JIM FARIS

Harbor Coat Print by Jim Faris

Artomatic 2017

It’s that time again, Artomatic 2017. I’ll be there on the 8th floor #8608. This is my first year of only showing prints from digital paintings from my iPad.

There are a few artist there showing works created only using their iPad and everyone is very hesitant to admit to it, I totally understand why. We all have been conditioned to think, “if it’s digital, or photoshop, then that’s not real art.” And felt the same way too, in fact I still kinda do feel that way. Yet here I am with a 20 foot wall of prints at an art show, so what do I really believe?

I believe that as an artist, I respond to my tools and medium as much as I do my subject and inspiration. When I was young I loved to throw paint, and make an exciting mess. I used house paint and spray cans and stencils. Then I went to art school and studied the greats but followed the path of a designer… fonts, photos, and layouts became my medium… and eventually computers. Then, my wife inspired me to get back into painting, with so much graphic-arts baggage, it’s been a journey to finding my voice, my style, my thing. I was once a primitive, then a graphic, then an impressionist, then a mixed media and on and on. My style and my works are influenced by everything.

This year, we had another baby, and the idea that I could pull out the easel, set up for painting… well, it just wasn’t happening. For the last few years I’ve used the iPad as my sketchbook, a first step towards a finished piece. But this year, with baby, toddler and teen ager running around, I sat down and painted the ones I love on my iPad. And the result is on the wall at Artomatic this year.