JAMES TAGGART
Digital Artist
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I began work in the graphic arts industry as a commercial production artist, learning the fundamentals of design and commercial graphic arts production under the tutelage of professional commercial designers, illustrators and painters. In the process of reproducing their linear designs I learned how to get the most out of my software and hardware. The more complicated the design the more I was challenged and the more I learned. I couldn’t have asked for a better education.
Working with the Industry standard software programs since their introduction to the market, I developed a significant understanding of their potential and application. Over the last eight years I have attempted to apply the techniques and methodologies developed for commercial graphic arts to the exploration of two dimensional digital fine art.
In the mid 1990’s I acquired my first Iris 3000 Series digital printer. It was purchased for its potential in the new industry of Gicleé Printing and for the output of digital generated images. In the same way that I saw my first Mac as a potential fine art’s tool, I knew that in the Iris 3000 Series printer a process finally existed that would permit me to explore the computer as a fine art medium. Since then, I have used my Iris printers to work on media that includes rice paper, 1,000 TC Egyptian cotton, silk and handmade papers.
My fine arts education mirrors my education in the commercial graphic arts. In the process of reproducing limited editions for traditional painters, I have studied the elements of colour, form and composition. My software allows me to zoom in on a painting and examine the method, style and techniques of individual artists. When reproducing an artist’s work I can often tell what colours went down first. In some cases I can distinguish brush characteristics or even whether the artist was animated in their gestures while painting; its all there. After a few years of printing I began to use my studies to explore the potential of the computer to produce original paintings, illustrations and abstractions.
I began with illustration, but quickly moved to painting. Rigid linear forms were a large part of my commercial work; I was looking for something a little bit more organic. After using source photography for the first few images I determined that photo manipulation was to easy and would not give me the discipline I needed to develop as a painter. In particular, photography would not teach me to see what I was looking at. I needed to become so familiar with natural forms that I could portray them in their absence.
I chose to explore the wide range of styles/genres of painting my software and hardware would reproduce/mimic, while developing personal habits that taught me to see the world around me. The use of multiple disciplines to explore a single subject requires seeing it from a number of perspectives. The challenge has been to keep moving or at least not linger to long in one discipline; and of course, watch were I am going.
After a few years of painting I began working with abstractions. In the beginning most of the abstractions grew out of software exploration and memory exercises for retaining the effects of combined processes and filters. Since then more and more of the abstract work has been concept driven.
My long term goal is to generate landscapes that appear photographic yet have no source material; I don’t expect that any time soon. I also having a growing interest in portrait painting. In the meantime, I will continue to produce an expanding if not eclectic variation of images, studies and abstractions that will hopefully assist in my development as a digital artist.