Experimental Design:
Third Place, Most Professional

SiuLing Martinez
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Read the Pictures: Learn the Art

Artist's Statement: As a contemporary fine artist, I use the technology available to create my artwork. To me, my stylus pen is equally as important as my charcoal pencil. Since my undergraduate years, the computer has served me as another tool for my artwork. Today, as an Art and Technology MFA candidate, I am sure it is going to keep playing a central role in the development of my art.

My recent work, Read the Picture: Learn the Art, was created in its totality on the computer. This series of cards deals with the current situation of contemporary art, putting emphasis on the multi-culturalism, the globalized art market, and the social-cultural changes around the world. Each pair of cards is based on actual, contemporary, famous art pieces that are also commonly found objects. These cards serve as a bridge between the art and non-art, the high and low, the mundane and the sublime. They are a reminder of the dichotomy present in our world. It reminds the artist of the universal nature of their art and reminds the average viewer of the hidden beauty in everyday objects. Each set of cards display the same image, and three languages (English, Spanish, and Chinese) describing them, one as art and the other as regular objects. They look like a didactic art game, reminiscent of card games or flash cards for kids. On a personal level, the public can reevaluate their acquired notion of meanings and their learned associations.

Read the Pictures: Learn the Art was created in several steps. First, the images of the original artwork were scanned into Photoshop® where they were prepared as references in either Photoshop or Illustrator®. I particularly enjoyed the hand drawing on the computer. The mix of the freehand lines in Photoshop and the precise angles in Illustrator enabled me to recreate these images in my own style while retaining a professional look. When the images were ready, they were imported to Illustrator where they were assembled with layout and text created in either Photoshop or Illustrator. From here, the files were prepared for print lab output.