by M. Blair Ligon Digital artists take satisfaction in the
perfect permanence and malleability of our data. Our art is not
a collection of individual images, but a single body of work
that literally divides, replicates, merges and evolves as a whole
organism, showing its face from time to time as a print or an
image on the web. We use computers because we love the sound
of pixels singing together on our hard drives. It has its own
Zen. As in the cases of art nouveau and urban
graffiti, advertisers in search of novel, attentiongetting
messages were the first to appropriate digital images. Computer
artists are in a position similar to that of early photographers
ignored by critics, curators and patrons unable to differentiate
virtuosity from their own snapshots. Digital artists must endure
these slings and arrows because each has a unique compulsion,
a passion, and a story that drove them to the computer for self-expression. My Story Twenty years passed before I discovered
the computer. It was a Mac II. Out of the box and two days painting
with no sleep. It was the most exciting tool I had ever laid
hands on. My personal working style actually became looser, not
tighter. Each brush stroke became an experiment that could be
undone with a keystroke. A painting no longer had to go in one
direction. It could split into many directions, many paintings.
I've never looked back. Brushes became just animal hair tied
to sticks.
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copyright 2006, M. Blair Ligon, all rights reserved worldwide.