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"Mixing it up - Something Old with Something New"
A look at my artistic antecedents and the development of
Digital Collage Paintings - by Robert Masla

The nature and harmony of reality and illusion, abstraction and
representation, form and formlessness, the finite and the infinite, has been
something that has fascinated me and been a source of personal and artistic
exploration and pursuit from an early age.  This quest for personal truth,
(which finds it’s manifestation in “style”), drew me to coin the term
Spiritrealism in the mid 70’s. Both my definition of Spiritrealism and it’s
manifestation as an art form or style, is something that is constantly
changing, evolving and growing, as I continue to discover myself
unfolding with creation.

As Long as I can remember I have also always been fascinated by both
tradition and innovation. At around the age of 11, I began studying
painting and drawing in the studio of my mentor, the 20^th Century Realist
Master, and longtime president of the National Society of Mural Painters,
Alton S.Tobey.  It was in Tobeys’ studio that, through the process of
osmosis, I new that I was an artist.   It wasn’t much later that I got my first
35 mm camera, the trustworthy Pentax K1000 and began teaching myself
photography. I would say the use of photography has informed my work
in one manner or another since that time.  Over the past 30+ years of my
exhibiting career as an artist the role it has played has change dramatically.
 In those early days I used it mostly to train my eye in composition and the
study of light and values (I was photographing primarily in black and
white).  Later as my painting began to focus more and more on landscape,
I would use the camera in the same manner as it was used by the great
American landscape painters of the 19^th century whom I have always
admired, to augment my memory, capturing details for informational
reference data and as a device to aid in composition and design (masterful
painter Thomas Eakins is known to have used a camera as  a tool in
painting and both Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt, as well as
Frederick Edwin Church, among others, traveled in expeditions that
were well outfitted for photography).

I often get a good chuckle when I hear artists argue about the use of
photography in painting.  As if any tool could not be employed in the
process of creativity. The history of art is full of fine examples of their use
since the cameras invention, (after all, artists are the most creative of
peoples). The older I get, the less tolerant I am of fanaticism.   It is like
watercolorists who say you should not use opaque white (as if the
greatest watercolorists of history did not, such as Turner, Sargent, Moran,
Richards, etc. etc. etc.)- if it was good enough for them, - it’s good enough
for me). I always tell my students, that there is only one rule in art making
and that is - there are no rules!  That said, I also state that I am a firm
believer in the development of craft, particularly that of drafting. And the
process of drawing, practiced well, is an excellent meditation. But craft
should not be confused with artistic creativity, it should serve it. The more
technical ability and knowledge one has, the more colors on the palette so
to speak, so that when the muse of creativity springs from the depths, one
is not hampered by a lack of skill to give manifestation to the creative
impulse.  The danger is becoming slave to technique, and, in our culture
in particular, the rational mind, the linear and mathematical, seeks to
dominate the intuitive and fluid natural impulse.  Thus we come back to
the delicate balance. And each individual artist must find their own unique
signature, which gives voice to their personal style.  And as I said before,
that is hopefully something that evolves and changes with each new day –
how exciting!

 It strikes me as interesting how some persons will argue against the use and
development of new tools and techniques in the creation of artworks and
about the “invalidity” of the works created with these new tools, as if
many of the great and innovative artist throughout history didn’t take
advantage of the technology that was available to them at the time. The
use of mirrors and lenses as “artistic aids” can probably be traced to
the 14^th century if not earlier.  Durer used the wood block, which led to
the technology that developed the use of etching and lithography, there
was the development for out door painting in “plein air” from the use of
pig bladders for holding oil paints to metal tubes or Vermeer and his use
of the camera obscura, and it was likely that Da Vinci was aware of, if not
using it as well. Now of course, we have the recent development of
watercolor canvas and such things as digital imaging and computer
manipulation. Do the tools or material make these works of art any less
“valid” or “genius”? In the end 2 things will determine the works place in
our minds – It’s initial gestalt - its' "energy field", (created through the
abstract understructure), and then, it’s ability to engage us in some way, to
hold our attention and perhaps even allow us to experience transcendence
of the material. For isn’t one of the magical qualities of art and particularly
painting its’ ability to become more than the sum of it’s parts.  We grind
some earth, mix it with some oil or water and swoosh it around with some
hairs tied to the end of a stick and... - magic happens! Of course the unseen
and immeasurable ingredient is the individual artists’ creative spirit. What
adds to these various attributes is worthy of closer study then I am able to
do here. Throughout human history, the artistic desire to create and express
remains constant, - the subject, content and context (except for the all
encompassing quest for and interpretation of truth) along with the
techniques, materials, tools and technologies are always changing, ever
expanding to encompass new possibilities for the creative spirit to manifest.

