" See For Yourself "
"My Visual Life" in paintings and prints by Alan Singer
at
The Spectrum Gallery in Lumiere Photo
100 College Avenue, Rochester, New York
I frequently write about artwork I have seen ( a result of the many invitations I get to go see gallery shows ) and then sometimes I write about my own progress in the field. Think of it - we as a people have come a long way - from the cave painters thousands of years ago to the digital realm today - and all of this art making activity is a form of communication involving image making.
Maybe we lose sight of the reasons for the art to exist in the first place - and it is not because it fits nicely over the couch, or will sell for a million bucks someday. The art we make comes from an exploration of our personal visual space, and there is always some element of our art that tends towards the self-portrait, even if the art is abstract - the challenge is to "read" the image, whether it is the artist's intent or not.
The paintings and prints in my new show, which opens the first Friday of November ( 7th ), 2014 at the Spectrum Gallery in Rochester, are influenced by mathematics - and this art would not exist if it were not for that ubiquitous tool, the computer.
"The Odd Man Out" monoprint by Alan Singer
My art might have been different, if I had not come to teach at a school for technology ( R.I.T. ). But I don't look back, I go forward, and part of this movement is working with the tools at my disposal.
Years back, when I made all of my work by hand, I wanted certain shapes that a computer could help me draw quickly and accurately. Once you use a tool as complex as a computer, you need to stay with it ( as with any other technique ) to understand and realize the potential it may have to offer.
Our lives are shaped in part by our culture and at this point things move fast, and making art gets us to slow down a bit. Painting is a slow sport, and like the slow food movement it is much more nourishing in many ways. But, I don't always have time for the lengthy process of painting, and yet I still need my creative playtime, and now I often opt to spend my energy at the computer. I know I am not alone in that.
I will sign books with Anne C. Coon
at The Spectrum Gallery
November 13th, 2014
My artwork began to change because the computer as a tool allowed me to do things I couldn't have dreamed of before. The digital realm is really an application of mathematics, and so I began to investigate properties of geometry, especially after I found a site called "The Geometry Junkyard".
So a door has opened, and I walk right through and the art that you will see in this new show is the result of a few years of intense focus and exploration. I really look forward to the new things I can discover and bring into my art, and now you can see for yourself.
