Every time I think about my studio and the tools I have at my disposal today I am amazed. I remember wrestling with a little device called an Omnigraph back in the 70's. It was a odd plastic thing that helped one draw ellipses. I remember another device, a complex set of wooden sticks that, when set properly, would enable one to scale up a drawing by tracing over the original and simultaneously drawing a larger copy. I have used more Prestype than I care to admit, I have struggled with compasses, protractors, Rapidograph pens, isometric projection charts. Over the years, I have savaged every darkroom and photography tool I own in an attempt to manipulate my images, to stretch them, loosen them up, add color, all toward the goal of enabling me to invent, alter, appropriate or capture images for my art.
Today I have on my workdesk a set of computer tools that still, after a decade of using computers, seems to me like pieces of a magic box. I use a standard PC which I build myself. It has transmogrified over the years from a 386SX with 4 MB of RAM through a series of motherboards to my present system a Pentium PCI bus 100MHZ with 32MB RAM, 2 - 850 MB hard drives, PCI video. I have a 17" Nokia monitor, use a Microtek IIsp scanner, ZIP drive, Calcomp drawing pad, own a Epson Stylus printer and use a Snappy video capture device in conjunction with a Sony 8mm video camera.
I get most of my images into the computer through my scanner. I scan objects directly rather than photograph them first and later scan the photos. Working directly gives me a great deal of creative latitude. Although I am limited in the kinds of things I can successfully scan, my interest in texture, pattern, small objects, symbols, organic forms gives me a broad range of subject matter from which to choose.
I try to scan at about 200 ppi and generally work with images in the 15 - 25 MB range. Flattened, my images are usually around 12 MB. I use Photoshop as my primary software. I use Painter and my drawing pad to do any drawing or painting on my images. I also use Truspace, a 3-D modeling software for building images that I integrate into my work. In Truspace, I often use scanned or drawn 2-D images as texture and bump maps for the 3-D objects.
Most of my prints are done on a Novajet inkjet printer. I like the ability to print my pieces large, particularly because the elements in my work are usually fairly humble. The Novajet can print up to 36" wide on various types of paper. I like to think of my pieces as prints rather than photographs so I lean more toward the crispness of inkjet printers rather than toward the softness of dye-sublimation printers.
I am waiting for the advent of the 3-D printer. It feels like the one thing that is missing in my wonderful array of tools. I miss the texture of an etching, the paint quality of a screen print, the depth of a lithograph. So one of my goals is to experiment with ways in which I can bring together traditional printmaking and digital technology.
Thomas Hyatt
[View Artist's Statement]
