THE CANVAS MOVES ONLINE - EXISTENTIAL ARTIST DAVID MAXIM
Patrick Cheatham of CheathamLane beautifully executes an online gallery of San Francisco existential artist David Maxim’s work.
by Michelle Bienias
Beautifully executed and informational, the ‘David Maxim, Unseen Pictures’ website should be used as a blueprint for other artists who wish to display their art on the Internet. The site is a model of simplicity and intelligent interactivity: Panoramas are used to show the work within a gallery setting, stills to view the work head-on, and video depicts artist Maxim addressing specific works.
San Francisco based artist David Maxim has a technique suggestive of Pollack, whom he cites, along with Jasper Johns, as influential in his work, but feels “they had opened formal doors that were then slammed shut by most artists of my own generation,” he says.
Maxim is an internationally recognized artist whose work can be found in some of the most prestigious museums (British Museum, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Carnegie Institute of Arts) and collections in the world. His most recent solo exhibition was at the Graystone Gallery in San Francisco.
Maxim often uses the backside of the stretched canvas for his paintings; in essence, literally showing the structure of how it’s put together – the stretchers, staples, canvas folds and attached objects. “The more it's revealed, the more it remains mysterious,” he explains. “I like this kind of contradiction.”
The strong physical component of Maxim’s art, based upon an intellectual premise, may be why he finds that scientists, those in the building trades, as well as theatre people, and specifically dancers, seem to gravitate towards his work.
“I have tried to concern myself with some of the really BIG questions. They all really come down to Time,” Maxim states. Reluctant to sound pretentious, he elaborates: “Human transience, why and how are we here, what is consciousness -- I try to express these notions through abstract references to the human figure, star imagery (as in galaxy), and simple, clunky machinery that seems to be used to build something much bigger than itself. Actually, the theatre metaphor of the stage is apt, affording a behind-the-scenes, as well as proscenium-side look, at the painting, as if to ask, ‘what is the picture (me), the real nature of its existence (me)?’ Of course, these are the eternal, existential questions: always asked, never convincingly answered.”
I imagine that artists are tired with forever being asked about their technique and inspirational process, hoping and wanting their work to speak for itself. Yet, knowing these answers seems integral to understanding, and appreciating, the art: so I ask Maxim the question. He describes it as analogous to best viewing a dim star in the sky by looking slightly away from it. “To get a grip on an idea for a picture, it’s best for me to look away from it,” he says. “I read various books on cosmology, philosophy and various belief systems in the sciences and religion. I also draw quite a bit; sometimes drawing abstractly leads to a fairly specific idea. Also, drawing from nature, animals at the zoo occasionally, and from the human figure. All this brings fresh air into the studio and my mind.”
The site is so easy and intuitive to navigate that “directions” are unnecessary, although a Help button is there for those who need it. The screen is divided into three sections: running down the left hand pane is a list of all the paintings; the main upper pane offers three panoramas of the gallery, which can be switched by clicking on the red 1, 2 and 3 buttons; the main lower pane contains two expandable informational panels – “About the Artist” and “About the Work”.
Each work is detailed in the “About the Work” pane with the name and year of the piece, materials and dimensions. Many of the works have related video of David Maxim, speaking about his process and the significance of each piece and can be viewed by clicking the Video Camera icon at the bottom of the this pane. The video will open in a new window and play automatically. Each work in the exhibition also has a still photo available for view: just click the Camera icon and the image will open in a new window.
There is video of Maxim explaining the piece ‘Shouts and Trumpets’, taken from the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho; Joshua was told to have his armies march around the walls and blow their trumpets and the walls would come down. The work features trumpet-like objects and splashes of golden paint, which Maxim explains represent the ‘Shouts’.
This website was Patrick Cheathams’ (of CheathamLane) first real foray into the world of virtual tours and QuickTime and Flash scripting; however, he now plans to make art galleries, artists and studios his main focus as a VR photographer, primarily because of their compatibility with and suitability for VR, interactivity and other mixed media. “Exhibits and gallery showings are perfect for combining VR with other digital media that can really make the online user experience an educational one and reach clients and patrons who couldn't otherwise make it to an exhibit,” says Cheatham.