Over the 30+ years of my painting practice thus far, I have developed
many modalities of expression. I am perhaps best known for my landscape
painting. A passion that started with my first painting in Tobeys’ studio,
around 1968, enhanced with the study of sumi-e brush painting with Kaji
Aso while in my undergraduate studies at the School of the Museum of
Fine Arts in Boston, and continuing to this day.  My method has been a
blend of eastern and western traditional approaches to landscape painting. 
It consists of sitting by the river or waterfall, etc. and absorbing it’s energy.
Then sketching it and painting it from direct observation. I will do this in a
variety of media, - pencils, pens, sumi-e ink, watercolor, acrylic, oil, -
whatever the moment and circumstance moves me to do. I then augment
this by taking numerous photographic references, often returning to the
studio with all this information to do a larger “finished” painting. 

Many years back, in order to expand my market reach, I started producing
limited edition “Giclee” prints of my oil paintings. Then, to be more cost
effective, I acquired my own large format Giclee printer (44”, Epson
9600). Having the printer at my finger tips and developing the skills for
using Photoshop along with it, has been like using a new set of brushes,
or discovering a new way to apply paint to canvas and paper, (the ink, for
all intensive purposes is like watercolor, being a water soluble pigmented
ink).  But having a long time love affair with the very tactile experience of
painting, I am not content to simply do all the manipulation on the
computer. I begin the work with a high-end digital camera and very large
files (I have a Fuji S2pro and a Kodak K14N, both approximately 12 -13
megapixels), photographing various subjects, as well as textures I paint
specifically for the project. I will also at times incorporate high-resolution
scans of my oil and watercolor paintings or details of them. I then collage
the images together in a painterly fashion on my computer (I use a Mac).
This "photo collage" image is then printed with the archival-pigmented
ink on specially treated canvas (or heavy weight watercolor papers); it is
then sealed with a U.V. blocking acrylic gel. Once the foundation image
has been created and printed onto the support, it acts as a kind of
underpainting, various passages are then painted with acrylics; textures,
trompe’loeil, glazes, and a variety of techniques are employed and
experimented with.  Textures are often built up, sometimes "sculpted" or
"molded" with acrylic modeling paste and gels, pumice, etc.  Some select
passages I might work over with oil and alkyd. I have also created
"acrylic skins" that I then paint on, as well as painting onto handmade
paper and other surfaces and then adhere these to the surface of the canvas.
The finished piece not only creates illusions of three dimension, but in
reality actually is three dimensional, being more than a simple digital
collage.

Here again the new work merges for me life long pursuits. The first being
painterly, dealing with the abstract process of intuitive action in painting,
along with my fascination with symbolism and love for detail and
technique. The process frees me up to either be very "painterly", to
emphasize the texture, design, and the tactile quality of the paint, focusing
and enhancing the all important "abstract under-structure" or to play with
"detailed techniques" using trompe l'oeil or faux textures, etc., - to enhance
illusion. The resulting effect being the manifestation of my very personal
involvement in the process that has preoccupied me since my early teens
- the search for Truth. The marriage of the spiritual within material
existence, or as Kandinsky and Mondrian put it, "to reveal the Spiritual
hidden within the material".  In Art, this is experienced first by intuitive
response, the gestalt, of the "energy field" the participant encounters from
the work, the vibrations interactions and relationships of color, line, shape,
texture, light , shadow, pattern, etc.  Then if the art manifests form, the
intellect and other emotional centers are engaged thru symbolism, image
and illusion. As the father of German Romantic Landscape Painting,
Casper David Freidrich said, “the parts must be congruent with the
whole”, in order for the work of art to be effective.

In these works sometimes it is very obvious and sometimes very
difficult to discern between the paint and the "print" or photograph. This
emphasizes, among other things, the ambiguity of life between "reality and
illusion". Symbols have always been the way we represent that which is
unseen. Though we share in many archetypes, particularly within the
landscape, the individual creates their own interpretations according
to their personal psychological, emotional and cultural experiences, and
beliefs.

In all my work, it is my hope that the sublime might manifest in these
rhythms of color, light, form, symbol and abstract structure. That the mind
be engaged enough, (for that is it's nature), to be propelled into
contemplation.... or silence and tranquility, perhaps even “transcendence”.
That your consciousness might be lifted from the preoccupation of the
every day “distractions” and merge for a few moments with a
non-ordinary reality. That you, the witness-participant, might find some
joy and satisfaction in these Digital Collage Paintings, as I have.

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