iPhone Portraits in Baum

Alumnus Keith Melton will display printed versions of his Google portraits for the first time today in the Baum Gallery as part of the gallery's annual Alumni Exhibition.

His exhibit, "Recent Projects," features three sections: Google portraits, Mini-portraits and Places. Each uses different techniques of digital art.

Baum Gallery director Barclay McConnell described the exhibit as both photography and digital collage.

"There are a total of 12 works," said McConnell, "of nontraditional, high-tech photo collages made on an iPhone and other technology."

In Melton's artist statement about the exhibit, he explains the various digital mediums used to create his artwork:

Google portraits features works that are a tribute to people who encouraged Melton to be an artist. He gets the pictures from searching each person's name on Google images, then stacks them with "varying layers of transparency" and edits with Photoshop.

"The mini-portraits are similar to the Google portraits," wrote Melton, "but they are a smaller format and usually three to five layers."

These layers are selectively etched on an iPhone drawing application and incorporate specific images from all layers to make one final picture.

Places is an exhibit of digital photography documenting the "often less-than-spectacular places in Central Arkansas." Melton referenced photographer William Eggleston as an inspiration for this project.

Although Melton uses technological art techniques, he has traditionally favored traditional drawing and painting over digital. He began to use Google images and Photoshop to doodle or to keep track of painting and drawing ideas.

"I have sort of stumbled upon digital drawing," said Melton, "but using the iPhone to draw gave me a more rewarding drawing experience than I ever expected."

"Anne Kathleen Murphy," iPhone portrait

Melton graduated in 1996 with a BFA in Fine Arts. He attended UCA 15 years ago when the Baum Gallery opened.

"A good number of the first Google portraits I made were of UCA art faculty," said Melton. "It's nice to celebrate the gallery's last 15 years as well as look back on my last 15."

Melton currently works and has been exhibited at the Arkansas Arts Center. He was also featured in Capture Arkansas 2010: Arkansas Through the Eyes of Arkansas Photographers.

"Recent Projects" will be on display in the Baum until Oct. 29.

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