The idea to add the QuickTime video came about by way of an impromptu yet fortuitous in-gallery talk Maxim gave discussing his works, which Cheatham’s partner Maura Lane captured to digital video. “Adding the QuickTime video necessitated a small redesign of the GalleryView, and at this point I decided to make its inner workings as modular and update-able as I could,” Cheatham says. “All references to external still images, video, and most of the informational text is contained in XML format. This allows us to modify and update the GalleryView at any time without the need for re-exporting any part of the project.”
Cheatham is grateful to have had such an enthusiastic partner (Graystone, Ed Russell), who gave him carte blanch to what the final product would entail and encompass. While the artist himself, David Maxim, initially had trouble viewing the online exhibit on his “nearly ancient Mac”, once Cheatham transferred it onto CD-ROM he was thrilled with the result. “As a result of that personal showing, and at David's request, I designed a CD-based version of the GalleryView. I use the CD as a promotional piece, and David has supplied it to the museums and galleries worldwide that collect his work -- as sort of a virtual archive,” reveals Cheatham.
“I also think Patrick and Maura did an incredible job---clear, professional, beautiful, and everyone I've talked to agree,” Maxim says. “I have sent copies to the museums that have my work in their collections. I do think it makes showing work to anyone interested in seeing it, much, MUCH easier. Galleries and museums are more and more accepting the notion of getting acquainted with artists' work online, rather than via slides, and this is making matters easier, cheaper, and more convenient for artists all the way around.”
Does Maxim have any personal favorites from the online exhibit? “They're all my children, but Oracle is a personal hair-raiser.”
And what’s next on the agenda for Cheatham? He’s currently working on an Artist-in-the-Studio series, which David Maxim will be participating in as well.
 The Shoot:
The VRs were shot with a Nikon Coolpix 5000 on a Kaidan Spherical rig, using only available light. While the actual VR shoot was only an afternoon long, the related post-production, Web and QuickTime interface design and testing took about a month, among other projects. There wasn't any need to produce cubic or spherical VR, with the focus being the art on the walls, so the VRs were kept to cylinders
Cheatham says, “I dove in to low/mid level scripting for QuickTime a la Livestage Pro (Totally Hip Software). Their tools really opened up the QuickTime VR I shot to the interactive and informative world I wanted. QuickTime's ability to incorporate Flash (Macromedia) was an added bonus. Using Flash animation let me make the 'shell' of the GalleryView as easy to use as I could. The only design limitations I had were that of Graystone's existing Web site -- the GalleryView needed to mesh with what they already had while standing on its own as well. We also needed a spare design that wouldn't detract from its focus, David Maxim's works and related information.”
Hardware and Software Used
Computers and related
DV iMac 400MHz G3, 768MB RAM
Titanium PowerBook 500MHz G4, 768MB RAM
Maxtor 80GB external Firewire Hard Drive
Camera: Nikon Coolpix 5000
Tripod Head: Kaidan Kiwi Spherical (though the panos in the GalleryView aren't Spherical, it's what I use)
Stitching: Apple QuickTime VR Authoring Studio 1.0.1 (stitching/export and hotspot creation)
Realviz Stitcher 3.x (stitching/export)
Image Manipulation (pre- and/or post-production): Adobe Photoshop 6.x and 7.x
Helmut Dersch's PanoTools Plugin for Photoshop (Support open source!)
Image Management/Catalog (all stills and panoramas): Extensis Portfolio 5
Design/Look-and-Feel: Macromedia Flash 5 and MX
Coding: Macromedia Flash 5 and MX
TotallyHip LiveStage Pro 3.x
Bare Bones BBEdit 6.x
Video: Apple Final Cut Pro
Adobe After Effects
QuickTime 5.x
Delivery: QuickTime 6.x
Patrick Cheatham’s company, CheathamLane, offers professional panoramic (360°) photography coupled with the latest in Web site, user interface and wired media (interactive) design.
Contact:
Patrick Cheatham: patrick@cheathamlane.net
David Maxim: dmax2@mindspring.com
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