iPad-Künstler David Newman in Mobile-Next.de

Rück rüber, Picasso, die Nerds kommen! Raffinierte Mal-Apps für iPad und iPhone machen Laien zu van Goghs. Mobile Next stellt bekannte Künstler und die besten Tools vor.

Es beginnt mit einem WOZ. Dreimal untereinander: WOZ, WOZ, WOZ. Sofort verschwinden die Buchstaben unter einem graublauen Gekritzel, gefolgt von einer orangefarbenen Linie, die ein Rechteck wird. Darin ein weißer Punkt, dann ein roter Fleck. David Newman malt auf seinem iPad. Das Liniengewirr in Graublau verdichtet sich zum Hintergrund, das Rechteck verwandelt sich in einen Laptop, der weiße Punkt wird zum Apfel-Logo. Und der weinrote Fleck? Der entpuppt sich als Steve Wozniak, „The Woz“, der Mitbegründer von Apple.

In late May 2011, I was contacted by Silvia Flier, editor of the new print and online magazine Mobile-Next. Mobile-Next is a new magazine dealing with mobile technologies and lifestyles - like Wired meets Monocle. It is distributed in Germany only, with some issues reaching subscribers in Austria and Switzerland. Circulation: 50,000.

This 4-page article, written in German, includes a feature about my DNSF iPad Portraits as a result of Silvia's e-mail  interview with me.

Here is an excerpt, adapted from the interview text as well as Google Translate.

"The artists of high tech are the innovative software engineers, the entrepreneurs, the user experience designers, and the people who support them in their efforts. My goal is to honor their creativity and innovation from a fine art point of view. I hope to make art about these artists and their creations in a respectful way. I am portraying these artists in their environments, surrounded by their tools, using today’s hardware, software and communications technologies.  In ten years, when the iPad will have become an ancient relic, and today’s high tech tools and toys will have all been recycled, hopefully the creativity and inspiration of today’s Silicon Valley will be remembered in my portraits in ways that cannot be captured with photography."

He uses the iPad for this mission, painting by hand. How could he capture the zeitgeist better than with the product that exactly characterizes the zeitgeist like no other? There are very practical reasons: 

"With the iPad, I saw the perfect marriage of paper’s lightweight portability and always-on nature together with the power of computer graphics, which lets me paint with light, save multiple versions, share online, and use the undo feature occasionally.  It is a natural medium for me as an artist."