Some people seem to think on first glance that this is a photo manipulation - but no, it's hand-painted (or mouse-painted, I suppose). This is my first big Painter undertaking. When I started this one, I imagined I might wind up doing a whole series of "desk paintings," since when you work with Painter, you're tethered to your computer, so you can only draw what you can see from your desk. It might actually be interesting to try - do paintings of staplers, drawers, disks, etc. But for now, I've just got my phone. It's cute, isn't it.

I started out by trying not to "cheat" at all, meaning that I made every mark by hand and didn't do any fills or anything. But soon I figured that the distinction was probably meaningless. The side of the printer, on the right (it's an HP), and the top of the Bernoulli drive on the left, are each combinations of hand-stroked surfaces and wide-area fills and color selections. My art profs say it's sort of disappointing to see a new medium aping an old one; that is, that using a computer to make a "painting" is a bit like putting a movie camera in front of a stage play. That judgment irritates me, but only because I see the truth in it. Maybe I ought to "cheat" more, use fewer hand strokes and more "automatic" stuff, and see where that leads.

All images copyright Mike Sugarbaker so don't step