So last night I was at Sustainable Waves Solar Tuesday weekly event. A friend of mine decided to make a statement on her opinion of digital artist. That statement used an expletive as an adjective to describe digital art as a whole. Being a digital artist I found the statement to be both offensive and unfounded. Her argument was that art has to be in a malleable form, something that you make with your hands and not a machine. I countered that my hands are used to manipulate the machine to create what I want to create. I also sometimes use a wacom tablet that is like digital pencil and paper. She still insisted that using a computer is not art and she refuses to consider digital art a valid art form.

So I decided today to blog about art and what constitutes art. Well by definition Art refers to a diverse range of human activities, creations, and expressions that are appealing to the senses or emotions of a human individual. (Thanks Wikipedia!) So by that definition visual art would be something created that is aesthetically pleasing that invokes an emotional response. Well that can include many things! Some people get an emotional response from looking at a Ferrari so does that make a Ferrari a work of art? (I think so) But what is the difference between a car designer and a painter? Designing is not art. Once again I’m going back to Wikipedia… “to design” refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, system, or component. So design is used when creating art but design is not art. Art can be the outcome of the design if it is aesthetically pleasing and invokes emotion. I think where people start to loose the concept of art when they confuse the medium that the art is made on with art itself. Medium is just the tools that an artist uses to create. A painters medium is the brush and paint, a photographers medium is a camera and a digital artists medium is a computer and software. Remember guys, its not the medium, its not the design, its the outcome of the two that produces art.

What is the difference between knowing technique and being able to create an actual work of art? Lots of people know how to paint, lots of people know how digitally manipulate photographs and lots of people know how to design. What makes someone step above knowing technique into the realm of being an actual artist. Once again (and I think I have proven my point) Art is the outcome. If you can create something that is aesthetically pleasing and invokes emotion, well then you sir are an Artist!

Ok before I go I’m going to leave you with some links to digital art galleries that are amazing! If you say what these guys are creating isn’t art… well your just crazy!

Raffaele Picca
Bert Monroy
Darren Minke
Digital Art Gallery