Category Archives: Artwork

The ginkgoes of Brooklyn

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This is a poem written some years ago upon the approach of winter.
As the ginkgo leaves turn yellow, and the nuts drop, Chinese women used to appear and gather the nuts up — not part of the poem, but interesting to recall. I thought of this poem while noticing the yellowing ginkgoes the other day during a walk around Brooklyn Heights.

AUTUMN_BROOKLYN

Human Touch Digitized?

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I  posted this on londonpainting.blogspot.com in answer to a question about ‘dehumanizing’ art by using a computer.

Consider whether it is dehumaniszing for an artist to use a paintbrush made by another person or by a machine. Isn’t the artist giving up some control of the tool he uses, instead of fashioning it himself? As long as the artist knows what to do with the brush, should the process of manufacturing it matter?

I see computers as “e-brushes” for the artist. Generally, someone else sets up the rules of the software (which is in itself a sort of humanizing?) but then the artist is free to use the tool any way necessary. As we get used to making and seeing art produced using processors as part of the process, I think the human hand and mind will be every bit as evident in the artwork as it is with traditional methods.

Artists often just use the computer as a means of getting distance between themselves and the artwork. To allow for chance to intervene a bit. Pollock seldom touched a brush to his canvas, and that was over 60 years ago.