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Mixed Messages
by Roger Armbrust
Confetti, August 1992

It was the mid-1980's. Dalton Portella, a fine artist concerned about financial survival, was exploring options. Lack of funds had forced him to abandon art design school five years earlier, and he had established some monetary security with a color retouching firm, bleaching and blending hues on transparencies. At home in his free time, he explored watercolors and mixed media.

Then he awakened to the occupational necessity of learning about computers, because, he recalls, "That's where all the creative work was going. I'm also a musician, and I saw technology advancing in music and other areas. I realized that digital systems offered possibilities which, eventually, would be limitless. I knew that, as a creative person hoping to survive in the world of advertising, I would be doomed if I didn't learn about them."

In 1988, he moved to Color Wheel, a NYC-based repro house. With that firm's acquisition of the Quantel Graphic Paintbox in '89, he began educating himself in digital graphic retouching. On his own time, with the blessing of Color Wheel's principal, Haluk Ergulee, he began experimenting with a deeper collaboration between the technology's artistic capabilities and his personal creative vision. These efforts have led to a large body of digital paintings, 12 of which were recently exhibited at a New York City gallery. One of the paintings, a dramatic visual poem entitled "Dance of Anger," has won awards from both the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT. and New York City's Salamagundi Club. Two of his images are on permanent display at the Roman Catholic Church of the Epiphany in New York, and many others have been purchased for private collections.

"I feel that I am producing art of consequence," Portella explains, "art that makes people think and feel, and in the best circumstances, provides them with some realization. I try to keep painting as my focus. My paintings are an extension of myself. No matter what medium I use, similar themes ... compositions, colors, textures, emotions ... run through mm y art.
"The Graphic Paintbox increases the vocabulary of the artist. It places all these different modes of expression at your fingertips.

"Its flexibility allows me to experiment quickly, bringing into play sensibilities I have developed through my watercolor and mixed media experiences. I have a choice of brush sizes and media ... solid, transparent, chalk, and airbursh ... and true color mixing with its pressure-sensitive pen. I can selectively or totally wash or tint images, make them brighter or darker, softer or sharper. And the high resolution is especially effective."

Portella has been a serious artist for nearly a lifetime. Born in Miami, he began his formal training in design at age 7, when his Brazilian parents recognized his innate talent. "Instead of playing basketball or baseball, I went to art class," he confides. "I've always drawn power from my art. It was the only place I received recognition as a child."

His family returned to Rio and, by the time he was 18, he was wedged in a Brazilian society her terms "extremely regressive. There were death squads; a political joke would get you locked away for life. Art wasn't an option at that point. I wanted to return to my roots in the U.S."

Portella migrated to California, studying art at the U.S. International University, then hitched his way to New York City. "I didn't have any money, but I came to Parson School of Design with my portfolio; they accepted me on the spot, providing a deferment in payment." But the school became to expensive, and he left for the work force.

To Portella, every medium of his art draws profoundly from his diverse cultural experiences. And his digital art runs the gamut from brooding self-portraits to the breathtaking "Burning With Hope," a butterfly g liding before the brilliant reds and yellows of a liquid sun or inferno.

"One medium feeds the other," he observes. "I basically start my paintings with ideas already sketched on paper. I start with a blank screen, pick up debris, and use composition, collage, touch-up, etc. I'm now planning on taking ideas I've developed on screen and incorporating them into oils. I feel like I've just scratched the surface with this technology as a fine art tool."
What does the future hold for digital art? "Possibilities I see include 3D animation, sculpture incorporating transparencies of computer art," Portella notes. "I see advances in holography down the line, and I personally would like to get involved in computer animation, from short form to feature."

His advice to a young artist wanting to break into digital design: "Persistence. Design school isn't the only way to go; learn through any avenue you can. The problem is, there are so few Graphic Paintboxes available; only people with persistence can find a place and learn."

Roger Armbrust is an Associate at Howard Sherman Public Relations in New York City and teaches writing at New York University.