Artists use technology for SE exhibit
by C L Collins, reporter

    C:\Pixels, an art exhibit on SE Campus, showcases artists using digital media and/or technology-inspired subject matter.

    The theme of showcased artwork centers on the use of digital imagery, computer design, scanned images and other technological twists to engage viewers visually, according to Derrick White, instructional associate and exhibit curator.

    Marilyn Waligore, one of the featured artists, said, “Digital photography, by extension, allows the mixing and merging of imagery in order to achieve a form that could never be realized in the studio.”

    The free exhibit is open to the public and will be displayed through April 6 in the SE Campus Art Corridor.

    Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday. The Gallery will close for spring break next week.

    During an artists’ lecture last week, Dwayne Carter, a professor at the University of Texas-Dallas (UTD), discussed the irony and satire in politics and society that influenced his art.

    His six pieces include The Law Closed in on Edgar and She Tried to Free Her Man.

    Carter’s first piece portrays a small girl pointing at a man in rock star clothing. Illustrating pedophilia, the accused man represents Michael Jackson and the scandal that engulfed him a few years ago.

    The small girl depicts children photographed nude and used in child pornography.

    Carter’s second work is aptly titled. He told about sitting in a laundromat watching a young woman with a very sullen expression fold clothes. He imagined that her husband had been called away on duty or had left for some reason.

    On the news, he saw the same woman gunned down in an attempt to free her husband from police custody.

    Using digital imagery, he placed a distraught woman among many grabbing hands with a tattoo of David Koresh as if to quote the “we are okay; leave us alone here” phrase Koresh spoke at the Branch Davidian compound.

    Although Carter said he is not an angry artist, he has some pent up aggression over things amiss with society, but art is his way out.
Various art pieces on display are from Walter Presley, a University of North Texas May graduate who died Jan. 2.

    Rob Erdle, UNT professor, discussed Presley’s work.

    Presley’s Rise of the City uses optical plays of light and possesses a clearly defined sense of color, Erdle said.

    The piece also uses geometrical shapes and computer-style imagery with acrylics.

    In Esc, Presley displayed binary code running the length of the canvas.

    Concerned with individuality in the techno-pop culture, Presley chose a CD cover and made it bright, Erdle said.

    A piece by Prince Thomas from Lamar University in Beaumont, focuses on breaking down the stereotype that a real man is virile and unaided in his sexual performance.

    Thomas’ artwork consists of computer-aided pictures of pills such as Viagra and Meridia followed by the long list of side effects, such as cancer.

    Thomas said he had a confidential inside tip on all the side effects of enhancement medication for a seemingly virile male.

    Waligore seeks to destroy the image of the perfect woman as depicted in magazines and on television.

    For Witch Writer, she used gelatin silver print to make an image much like the hand advertisements on television, except these hands are overly wrinkled, scarred and toughened.

    The nails on all 10 fingers are sharpened points of pencils.

    Waligore said she placed witches in her images because they generally try to subvert domestic activity by using a broom as merely a mode of transportation.

    Waligore named another design, Tarantella, after a dance that was used to promote hysteria. The picture shows avid motion and activity.

    Reynaldo Thompson chose to base his two pieces on the beauty that can be possessed internally as opposed to obvious external beauty.

    In order to accomplish his goal, Thompson took an X-ray of his skull and printed it onto white canvas.

    Thompson later duplicated the image and smeared ink down it.

    One skull represents splendor and harmony while the other shows that one can be ugly inside.

    Column, his second piece, displays the magnificence of creation through the spinal cord of a newborn turned horizontally.

    Works by Andrew Ortiz focus on nature and images affecting his life.

    All artists said that collecting images for their ideas is a fun way to express those ideas.