Center for Digital Art

ABOUT MOTIONPAINTINGS

‘Motionpainting’ is a word I use to describe much of the work I’ve been doing over the last three decades: by it I simply mean artwork that incorporates duration yet remains rooted in ‘stillness’. In spite of the fact that these works are time based, they are not narrative in content or form. As in traditional painting, they have no beginning or end and are meant for continuous viewing. The new province of this art may in fact be duration without development – or, put another way, aspects of ‘now’ in duration.

TOWARD A CONTEMPORARY PALETTE

The computer is an authoritarian tool – it gives you a framework that invites freedom, then locks you in with zeros and ones (Picasso once remarked that he had no interest in computers because they only give you answers). It also distances you from ‘materiality’ and significant sense interaction (although this is changing). Be that as it may and ignorant of where this activity would lead, over the years I found the recombinant powers of the computer on any given task or work or project more and more intriguing. I began to wonder, could a ‘work of art’ not ‘move’ and still be distinct from film or animation? What did the ability to use ‘layers’ offer? Could they act as ‘echoes of memory’? I slowly started to feel my way toward the ‘motionpaintings’ I’ve been doing for the last thirty years - work that includes traditional practices yet incorporates digital media anchored in concerns, expectations, and goals that we know as ‘painting’.

STUDIO OPENING
On August 25, 2024 (5 pm to 7 pm), there will be an official public opening to my artwork/studio on Pleasant Valley Road in West Brattleboro, Vermont. Everyone welcome. In the meantime, the studio will be open by appointment or chance during the Marlboro Music School season every Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 1 pm. To make an appointment, call/text 802 258-8081 or email [email protected]. Or just stop by during those days/times.

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Please read Bernie Sanders' Op Ed in today's NYTimes on the Israel/Palestinian conflict. He offers practical and humane steps to end this war.

3 iterations of Red Cross (with Meme Perretier) motionpainting. Note that the work can be seen in more or less broad daylight, and 'materiality' is enhanced thru the use of oil paints 'supered' on the projection. 2023.

Here are two motionpainting stillframes (works in progress) I've been working on to explore 'interactivity' and 'materiality'. The left one ('Final Self Portrait-8') explores 'interactivity' thru a live we**am feed and 'materiality' (the illusion of) with usage of oil paint globs. The right ('Delicate Mom') uses a variety of elements including a Max/Jitter layer animation of facsimile cloud movements and an older sketch of my brother and I on a bicycle). Both include multiple 'recycled' artworks with drawings in both oil paint (both real), virtual oil paint and drawing in a paint software. These works are intended for large screen projection and continuous viewing. Look for them when completed on my site michelmoyse.com.
Stay tuned for a series of hands-on workshops in 'motionpaintings' I'm planning for Spring and Summer of next year out of my studio in West Brattleboro, Vermont! These will give participants an opportunity to explore this 'contemporary palette' in depth and with one-on-one instruction. For more information on these upcoming workshops, email [email protected]

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C.X. Silver Gallery presents Michel Moyse and Lee Xi: Deconstructed Narrative in Video, Motionpainting and Multimedia.

You are cordially invited to a reception and discussion with the artists ‪FRIDAY July 26, 7-9pm‬. The installation at CX Silver Gallery is open daily through September by appointment ‪(802) 257-7898‬ x1.

Michel describes his motionpainting: “ ‘Time’ enters into the picture perhaps more for its plastic properties than its temporal properties. That is, the issue is one of spatial displacement more so than temporal displacement - although these of course exist in "duration". These developments are absolutely 'contemporary', because they rest on the digital revolution. My "motionpaintings" explore this 'geography of the imagination'. ” Moyse is hosting a motionpainting workshop in August at Center For Digital Art in Brattleboro. michelmoyse.com • centerfordigitalart.com

Le explains his video odyssey: “ Art is not what you think it is, nor is it what draws you into a literary story. My work doesn't give any meaning, just presents the experience of finding shared boundaries. I record the boundaries of different things through cameras and sketches, trying to break the boundaries between art and life, art as a process that exists between different things. This experience has prompted me to look for an elusive quality. Art is helping me to capture as accurately as possible this quality. No matter how I explain its meaning, I have never caught it exactly. I just keep trying to capture it, never interrupted.” cxsilvergallery.com/le-xi • lexistudio.com

It's now easier to send Center for Digital Art a message.

Motionpainting Workshop available Aug 19 - 23, 2 to 4 pm. Contact [email protected] for details.

Explore the world of digital art in a workshop

Thanks to the Brattleboro Reformer a great article about CDA's upcoming, free workshop Introduction to the Contemporary Art Palette Aug 18 & 19, 2018

https://www.reformer.com/stories/explore-the-world-of-digital-art-in-a-workshop,546431

reformer.com BRATTLEBORO — Artists Michel Moyse and Le Xi are offering hands-experience of new developments in the contemporary palette of digital art with a 'tasting party' of non-traditional tools in a …

There's still time and room available for the Center for Digital Art's free 2 day workshop "Introduction to the Contemporary Art Palette" August 18 and 19 (Sat 9 am to 4 pm, Sun 9 am to 4 pm + artist talk in the evening). For info, contact Michel Moyse at [email protected] or Adam Silver at cxsilvergallery.com

Le-Xi and Michel Moyse will be giving a free 2-day workshop on video art and the new contemporary palette on Saturday and Sunday August 18 & 19, 2018. For content and details, please see CDA events on CDA facebook or contact [email protected] or Adam Silver at 802 579 9088.

Michel Moyse "Open Studio" Exhibit - great attendance over the weekend! Thanks to all for your visits -

Working on motionpainting portrait of Sadie Holliday (CDA's new studio!)

Still frame of Linda Portrait, 2016 (a 'motionpainting' of variable size; part of a series of ten portraits I've been working on over the last 2 years). Will soon be on Vimeo.

Fine-tuning on Tony Checchia motionpainting portrait - somehow it calls for another iteration!