Artist-painter’s Tools of Trade

Most people have a rather vague idea of fine art. While lots of people are interested in music and literature, the visual arts arise the interest of almost exclusively artists, curators and critics. People who are not personally involved with painting usually have no idea what a modern painter does, what media and tools she uses. The painter is associated with a palette, a stained apron and a search for inspiration. This somewhat romantic vision of the artist-painter has little to do with reality. Over the past decade or so, her work has changed a lot. The artist began to use digital photography and computer graphics software; often, before the picture is painted, it is designed in Photoshop and then the contours are transferred onto the canvas. At a glance, the work of a modern painter looks like office work, and painting resembles calculated production. The painter, associated with uniqueness, originality and passion, turns into an ordinary employee sitting at a desk. Of course, this is only a semblance; whether the artist uses a computer or a brush does not matter because her head is the basic tool of her trade. This semblance, however, is intriguing. My action was intended to confront it with the still vivid myth of the painter.