The Artist’s App

“Deep Forest”

The word “finger-painting” usually conjures up images of three-year-olds sitting around a preschool table, getting as much paint on their faces as on the paper. In the finger paintings featured at The Flying Pig gallery’s “The World at Your Fingertips” exhibit, however, not a single drop of paint was spilled – or used at all.

The exhibit, opening June 26, will show the creations of 23 artists from around the world, not using a paintbrush and easel as their creative medium, but an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad. With the help of apps like Autodesk’s Sketchbook Mobile, which sponsors the exhibit, these artists use their fingertips on a touch screen to create surprisingly high-quality works of art.

“We were just excited about the opportunity,” says Susan Connor, co-owner of The Flying Pig. “It’s going to be the first in Wisconsin, so we’re breaking totally new ground. Many people assume that they’re starting with a photograph and altering it, which is totally not the case. To see the artwork that they’re creating on such a small device – I was just amazed and thrilled at the opportunity to have an international exhibit.”

The group of artists, which met on the photo-sharing website Flickr, is led by Susan Murtaugh of Two Rivers, who also acted as curator to the exhibit.

“I was thinking of the viewer, the visitor who comes to The Flying Pig,” Murtaugh says. “I wanted to make sure that they saw the whole experience…so I think we’ve covered all of the major genres that people would be used to in real life – put air quotes around real – painting, because I do consider this real painting.”

Murtaugh originally became interested in finger-painting a year and a half ago, when she saw the sketches a Disney animator had posted on Flickr.

“Take Flight”

“I said ‘How did you do that?’,” she remembers. “And he emailed me back and said, ‘Get an iPod touch quick!’ And I did; I got one that week, and I loved it that much.” She began to meet other finger painters when she contacted Steve Sprang, the inventor of Brushes, another art app.

“We all became beta testers for the app itself,” Murtaugh says. Beta testers try out software before it is released to the public, and make suggestions for its improvement. “So it was like ‘Oh Steve, I need a brush that has lines going through it so it looks like a paintbrush.’…We worked very hard to make this device look like painting. And I think that’s why this is different, this time, because all of us had a stake in our material and how it was coming out of the iPod, and how it looks when we print it.” Connor agrees.

“The more and more these software developers are working with their artist consultants, like Susan,” she says, “the better and better the software is becoming. It’s so much more, I think, real-world, than digital has ever been.”

With the help of multi-touch technology as well as some inventions of her own, Murtaugh has certainly made finger-painting seem very similar to traditional art.

“You’re going to think this is crazy,” she says, laughing. “I actually set my iPad on an easel now, and when you look at me you’d think I’m painting, but I’m actually using the iPad straight-up with a really long-handled stylus that looks, for all intents and purposes, like a brush, but it’s made out of an old sponge.”

When it comes to the actual apps, Murtaugh points to layers as the biggest difference between finger-painting and traditional art.

“You can do some under painting, and then trace over it, and collapse layers, and so you can build a painting or a drawing much easier with layers,” she explains. “I used to paint with pastels and oils, and I’ve literally started to give my old stuff away because I like this stuff so much better.” She says the short amount of time it takes to complete a finger-painting is one of the main reasons she enjoys the new art form so much, and that the “undo” button has been a big help in that regard.

“Celebration”

When it came to curating the exhibit, Murtaugh knew she wanted artists with experience.

“There’s a lot of people that show up on Flickr and they do four drawings and then they disappear,” she says. “These are committed artists that have been doing it for well over a year now, and will continue to do it.”

They’re already planning the details. Though The Flying Pig’s exhibit is the first of its kind in the United States, a similar show in Connecticut, also featuring Murtaugh, will open July 1. And other exhibits are in the works in Arizona and Germany. Four of the 23 artists will travel from Phoenix, Detroit, Washington D.C., and Edmonton, Canada to join Murtaugh in presenting their work at The Flying Pig, and the entire group plans to meet in person for the first time this fall.

“We’re going to meet in New York in October,” Murtaugh says. “So I’m actually going to finally meet Benjamin from Germany, and hopefully Matthew from Italy…We are getting together, and we’re meeting with the software developers, because it’s that good. When you’ve been working in art for a long, long time, you can tell when something is really working.”

“One of the things we’ve always tried to do with The Flying Pig gallery,” Connor says, “is be representing kind of the emerging artists, and educating the public more about new things that are coming out and kind of cutting-edge, giving the emerging artist the chance for the world to see their work. This is how I see this show. To be on the front end of this has been so fun; it’s been a whirlwind, it’s been phenomenal.”

And both Connor and Murtaugh are looking forward to seeing what finger-painting becomes.

“It’ll have it’s own moment,” Connor says. “I hope that it does. You’ve had pop art, there’s visionary artists, everybody has a name for something and I hope that they earn that respect, that they have their own category.”

Murtaugh looks to continue leading this revolution, and encourages anyone with one of Apple’s touch-screen devices to try their hand – literally – at finger-painting.

“Put the app Brushes on it, because I think that Brushes is the easiest one to start with,” she says. “And take you finger and draw something. And you’ll feel the experience.”

“The World at Our Fingertips” will run from June 26 to July 31. A reception is planned for Saturday, July 17 from 3 – 6 pm, and there will be demonstrations of the technique and a plein air paintout on Sunday, July 11 from 10 am – 5 pm. Artists of any medium are invited and welcome to attend.

The Flying Pig Gallery and Greenspace is located at N6975 Hwy 42, two miles south of Algoma. The gallery is open daily, 9 am – 6 pm. For more information call 920.487.9902, visit http://www.theflyingpig.biz, or email [email protected].