ON THE COVER

Artist's statement:

At one time, oil paint was a new technology; the history of painting is, in some sense, a pictorial history of technological development. While there is some pleasure, some stature in pursuing the mastery of a centuries-old medium, traditional artistic processes have serious problems. Oil paintings, for example, are highly toxic, expensive to preserve, and impossible to reproduce. We live in a time when tremendously powerful tools for visual expression are developed primarily by and for commercial interests -- Hollywood, ad agencies, game companies. Still more troubling is the art communities' sentiment toward software and technology -- that it is dehumanizing, cold, impersonal. This is a profound misunderstanding -- computers and software are the work of thousands of highly creative humans. It is my deep conviction that artists of all stripes need to understand and exploit the expressive power of digital tools, to create and share new art forms rather than leave the power in the hands of advertisers.

In this simple example, using Photoshop and Maya, a 3D modeling package, I removed the supports from these playground horses. This image, unlike all my other work, is without the cynical, critical, and political. New technologies can really set you free.