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cover story
The Arts Council’s Local Color Gal
lery, 310 University Dr. in College Sta
tion, will display Hillier’s work on friday
from noon to 1 p.m. The exhibit will
last through Feb. 28. For more infor
mation call 268-2787.
Karen Hillier’s artwork is unique in its
form and in its meaning. She’s mas
tered the art of computer-generated
artwork with much of her inspiration
stemming from her personal experi
ences.
The 43-year-old artist and professor
at Texas A&M had her first child two
and a half years ago.
“Much of my artwork grew out of
the experience of having a child, both
the gestation period and the birthing
experience,’’ Hilliersays.
“Pregnancy is a very emotional ex
perience for a woman," she says. "It’s
much more intense than falling or be
ing in love with someone.”
Her son, Sam, was born on July 4,
1988. After several miscarriages, she
and her husband agree that Sam was
“very hard to come by.”
Experiencing all the enthusiasm
and excitement of having a child and
her new fascination with computers,
Hillier directed her energies to pursu
ing a different kind of artwork.
She plans to exhibit her art in a
show titled “Cardinal Points” Jan. 18 -
Feb. 28 at the Arts Council’s Local
Color Gallery.
This exhibit isn’t the traditional art
show. You won’t find any canvas
paintings or sculptures, but you will
find images she has created on the
computer.
Hillier explains the process. It be
gins with taking any number of items,
such as photographs from books or
snapshots and everyday objects.
These images, along with images cre
ated exclusivley in the computer, are
manipulated by the computer.
“The computer acts as a central
point of collection for the digitized
images,” Hilliersays.
“Once inside the
computing environment,
it is possible to work with
the pictures in any num
ber of ways."
The computing tools
in a computer are equiv
alent to those tradition
ally found in an artist’s
studio: paint, scissors,
glue, patterns and fonts
for text.
“When an image file is completed it is output to 4 inch by 5
inch film via a camera located in the computing system,” Hillier
says. “Lastly, the negatives are printed as transparencies
which closely resemble what the artist sees, or as conventional
photographic prints."
“Cardinal Points” debut will be the first solo show for the lo
cal gallery. And, the first time for Hillier to utilize only black and
white.
“In the past, I used a lot of color with my photography and
paintings,” says Hillier, who graduated from the University of
Texas with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in painting and then
pursued her master’s degree at the Univeristy of Illinois.
But this time, the artist says she had a different motivation
to work solely with black and white artwork.
She describes an unusual, eerie and mysterious place she
often visited in her dreams, while pregnant with her son.
“In my dream, I would go to an underground place. It often
reminded me of a place where the tree roots grow. It was a
mysterious, dim-lighted and swampy atmosphere. Somehow, I
knew that was where life was made.”
Hillier felt this dream place was strongly connected with
her pregnancy.
“When you're pregnant, your dreams are unlike anything
you’ve ever experienced before,” she says. “You go to bed
knowing you’re going to have these vivid and active dreams
every night.
“I’d talk to other women, who were pregnant, and they’d
ask me ‘What about the dreams?’ I knew exactly what they were
talking about.”
Sometimes frightening but more mysterious, these dreams
strongly affected her work. As a result, Hillier says that tends to
make her artwork kind of “spooky.”
page 6
the BIRTH of her ART
By Yvonne Salce
Photos By Phelan M. Ebenhack
Top: Karen Hillier examines some of her artwork on a light table. Above: Karen’s husband, Tom
Woodfin, displays the sheep sheers used in one of her pieces of art.
When you’re preg
nant, you’re in between
worlds - one world of life
and the other of death,
she says.
“There's a strong
sense of being con
nected with the child
prior to birth, and at the
same time it’s a weird
experience carrying this
creature inside of you
that you can’t see.”
It isn't difficult to see
the relationship of birth
in Hillier’s artwork. In
fact, two of her pieces
do just that.
One of Hilliers’ pieces
uses a pair of scissors
on a black background.
Beneath the scissors re-
ads the question,
“Would you like to cut
the cord ?” One's first
thought is that of a new
born's umbilical cord be
ing cut from the mother;
which makes perfect
sense because that's
exactly where Hillier was
inspired.
“Would you like to cut
the cord ?” says Hillier,
"were the exact words
the doctor asked my
husband in the delivery
room.”
