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Exhibition at MiraCosta College - October 2002
The Humanity Series - 2003Digital Paintings - 2004 through 4/30/2005
Digital Paintings - through 4/30/2006Digital Paintings - through 7/31/2006
New Paintings Through July/2010
The Artwork of Howard Ganz
Emulating and understanding the patterns of nature is the major direction of my work as an artist. During the 1970’s I produced an artist’s book which described and illustrated my ideas about organic form. During the 1980’s I wrote computer programs that implemented ideas from my book and created endless varieties of colorful organic designs which were printed on computer printers and exhibited. During these years I also taught full time and considered myself a painter even though most of my paintings were done from my programs by my computer.
Now, during the 1990’s, I have returned to painting by hand with a brush, though sometimes the brush is that of a computer painting program. At this time, I don’t wish to dwell on the past, but just write a little about my current painting activities.
I have always been inspired in the country, in natural environments away from the visual constructs of civilization. I like the comforts and social life of our cities, but I think we would be healthier if they were built to embody more of the patterns and relationships found in nature.
For the past 8 years I have returned to my love of nature as a painter. My strongest influence is probably from Cezanne, but also Kandinsky, Kokoschka and later Hans Hoffmann, Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. This is a somewhat diverse group but held together by the idea of structure with some Expressionism thrown in. Of course, my work is my own. By this age I have my own way of doing things and much experience to draw upon, though the future is still uncharted.
I know my paintings speak for themselves, and no-matter what I write, the proof (art) is in the painting. But here are some of the things I think about my process of painting.
Set a platform with color and shape, then make something happen that’s honest and engaging.
The power of nature is something beyond clean, straight, regular forms. Nature’s geometry is fractal rather than Euclidean.
Randomness is a part of nature and a major factor in evolution.
Allow some alchemy of shape and color where the original image is transformed to something exciting or moving in terms of paint, canvas and spirit.
Painting outdoors in the natural environment is a strong inspiration, and there’s honesty in the act of painting what you see.
Nature is a great teacher, but there’s a problem. The process of copying nature does not have the same flow and rhythm as working from a subject in your mind. Your mind’s subject can be controlled without interference from what you see. Yet a remembered subject may not have the same clarity as one from nature seen in front of you.
The eternal challenge for a painter is to paint what he sees restructured to what he knows and feels.
There is an endless dialog and interesting tension between the reality of what is seen and the reality of what is known. This same relationship exists between the reality of the painting and the reality of what the viewer knows.
Paint outdoors while looking in your mind to what you know, or paint indoors from your mind while remembering the strength of what you saw outdoors.
My latest paintings using computers are from my mind, informed by what I’ve seen outdoors. What I’ve seen in nature is becoming an abstraction I know and feel.
My computer work of the 1980’s was on the cutting edge of that technology.
My present work is equally valid though it may not present an obvious
breakthrough in technology or style. The art of a culture does not have to
present a monolithic history. There need not be a single line of progression.
I can go back to Cezanne and follow my own path into the present making art
that is culturally valid. Though I realize the path is similar to others
that already exist, my art reveals my own original qualities and perhaps
new insights. It is one more vital thread in the bundle of threads the make
up our present culture.