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These joyous and celebratory images by Scottish digital printmaker and design lecturer Lesley Cullan are an unapologetic expression of joie de vivre. They sing with colour and dance with cascading motifs, enlivening the spirit and affirming the will to live. It's no wonder then that 30 pieces by Cullan are being shown in the Imprints digital art exhibition by the Grampian Health Board Arts Trust at Aberdeen’s prestigious Royal Infirmary.
These works are a highland fling, a birthday party, a song to the granite hills and their fairytale castles. The Celts do not relinquish that which is of value when the new invades and Cullan's philosophy reflects this timeless idea.
"I believe in the integration of digital technology whilst holding on to the fundamental values of composition, colour, mark-making and layering of elements," she says. "We should keep traditional values alive whilst utilising this new tool to its fullest potential."
Taking inspiration from the modernist abstract expressionists and colourists Howard Hodgkin and Albert Irvin (there's a touch of Gillian Ayers here too, I think), Cullan's calligraphic and gestural mark-making and chorus of colours are applied to a variety of media, from stained glass to fabrics and large scale public wall-hangings. Adobe Photoshop is Cullan's preferred tool: "It's not just a design tool but also a painting medium," she says. "Photoshop is a vital part of my decision making process as an artist."
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Cullan graduated with a first class Honours Degree from Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, followed by a postgraduate qualification in printed textile and stained glass from Gray's and Edinburgh College of Art. She has subsequently received numerous accolades and awards for her work. In the late 1980s she held posts as graphic designer and deputy creative services manager for Aldus Europe, the original developer of PageMaker, taken over by Adobe in 1994.
Although she has taught the use of Photoshop for more than five years, Cullan has only used the program as a serious art tool for the last two, producing exhibition works and limited edition prints for sale. She combines her traditional printmaking skills gained working with screen separations, exposed screens, inks for papers and dyes for fabric with Photoshop's layers, transparency and endless flexibility in composition. Scaling, repositioning and re-colouring are key capabilities that she exploits to build up a library of re-usable elements.
Currently lecturing in CAD at Grays School of Art and The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, she continues to work as a freelance artist and earlier this year exhibited her work in the 'Bitstream' Digital Group exhibition at the Historical Museum in Novosibirsk, Russia. Her work was also selected for the international CADE 1999 touring exhibition and Gamut, a multinational digital group exhibition at the Colville Street Gallery in London.
These are works to indulge yourself in; let slip the burdens of the daily grind and feast on unashamed joy.
Lesley Cullan can be contacted by email at: l.cullan@rgu.ac.uk
Adobe contributor Suzanne Cline is a writer and multimedia artist in the UK. Her philosophy is that technology is for today but creativity is for life.
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