trk_chopARTlST’S STATEMENT

Although the work that I have been creating over the past several years has been achieved with the generous use of technology and generally filled with images “pilfered” from popular culture, commerce, science, its subject (if it has one) has little to do with either. In my case the medium is only peripheral to the what the art is about – part of the landscape and language surrounding it. What the art is concerned with is spiritual and existential – contemporary humanity’s (and my own) longing for meaning and transcendence. The desktop computer (and technology in general) are certainly part of the context we modern primates presently find ourselves, but this technology is merely the tool we happen to have at hand.

For the past several years l have been making my living as a graphic designer serving the advertising, music and publishing industries on the West coast. My computer has become for me the most natural and normal means of making new images (ironically, often from old ones). It certainly has an impact on how the process of working proceeds. But it has little to do with my goals as an artist. l do not wish to be known as a computer or digital artist. I’m still just a reasonably creative and reflective person trying to cope and do his job with the tools at hand.

A BRIEF ARTISTIC HISTORY

Biogiaphica:

Born May 11,1953 in Corona, CA, USA. Began painting in oils at the age of 7 (and took up playing guitar at age 10).

Education:

1963-1966 Private art lessons from age of 10 to 13.
1970 Advance placement classes taken in figure drawing at Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA
1971 Graduated Simi High School, Simi Valley, CA.
1971-1973 Attended Moorpark College, Moorpark, CA
1974 Attended lnstituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico
1975-1977 Attended Moorpark College, Moorpark, CA
1977-76 and 1980-81 Attended and Graduated University Of California, Santa Barbara.

Degrees, Certificates Awards, Shows & Commissions:

1970 Scholarship – Art Center College of Design Advance Placement Program
1970 First One Man Show – Top Drawer Gallery, Simi Valley, CA
1971 Scholarship – Art Center College of Design Advance Placement Program
1971 California State Scholarship – The State of California Department of Education
1971 Award – Bank of America Achievement in Art, High School Level
1973 Poinsettia Award – Ventura County prize for outstanding achievement in Art – College Level
1973 Exhibit Inclusion – Conejo Valley Museum of Art Annual Art Exhibition Competition – ,Thousand Oaks, CA
1981 Exhibit Inclusion –  Santa Barbara City College Small images Exhibition Competition, Santa Barbara, CA
1981 Degree with Honors – Bachelors in Art Studio UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
1982 Art Teaching Credential – California Secondary, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
1990 Sculpture Commission – large-scale welded metal sculpture, “Matatenas,” College of the Canyons, Valencia, CA
1993 Exhibit Inclusion – Five digital images in “Through My Window” juried museum exhibit, Museum of History & Art, Anchorage, AK
1993 Appointee  – The Task Force for Visual Arts, City of Ventura, CA
1994 Second One Man Show – Photographic Gallery, Ventura, CA
1999 Third One Man Show – “Nothing Sacred” an exhibit of 45 digital images, Puccinelli Gallery, Guttenberg College, Eugene, OR