ABSTRACT

My recent work incorporates motifs from medieval manuscripts. Because the computer frees the artist from the successive layering of physical paint, I can personalize my references by repeatedly going back and forth between templates of extracted designs and the developing computer painting. Through this interaction, the thinking of the medieval artist envelops the work in progress, influencing my own sensibility, and prompting me to cast off the earlier stages of the work.

The computer has provided me with the means to develop imagery that could not have evolved within the confines of traditional media. I am not referring to the product, which might resemble a painting, but to the processes available to the computer artist, which are uniquely suited to restructuring the traditional ways of conceiving imagery. Of particular interest is how the computer, with the addition of a scanner, can function as a vehicle for the direct interaction with visual sources.

• Cynthia Beth Rubin (USA)