Monday, August 18, 2014

Limited Edition Prints Now Available!

After a lot of back and forth with various publishers who wanted to work with me, I'm now offering Limited Edition Prints via Houzz! Selected works are already available and more will be added soon.
 Buy this print at Houzz.com
Oceano - Limited Edition Print in a living space


These prints are created using archival inks on beautiful matte art paper. Each print is hand signed.

I've been wanting to offer lower priced art for a long time, and while the works on paper and etchings (original prints) offer lower price points, they are still originals and priced as such. In addition, a lot of feedback I'm getting from my website is that people are really interested in specific paintings, but either can't afford them or the works are already sold. But I did NOT want to offer reproductions on canvas, as this is pretending to be something it's not: an original on canvas. However, when printing these paintings onto high quality paper, the results are really stunning! These prints have a quality of their own, and because they are on paper, they make no attempt in pretending to be a painting. They are reproductions. Top quality beautiful pieces, but reproductions. And they are priced as such.

View Available Prints!

If you have a particular painting you would like to get in print format, please feel free to let me know.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Johannisnacht in Carnac

I'm honored to have this beautiful poem dedicated to me. It's in German, so apologies to my non-German speaking friends. Vielen Dank dir, Margarete Platzer!

Für die Malerin Anne Stahl

Johannisnacht in Carnac

Elfe an Menhir
Gelehnt, so fand ich mich
In jener Nacht
Geschmiegt an den Riesen
Aus Granit
Steinalter Brocken
Megalith

Ich hatte Werkzeug nicht dabei
Um deine Schroffheit abzurunden
Vertraute weiche Körperformen
Aus deinem Leib herauszuschlagen
Nur meine Hände legt`ich an
Verwesungsspuren zu verwischen
Haut auf Stein
Kein Raum dazwischen

Haut auf Stein
Das fühlte ich, Geborgenheit
In jener Nacht
Weiß besternt
Jasmin, Holunder
Die Einheit der Dinge
Und Raum für Wunder

Aus der Zeittiefe schmuckloser Gräber
Aus den Dolmen stiegen Wächter
Dunkelmassig Stein um Stein
Lautlos kreisten sie uns ein

Rückwärts sprang ich in die Nacht
In ein dichtes Netz aus Blüten
Jasmin, Holunder
Im Weiß dieser Mauer
Meine Augen
Rückzug und Trauer

Heute knete ich aus Ton
Muttergottheiten
Weibliche Formen
Kleine Figuren
Flach und zerbrechlich
Ich lege sie im Kreis um dich

© M.G.Platzer

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Why is this art making people stop in their tracks and look into the sky?

Google's Aaron Koblin portfolio already is impressive, but when he partnered with Janet Echelman a successful master sculptor and TED talk veteran, something truly new and beautiful emerged. When you put two masterminds and creative trendsetters together, the results are always going to be interesting, but this collaboration goes way beyond interesting!

This is the crossroads where art and technology meet. Pioneers of data visualization like Eric Fischer, who created, or DJ Patil at LinkedIN Lab who developed a tool, that lets it's users generate a visualization of their network - have demonstrated how data can be presented in an aesthetic way, not just to illustrate the information they inherently contain, but to create a piece of art that stands on it's own right.maps based on geotagging by users on Flickr
NYC by Geotagging
With languages like Processing making it relatively easy for non-computer science graduates to develop programs that can generate this type of visualization, the tools have come a long way. And with the sheer volume of data available today (Big Data has been the center of attention at CeBIT 2014) the possibilities seem endless. However, to date, most of these project were created by science and computer enthusiasts and professionals, rather than by artists.

There are still few universities and colleges that offer any programming or technology courses to art majors. At best there are courses for Photoshop and Image editing, but rarely can an art student learn the tools needed to dive into data visualization. Yet, with so much data and so many advances in technology, this area is crying out for further deep exploration by the most creative of our globe's people. The MAT (Media Arts and Technology) Graduate program at UCSB in Santa Barbara, California is one of the few universities with a deeper focus on merging art and technology. Other school probably have similar programs, but I might not be aware of them for a number of reasons.
Interestingly, the role of Social Media in today's society has also been largely ignored by artists. Although many use it to promote their work and exhibitions and to market themselves, the topic itself has not made it into their work (please feel free to comment if you are an artist who has done so or if you know of any).

In the end, it is still refreshing to see projects like 'Ununmbered Sparks' and probably well worth a trip to Vancouver!