James Spitznagel
I create abstract art. I intuitively look for bold, sometimes harsh, often sensual, shapes in everyday environs that speak to my sense of expression. A digital photo is taken of those “found images” then, using a computer and television screen, pixelated beyond recognition. This process is repeated until the desired image is achieved. The vocabulary of my work has grown out of my interest in abstract expressionism, music and Zen meditation.
CONTACT INFORMATION
- phone:
- 607-200-4046
- e-mail:
- james@levelgreen.com
- website:
- www.levelgreen.com/art
ADDRESS
538 Ellis Hollow Creek Road, Ithaca, NY 14850STUDIO DIRECTIONS
From Ellis Hollow Creek Road runs between Turkey Hill Road in Ellis Hollow and Ellis Hollow Road. My house is closest to the intersection of Ellis Hollow Road and Ellis Hollow Creek Road. After turning off Ellis Hollow Road, my studio is .3 mi. on the left. If coming from Turkey Hill Road, I am 2.7 mi., and on the right.
BIO
Once described by novelist J. Robert Lennon as “making the ordinary seem alien and alienation seem ordinary,” James Spitznagel’s futuristic digital images borrow scenes from everyday life and distort them to the point that they are no longer recognizable. Spitznagel adds, “I often see colors and shapes in everyday objects that speak to my emotions in ways not originally intended by
nature or human design.”
In his pixelated and fragmented photo abstractions James Spitznagel captures a contemporary yet ultramodern vision of the inescapable future. Exploring the pervasiveness of mass media and the harsh separateness of modern sensuality, Spitznagel’s heavily spliced imagery is shattered beyond recognition as found images
are photographed, then fractured, cropped, and woven into digital tapestries of light and form. The grainy, textured surfaces seem to be rippling in a silence broken only by the crackling hum of video interference. Their luminosity suggests the glowing screens of television and computers so ingrained in our daily lives. Through his digitized view of life we are given the chance to feel
connected and emotionally involved with a digital world that often gives us a sense of alienation.
Artist and musician James Spitznagel was born in Pittsburgh and has spent the past 16 years living and working in Ithaca, New York.
