Saturday, October 13, 2007

Pioneer

I was inspired by Frances' digital image "old house by the sea" and thought of doing something which had that same sort of feeling of reminiscence. My inspiration was my old home in New Mexico. The old adobe window frame, the quilt, the pioneer woman, remind me of that time. I felt as if I were making a collage. My scissors are the cut tool and my glue is the paste tool, and my color pallet is accessed by dipping an ink dropper instead of paintbrush. So, here is a question for you: If a collage is made from clips from old magazines and this is made from clips of digital images, what is the difference? Are digital images art? Why or why not? What defines art versus craft? I'll be most interested to read your answers.

8 comments:

dianeclancy said...

Hi Bobbie,

First off - this is a very moving image!! I really like it tons!

I do consider digital collage collage myself. And I also think that digital and non-digital can both be art - or not. I think it depends on whether images have a connection below the surface that moves them into art.

That is my 2 cents for the moment.

~ Diane Clancy
www.dianeclancy.com/blog

Antigone said...

I LOVE it! I think it's art and beautiful at that. Very much you.
Love it...love it.....

Julie Prichard said...

FANTASTIC!

lebanesa said...

Hiya Bobbie
Your thoughts echo mine entirely. First, lovely collage, I think it is an art work and can see no difference from a collage produced by cutting and pasting, except that when printed up this would not have the same look and feel of an original collage.
What Diane says is a feeling I have. If there is a real meaning and content to an image and you have really produced it yourself, then it is art. If the computer did all the work, as for example some of my early Photoshop things, where I was just using the computer to manipulate an image and not really making something new, it doesn't feel like honest art to me. I was happy with the old house by the sea, for a lot of different reasons, firstly that I already knew what I wanted to make a picture of and I had an idea of how I would start and what would be in it, though it changed as I worked. It took me a fair amount of time and the composition was my own and the textures and colours were chosen deliberately. That felt like an artistic creative endeavour to me. Long answer, sorry!

Unknown said...

I am asked this question constantly if my mandalas are real or did I do it with a computer, like somehow one is real and valid if I paint it but not real if it is digitalized. We all need to be educated more fully that the computer is another tool, no different from a paintbrush or pencil or using a piece of fabric to make a quilt. Depending on the pixel size of your image, there is no reason why it couldn't be printed and look like the images on non digital collage artists. This is a topic that is dear to my heart.
I have used totally computer generated images in my artwork and felt like somehow I was cheating. When I talked to my photoshop instructor about it, he said he wanted to encourage us to be brave and try new things. The creation of art comes from our ability to take an idea and express it with heart and intellect, and I certainly believe you have done that with this image. I wouldn't worry so much about how you produce it and just be proud that you have.
*sue now steps down off her soapbox without tripping*
~Sue O'Kieffe

Unknown said...

ok im not done yet...lol
please go to http://maggietaylor.com and tell me if her digital collages are art and why or why not.

Bobbie said...

Wow, Maggie Taylors work is awesome! I looked at every one of her galleries and decided that I want that fish helmet! teehee. Really the images are fun, thought provoking and amazing.

Bev said...

I too was inspired by Frances 'House By the Sea' to make a collage, but a cut and paste one.

The judges of the Turner Prize (an art prize we have in England) would certainly consider digital collage art as all sorts of things have won this including a house, a bed and all manner of art installations. So within a broad modern definition of art, it is.

It is not just as if you are just making a practical object, say a chair, which does not evoke an emotional or spiritual response. Even though you have not painted these images but made them digitally, they do provoke such a response, so I think they are art.