Very little digital painting so far this year. The three oranges presented here are three of the 50+ variations made in February/March 2007. The other image was made in May 2007.

These images are best described as digital collages. They are combinations of computer created elements and selected digital pictures of actual paintings. Maybe I should describe them as digital combines.

For some reason, on the surface the mind set for digital painting seems different from my mind set/s for physical painting. I haven't taken the time yet to analyze why this is. However, I can hazard a guess at this point. Digital painting has no tactile properties; the real world "smells and bells" are missing. For me, Automatism as a working process may need a tangible connect to real world presence to be sucessful. Then again Automatism does function as a digital painting process. It could be, for me, digital painting may be more abstract; a layer of the physical world is left out. My argument pointing up differences is beginning to get interesting. My feeling for where this argument is going may have more to do with comfort than with Automatism.

In the end, the differences in how Automatism relates to the digital world and/or the physical world in painting, if there are any, may be no different than differences in medium used with its attendant tools and choice of support and my desire to use one medium/support now and another medium/support later. Simply stated, there are times I feel like using acrylic on paper, times I feel like working on canvas and times I feel like working on digital imaging - and so on. In the end it is all about choices.

Automatism, then, is Automatism. It is a process after all. Let's get real about this. Digital painting is on hiatus.

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