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Computer graphics a tool for serious artists
Moya constantly sought new intellectual challenges in his work. In print making, for example, he worked in a variety of mediums while exploring unusual combinations such as the use of serigraphy and lithography in a single print. And, as computers and their uses became more widespread in the 1980’s he became interested in them.
I realized immediately … when a 13-year-old boy first showed me how to draw with a computer that it could become a tool for serious artists. So, for two years I read books and experimented.
ACADEMIC INTEREST and TEACHING
After working with the computer for almost three years, Moya produced a portfolio of printed ink-jet computer graphics. When he showed his work to Vasilios Toulis and Sydney Kevaney, directors of the Graphic Arts Center at the Pratt Institute in New York City, they were impressed with it and invited him to prepare a solo exhibition of his portfolio and graphics at Pratt. He was also invited to lead two seminars as well as exchange ideas and experiences with Pratt’s computer faculty. Meanwhile, he was also presenting the computer graphics at the Contemporary American Prints exhibition at the Newark Public Library in New Jersey.
As a result, Moya’s digital work came to the attention of the faculty at the University of Puerto Rico art school, who were interested in exploring the emerging role of computers in art. Recognized as an artist who fused art, science, and technology to raise the excellence of the cultivation of aesthetic sensibility, Moya was invited to become artist in residence for the regional college system of the University of Puerto Rico.
EXPLORATION and LEGACY of NEW TECHNIQUES
Moya was among the first artists to realize the utility of the computer as a “tool, much like a pen or a brush.” He called it an “electronic sketch pad for studies and pictorial explorations” and used it to create and transform representational compositions into variable color studies and form distortions. He saw it as a “great way to search for colors and color harmonies that you would not explore with oils or watercolors.”
He “digitized” paintings in progress into the computer for instant feedback and further manipulation without risk of destroying the original. The technique invited off mixes of conflicting information. The studies he made, when used for painting, were used as a point of departure and developed further freely on canvas by the physical act of painting.
Art critic Ernesto J. Ruiz de la Mata said it best, “To Moya, the computer is a tool to create and transform representational compositions into unexpected colors and distortions and whereas it will never replace traditional studio tools, it does work as a very flexible studio assistant."
Moya believed the artist’s basic tools will always be his skill and craftsmanship. The computer would never substitute that ability but it could help by offering new challenges and promote growth.
Sources:Barbara Tasch Ezratty, Computer art soars to higher level at Galeria Palomas, The San Juan Star, Feb 24, 1989Jose A. Perez Ruiz, Creación en digital, El Nuevo Día, April 20, 1989El Nuevo Día, Elogian el trabajo de Moya, August 13, 1989Ernesto J. Ruiz de la Mata, Thinking along with Moya, The San Juan Star Sunday Magazine, June 30, 1991.
Sources:Barbara Tasch Ezratty, Computer art soars to higher level at Galeria Palomas, The San Juan Star, Feb 24, 1989Jose A. Perez Ruiz, Creación en digital, El Nuevo Día, April 20, 1989El Nuevo Día, Elogian el trabajo de Moya, August 13, 1989Ernesto J. Ruiz de la Mata, Thinking along with Moya, The San Juan Star Sunday Magazine, June 30, 1991.
Digital Creativity at Galería Palomas
- José A. Pérez Ruiz, El Nuevo Día, 20 April 1989Translated from the Spanish by Consuelo Moya
It is interesting to see how this new tool provides the artist with vast resources for playing with space. By the same token, it allows the arrangement or removal of elements of composition...
Roberto Moya is presently exhibiting his first portfolio of computerized graphics. The collection shows how adequate use of modern technology can broaden the scope of an artist’s creativity. The author has programmed the machine in such a way that his style is not affected by the cybernetic presence. He prints themes of intense human warmth on the cold web upon which the machine joints forms. He takes advantage of the situation to demonstrate the dimensions that can be injected into words, when one is in tune with the spirit of the times.
The scenes chosen have been taken from daily life and they show Moya as interest in everything around him. The digital system makes the slow development of a 'procession' more dramatic. It is interesting to see how this new tool provides the artist with vast resources for playing with space. By the same token, it allows the arrangement or removal of elements of composition. In this way, gestures, colors and rhythms are altered for a fresh conception of the works.
The scenes chosen have been taken from daily life and they show Moya as interest in everything around him. The digital system makes the slow development of a 'procession' more dramatic. It is interesting to see how this new tool provides the artist with vast resources for playing with space. By the same token, it allows the arrangement or removal of elements of composition. In this way, gestures, colors and rhythms are altered for a fresh conception of the works.
The collection shows how adequate use of modern technology can broaden the scope of an artist’s creativity... [Moya] has programmed the machine in such a way that his style is not affected by the cybernetic presence...
Two nudes, the cyclist and a string quartet are the figures included in the group now and exhibit in some of them the various dimensions of the images. By choosing a diversity of themes he proposes to demonstrate the potential of the broad range of options for conceiving and re-conceiving the subjects. In this sense, Roberto Moya offers us an initial contribution through which shines his artistic value. We face the beginning of a new aesthetic trend that demands attention and appreciation.
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