Professor discusses printmaking, digital art work at IUAM

Art professor Edward Bernstein will discuss his work with digital art and printmaking Wednesday at the IU Art Museum.\nBernstein, of the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, has worked with etchings and engravings for more than 30 years.\nIn 2003 he began to explore the possibilities of combining traditional printmaking with digital media. His explorations into the digital world began while teaching an IU summer program in Venice.\n“I started working with digital media sort of by accident,” Bernstein said.\nHe became interested in working with famous Murano chandeliers. He originally intended to use a technique developed in the 17th century to capture the beauty of chandeliers, but he found it to be too expensive and complicated. A friend suggested he try using computers to cut costs. \n“The initial results were dreadful,” Bernstein said. “The technology couldn’t capture the rich and amazing colors you usually see with printmaking.”\nFortunately, the quality of the work increased markedly with better technology and the help of more computer-savvy assistants. “I’ve always been more comfortable in a studio, where I can get my hands dirty,” Bernstein said. “I’m not a natural when it comes to computers, so I hire graduate students to help with the computers.” \n Despite the obvious differences between printmaking and digital media, there are some surprising similarities. In Abode Photoshop, a popular program used to create digital media, the user organizes pieces of the larger image into layers. \n“The layering is similar in both, the way you think and have to separate things out,” Bernstein said. \nAll seven of Bernstein’s pieces on display at the Biennial Faculty exhibit incorporate at least some measure of digital technology. One of them is a seven-and-a-half-minute video, and the rest are prints with elements of traditional printmaking fused with digital media. \nThe Noon Talk will be from 12:15 to 1 p.m. It is being held in conjunction with the Biennial Faculty exhibit currently on display in the IU Art Museum’s Special Exhibitions Gallery. \n“The talk will be more about the ideas in the work rather than the individual pieces,” Bernstein said. “People should come and ask questions.”