less a commercial endeavor and more an
overview of some of the areas I have touched on and am currently exploring in
computer and digitally-assisted processes.
As with other art processes, there are as many variables and directions
one can take as there are artists willing to take them.
Some of these works are digital from beginning to end, some are an
amalgam of digital and hand-applied processes and some works are purely hand
(digit) made and are included to give a before and after perspective.
I also want to make it clear that the esthetic, the
narrative and the purpose of my artistic vision supersede the processes used to
create them. Digital for digital’s
sake is not the mantra of my artistic explorations and that is why one will not
see any “computer art†in this exhibit. If there is a philosophical purpose to
this exhibition, it would be to stimulate interest and discussion about the
validity and potential of the tools afforded us by the digital age.
"..you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
for the times they are a-changin."
Bob Dylan