Digital Creation Station

       In today's creative market place an artist must keep up with the ever-changing climate in order to survive.  This is not a new concept, it's what all artists throughout time have alway's had to deal with. An artists ability to change and create in ways that have never been defined before have always been qualities that has set him apart from the rest of the world. Art has and always will constantly redefine itself over and over again and it is the artists that are responsible for this very important task. Our current generation of artists are in a unique environment that just like our predecessors before us were in when new mediums such as manufactured pigments were introduced or the discovery of light sensitive film changed the world forever. We are in the transition to the digital computer era. The computer has become an all in one tool. It can be used in every aspect of the modern eras artists process. from copying existing conventional
artwork to marketing, conception, creation, and networking artwork, digital or conventional! It can be a minor or major part in every artists role. If you are not using the computer in at least one aspect of your process chances are you are being left in the dust and labeled a dinosaur.
      There is one unique difference between the modern artist today and even the artist from the late 1970's or early 1980's, it's that unlike early artists that once they defined themselves as a certain type of artist they might have had to redefine themselves maybe only one more time, the current artist is being forced to redefine himself over and over or be left behind. Whether it be in the type of media he uses or the subject matter he chooses to create from. In the past the great artists of their time, once established didn't have to stray from what or how they created their artwork. I know artists who were very good at what they were doing, and because of there inability to redefine themselves they became outdated and no longer are creating artwork.
      I myself was trained in classical mediums. Started as an airbrush artist, made the transition into the computer revolution and now have redefined myself and how I create artwork on the computer mixing digital medium with conventional medium. It is really a very exciting time, never has the artist as an individual been able to market himself to so many people and business, but never has there been so many artists and so much competition between artists. It's an amazing time but also a very uncertain time. The reason is the Internet and social media artists who are using these tools, are prospering getting there message across to a very large market that was never open to them before, artists in Ohio can be visible in NY. A small artist such as myself can communicate and corespond with museum curators and gallery owners all over the world from the comfort of their own homes. This is a very powerful tool when used properly. Today's artist also must combine the more standard way of marketing ones self through local gallery's and interacting in his local art community. Where that alone in the past could get you somewhere, now an artist must combine the two ways of marketing to succeed. Like always those who choose to close their minds and stick with what they did when they arrived, not to what they did to get there, will fall by the wayside. They will give way to those who choose to keep an open mind, and enjoy the everchanging world of art, and accept the challenge to be a pioneer and never stop exploring!