"...it's pretty, but is it ART?"

Okay, I'm ready to start some serious blogging, now! And I thought I'd start with my biggest hurdle as an artist - the controversy over whether digital art is "real" art.

In the September issue of Artists' Magazine, (which I subscribe to because I consider myself an artist,) there were half a dozen letters to the editor about whether digital artists produce "real art." The majority opinion was NO!

There were statements like "...I'm glad that you (Artists Magazine) feature artists who have spent years mastering their craft, making art that sometimes takes months to produce." Or, another... "I, too, can produce a so-called painting on my computer, but I would never consider it to be included in a real art competition." And, how about "Digital art doesn't get the fingers dirty(....)the result may look similar-though it will lack the wonderful texture and thickness we can build up with our "dirty" media-but the process is worlds apart from working with a real brush and real paint."

Well, as you can probably tell, I'm tired of having to explain that what I do takes creativity, imagination and talent. Sure, there are lots of paint filters and programs out there in computerland, but just because you have the tools, that doesn't make you an artist, just as having a complete set of automotive tools doesn't make you a mechanic! (one time I took the carburetor off my car, thinking "How hard can this be? If I put it back in the same order I took it off, I should be able to fix this!" Well, guess what? I sure ain't no mechanic!)

Here are several interesting links about digital art - the first one is "Convergent Media - Stretching the Imagination" an article by Barney Davey, posted on http://www.artprintissues.com/.
JD Jarvis, MOCA contributing editor, has many articles on the Moca website.

I will be posting more on this issue later, but in the meantime, let's hear from you out there... what do you think? And while you're here, check out my galleries at pbase. There is quite an eclectic assortment there, some photography, some digital art. Hopefully, you'll enjoy looking.