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 Having bought his first good camera in Hong Kong in 1978, Brian L. Donat's talent for photography and artistic expression didn't really mature until much later and is still being honed. A 35mm SLR, this first camera allowed him to taste photography and merge with that what he had learned in Commercial Art courses he had elected a few years earlier while enrolled at Lane Technical High School in Chicago, Illinois, where he was born. It was there that this artist learned of techniques to capitalize on the physiology of human vision and how an observer or audience to a composition reacts mentally and subliminally to visual art.
He summarizes ...
"The use of those techniques in photography endeavor to do the following ... 1) present an interesting subject matter and if possible, convey a story, usually suggestive. As in a good short story, the observer creates and fills in much of the details triggered only by what the photo minimally suggests or implies. Beyond this and analagous to a short story, having conflict, denouement, climax and ending, photography too, has structure. This structure, embued visually in 3) geometry ( lines and shapes ) is often used to direct and keep visual attention in combination with 4) spatial recession and contrasts and/or opposition between 5) repeating elements 6) form, 7) light, 8) color and 9) texture to create visual oscillations or direction within a photo. These techniques have long been studied and expressed in other art mediums, drawing, painting, film and sculpture, et al. to achieve artistic impact. True, rarely do situations occur where the entire pallette of these techniques can be put into effect without artificially staging the subject, but when they all do, the results are truly outstanding."
Accompanying some truly superior compositions, many of the photos presented here in this gallery on Yessy, are simple and fail to completely satisfy Brian's relentless drive for that perfect photo, an indiction perhaps, of how difficult that objective can be. But still, these are a reflection upon the early history of his flirtations with photography and visual arts, as well as the continuing tautological evaluation and study that every good artist must engage in, and so, are valid and viable entries in this gallery and are reasonable. The truly good photos stand out as remarkable, unmistakeably incorporating the techniques previously referred to. For example, Brian's feature gallery "Bored at The Laundry-Mat" which was released on May 5th, 2008, demonstrates how one or two good compositions evolved from a study which includes a number of lower quality subjects.
Brian Donat has experiemented with what he has termed 'visual attractors', elements in the structure of a photograph or work of art which having strong visual gravity, grab the observer or audience's attention and force them to focus at one or more points, even to the extent of causing motion, randomly directing attention from one such attractor to another or others. There is such a drive to use these attractors as well as other techniques, that several of this artist's works are titled not for their subject matter, but for their use of technique. The artist will not hesitate to claim himself a technician and that every artist must have a bit of the technician in them, where if not, their works are more of emotion and less of art. Exhibition of visual attractors may be found in 'Match Book', 'The Rejected Male', 'Sparse Attractors', 'Sago Palm Seeds ...', 'Form and Function', 'Black Pipe', 'I Love Your Hoobies' and 'Unique Focal Attractor'.
More recently, Brian has been pioneering experimentation with his own definition of multi-dimensionalism in photographic and digital art mediums. This is obviously not the same as multi-dimensional art in the sense that it exists as a 3 dimensional object or has raised textures or perhaps includes more than one type of application, such as ink, water color and some other method. No, that isn't possible with photography. Instead, Brian relates to multi-dimensionalism in terms of element associations in a composition. He relates that it's easiest to start by considering elements that cause visual oscillations, but that multi-dimensionalism by far and away, exceeds this. Oscillations are quick and repetitive. Multi-dimensionalism sets up associated groupings and the audience to a multi-dimensional work may linger for a time on one association and then move on to yet another. Associations or groupings of elements may be of many different natures, texture, color, similar subject matter or shapes, and may include the familiar technique of using repeating elements. Examples of this type of multi-dimensionalism in Brian's current works, include 'The Nominal Solution', 'Fascia', 'Archeozoic Carbohydrate Soup', 'Top Drawer Offerings' and most recently, the extraordinary work 'Light Sounds'.