Picking up the pair of
rough and rusty scis
sors she used in her art
work, Hillier demon
strates how tough it was
to actually cut the cord.
Somewhat amused
and surprised she says
her husband was
amazed how much he
had to work to cut the
cord.
Karen met her husband, Thomas Woodfin, at Texas A&M,
where he presently works as an assistant professor in land
scape architecture. Hillier also works in the architecture de
partment, where she teaches video and photography. Until re
cently, a masters of science in visualization science didn’t exist
at Texas A&M. Hillier worked in getting the degree approved
by the state.
Married for six years, Hillier says her husband has always
been very encouraging and supportive of her artwork.
“In fact,” she says, “he is quite creative himself.” Both Hill
ier and her husband share a common interest in the southwes
tern and Indian culture of New Mexico and Arizona.
In another piece of computer-drawn artwork, Hillier depicts
the shadow of a human body. In the abdomen is the image of a
rope tied in a knot.
“The image of the rope came from a book that was lent to
me by a friend,” Hillier says. “For me, any kind of object, includ
ing the computer is fairgame.”
Hillier, first became interested in computers during her pre
gnancy.
She admits that her first attempts with the computer were
awkward.
“As a painter, I could easliy identify with the process of
mixing the paint and manipulating the strokes with a brush,"
she says. “With the computer, your hand never touches the art
work. You don’t even look at the mouse as it creates an image
on the screeen.”
Once passed the initial awkwardness, Hillier became a
master with the tools of computer art.
"I found that a computer, with all its advantages, is very
much like a well-equipped artist’s studio,” she says.
With the computer, you can try an endless number of
things, Hilliersays.
“Unlike painting, you don’t have to
risk changing a color or shape, in fear
that you’ll have to start over. The com
puter allows you to save, re-do or
throw away an image. It makes bring
ing in text much easier and allows you
to make marks that can’t be dupli
cated in the studio.”
Hillier’s open-mindedness and en-
thusiasn to use the computer, exhibits
her willigness to try different things
with artwork.
■ “I have a wide interest in all differ
ent types of media,” she says. “Any
thing you pick up can be a tool."
Although, she realizes the skepti
cism some tradtional artists may have
with creating artwork on the com
puter.
“Some see it as a cold medium and
others just aren’t familiar with its meth-
odolgy,” she says.
She says with today's society be
coming so dependent on computers,
it’s no surprise that computer gener
ated images are all around us.
Hillier says her early pieces of art
dealt with Sam, but also couldn’t help
being influenced by cultural values.
Her interest in the people and cultures
of New Mexico, Arizona and The Four
Corners inspired her to create the
work “Day Pieces.”
“ ‘Day Pieces’ deals with people
and how they extend outward to oth
ers, but at the same time have to main
tain their own identity,” explains Hill
ier. “We all want to be strongly seen as
individuals. And, we all want to stay in
tune and identify with our culture. But,
we also have to get along, knowing
when to come together and when to
stay away.”
She sees this type of dependent
relationship happening with the peo
ple in these states.
“I feel like I have close ties there
(New Mex., Ariz.) and feel very much
at home,” says Hillier. “You have three
seperate entities, American Indians,
Anglos and Hispanics all having to get
along.”
The image in 'Day Pieces’ resem
bles a backwards swastika, the Nazi
symbol, and originated from the Hopi
Indians. When Hillier first saw the
sign, she says she felt an enormous
attraction to it.
“I kept wondering why I had this
magnetism to that symbol,” says Hill
ier, “Finally, I decided to use it and it
means a great deal to me."
The image is used a lot in Hillier’s
24-piece exhibit. ‘Cardinal Points’ will
also include some of Hilliers’ photog
raphy.
When time and money permit, she
does travel with her artwork. Through
the 1989 SIEGGRAPH Traveling Art
Show, her art has been shown in Aus
tralia, Spain, Western Europe, Boston
and is presently in Moscow.
Hillier hopes her artwork will speak
to other people and give them insight.
She says “All I can do is put my own
experiences out there, being very
specific and honest, with the hopes
that it’ll tap into something into some
one else.
“What richness they gain is up to
them, f can’t dictate or manipulate
their experience. I just hope they have
one.”
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