Digital Art and Photomanipulation - Lena Semenkova Feature

by NDK Creative Artist

It is generally accepted that digital art is artwork created with digital and electronic equipment such as cameras, scanners, computers, tablet PCs, and software. This has lead to the development of imagery that ranges from the uniquely digital illustration to the compositing of images so seamlessly that they become a work of art that looks astoundingly real.

Imagination is pretty much the only limit to what we can do now. But it takes imagination to put together images that actually communicate, that create something meaningful, and make a statement that stimulates our minds, our emotions, and souls.

The first digital image was literally symbolic of the newborn genre, and it began far earlier than I had imagined it might have. 1957 saw the first scanned image, created using a room-sized computer to generate a low-quality image of a baby in black & white. It’s interesting that a scientist and an art lover should have their child be the first ‘digital baby,’ who then grows up to work in communications with one of the foremost chip making companies in the world.

Some consider we are now in a “‘post-digital age’ where the medium is no longer the message.” Thank the great grok for that, because the focus and confusion is just a superficial technological infatuation that rarely has any depth, and which ignores the art while pumping up the technology in some sort of quick-buck marketing-fest. The glut of imagery available today as everybody becomes a publisher affects the availability of quality in the market place, where we find images that are for the most part passé.

The Rise of the Clones is a part of the problem. Finding artists who have something original to say, who are engaged with the reality of the world, and who are able to make sense of it, is becoming increasingly difficult as mediocrity rises and the homogeneity of globalization reduces the human intellect to the consistency of the gruel THX 1138 used to manufacture before he sought liberty. This is not to say that pure escapism in any art form is unnecessary or unimportant, but even these lighter-sides of art & entertainment suffer from mediocre production values and a paucity of insight, intellect and imagination.

When the technology has become more sexy than the art produced with it, then the works have lost their luster. It’s all about the newness of the technology and the tech-wow factor and not about what the image actually says.

It’s the “eye candy” concept taken to the extreme and just as sugar rots your teeth, so art devoid of meaning and message begins the decay of the human spirit and that is not a religious observation. I consider such eye-candy art to be rather more of a statement about our culture and civilization than it is about the nature of the art on one hand. On the other hand I think it’s something to do with the fact that so few artists, maybe 1:100, can actually present one with a consistent set of imagery that just slams you upside the head and nearly takes it off your shoulders in stunned amazement, even as it renders new realization and insight into the human condition within the privacy of our own minds.

In the next few days and over coming months the Free Articulator is going to be introducing you to (among writers, poets, storytellers, songwriters, and others) some amazing visual artists starting with Lena Semenkova. Lena focuses the meaning of her images, and zeroes in on the concept with an unerring grasp of visual metaphor that to people who thrive on meaning simply serves the need for stimulating communication.

Lena’s images are unforgettable simply because of the power of the insight they deliver. Real art tells a story, our story.

Feature Index

1. Lena Semenkova - Camouflage of Contradictions
2. Digital Art and Photomanipulation
3. Review: The Imitator
4. Review: The Waiting
5. Review: Superstar
6. Interview Part 1
7. Review: The Kingdom
8. Review: Like a Bird
9. Interview Part 2
10. Review: Ghost Rider
11. Review: All the snowflakes must die
12. Interview Part 3
13. Review: Red Skull
14. Review: Prisoner of Conscience
15. Review: War
16. Conclusion

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If you'd rather we did all the hard work, you're in luck. Here's a list of articles that are related to this one:

• Lena Semenkova - Camouflage of Contradictions
• Review: Superstar - Lena Semenkova Feature
• Review: Red Skull - Lena Semenkova Feature
• Review: Prisoner of Conscience - Lena Semenkova Feature
• Interview Part 1 - Lena Semenkova Feature