By now, some who are reading Brian Donat's biography, might be tempted to pigeonhole, branding him a structuralist, technist, constructionist or classifying him as an adherent to some other type of '-ism' that places elemental structure above all else. But they would err in this judgment, being completely and totally wrong. Brian's art concerns itself foremost with movement and adaptive methodologies to vitalize his art. Adaptation in fact, ranks as a primary focus of his genius and if there exists an '-ism' into which a close fit might be found, look for that fit in dynamism, a philosophy and personal ideology that stems from evaluation, discovery, reflection and utilization of what one discovers. But even here as is often the case, the term has already been used, in art, to indicate the portrayal of dynamic visible motion. Brian instead, concerns himself with visual movement from the audience's subliminal perspective, the hidden interactive movement which involves the audience in the work, neurologically and psychologically, so to speak. His experiments and studies involving multi-dimensionalism, also a term that has already seen use, provides audiences with choice or alternatives as to what they might focus upon, what visual paths they might take in a composition. So the term dynamism, requires an adjective, perhaps interactive, innovative or adaptive dynamism, which correlates more with the contemporary philosophical ideal of dynamism. The dynamist philosophy relates to the application of novel solutions, innovation and further, an open ended generalism inspired by a reflexive and adaptive willingness to work with a diversity of means and methods, a re-evaluation of creative means. Brian would view all past theories of art as usable building blocks and would in fact, incorporate facets of those earlier theories. But this artist would always remain intellectually open not only to crossing lines, exploring and experimentation, but to evolving something new. Whether that means involvement in a repetitive tautology of works or diversification, matters little, because for this artist, both are indispensable and unavoidable stages in the evolution of his art. Don't call it Donatism; that term has also, already been used.
Many photos in this collection are as originally framed when the shot was taken, while others have been cropped and tuned in terms of brightness, contrast, color and hue to force geometry and visual oscillations and/or movement and direction. Brian exercises a keen eye and a wonderfully developed talent and sense for capturing abstraction and artistic structure from the world around him. But not all of his works are purely point and shoot. Cropping to enhance structure is common and alterations in color, hue, brightness and contrast have aleady been mentioned. Several works have been desaturated to black and white for effect. Other special techniques or abstractions of content, color filters for example, have been employed, but rarely. Digital photography and software for manipulating photographic images in digital form have made vast improvements in the flexible editing of photographic material, enabling the artist greater freedoms in terms of creativity.
Yet photography and art have not been Brian Donat's career. When he left Chicago in 1976, he persued a carreer in Computer Science, ultimately moving to California's Silicon Valley in 1982 where his analytical personality and peristance in solving problems would be put to work, specifically, in software development and application programming. Yet he has been all over the map, even in high-tech, having worked in Unix System Administration and Database Administration as well. During this period, Brian's artistic talents smoldered, embers fanned only by artistic appreciation and other artistic flirtations, music and creative writing. Very few works are known from this period, though there may exist surviving works from the artist's own destruction of his work after the melancholy of a failed romance.
After the turn of the millenium, Brian found himself moved from his beloved Silicon Valley to rural Connecticut and here, his art found revival. Though the world was quickly transitioning to digital photography, Brian continued to work with film, but had begun editing negatives with Adobe Photoshop. It was during this time also, that he had first turned his hand toward developing his own film, starting as all photographic students do, with black and white negatives. Yet he quickly relented further interest in film development, understanding that it would soon be supplanted by digital methods, except for a few esoteric artistic techniques based on special manipulations of photographic negatives during the wash. Perhaps it can be owed to his experience in Computer Science, but he knew, that digital was the way to go.
Upon returning to California, Brian was poised to transition almost fully to digital photography and digital art. And once again back in San Jose, enabled by his use of digital cameras, his work is currently undergoing a mushrooming of proliferation and advancement in quality and technique. As yet unrecognized in the art world, perhaps describable as a gifted amateur, Brian L. Donat has turned to presenting his work online, opening his first gallery on April 1st, 2008. Exposure and marketing often bring such aspiring and emerging artists to the fore. To this public offering, he has included several works in digital or computer art which, barely related to photography, demonstrate his flexibility and versatility and always, that conscious analysis and reckoning of technical structure and purpose in art.
One need only look to these examples of Donat's digital or graphic art, 'Kneeling Venus', 'Art in San Jose' or 'The Nominal Solution' and photographic examples including 'Triple G', 'Bored at The Laundry-Mat', 'Match Book' and 'Light Sounds' to find indications of what this artist is capable of and the uncapped diversity of his talent. Whether a collector, a critic, name chaser, art afficianado, street gallery owner, interior designer or just somebody seeking a fine piece of art for their home or office, keep an eye on Brian L. Donat. This artist is bound to make a mark on the art world landscape. Brian enthusiastically and expectantly looks forward to finalizing conditions for a proposed debut of his art in downtown San Jose, California.
Visit Brian L. Donat's Art Community at http://www.avenuesplus.com/xphpbb3/index.php
From the artist:
I hope my art is visually enjoyable and that it not only holds interest, but inspires and teaches as much as I have been inspired and learned from the work of others.
Thank You ...
Brian L. Donat
Please note that the overlayed copyright notice is NOT part of the photo and will NOT appear on prints of photos ordered from this gallery. |
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