Digital Artist Post 2

Brian D. McMillan is a photographer turned digital artist whose preoccupation with color and form led him not only to embrace the digital art medium but to strive to "learn the very basis on which it works". As both artist and Systems Administrator for various computer graphics research and development projects, McMillan has made it his life's work to explore the relationship between creativity and technology. Whether it is with art or with the technology that produces that art, he thrives on breaking down the pieces of the whole in order to understand it from the inside out and to develop an appreciation for the value of its composite parts. Throughout the course of his development as a digital artist, McMillan moved through phases of photographic and representational art, experimenting with digital photorealism before finally finding his niche and his passion through non-representational art. According to McMillan, he has come to be more interested in exploring what makes up an image than in the actual image itself. Working with original photographs, which he scans and manipulates in programs like Adobe Photoshop, Aldus PhotoStyler, Micrografx Designer, and Picture Publisher, McMillan dissects images looking to uncover an essential area of color or form. Then, through layering, repetition, and compositing, he creates a new form that is completely divorced from the original image and its context. What makes his work unique, however, is how technology and creativity intersect for McMillan as he strives to uncover the underlying elements of an image as well as its "computer potential",  how it relates to the digital makeup of the image. To illustrate this, many of his later works have titles that are reference or file names.

me-me

By creating completely new images from key areas of color and form,  McMillan strikes away from general trends in digital photorealism where artists layer and manipulate images to create both form and context in their work. Rather than providing a context or telling a story through his art, McMillan eliminates any preconceived context by rendering his image completely unrecognizable. In doing so, he compels viewers to approach the piece with complete subjectivity, drawing on their own experiences to create a context and thereby relate to the image on a much more personal and personalized level.

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McMillan explores an interesting concept with his assertion that an image is essentially made up of key forms and colors, and that when these 'seed' areas are fragmented and manipulated they can take on a form all its own that establishes an entirely unique relationship with the individual viewer. Many artists have experimented with form and context in a similar way, but McMillan's work takes it further by connecting this fundamental concept of nonrepresentational art with digital technology itself. That the underlying elements of an image have "computer potential" is an intriguing notion that brings the relationship between art and technology to a whole new level. It is basically saying that, at its root, art and technology are the same and that digital art is the space in which the two can truly come together. My only critique is that I would like to see more work from this artist exploring and expanding on these ideas. The underlying concept, I think, is stronger and more compelling than any of the work itself.

Heart of the Matter