Michael F. Nyiri 1.23.04
9:56pm pst
I chose to call this
section of AllThingsMike the "Yes, But Is It Art?" Gallery
after one of the little witticisms I placed in one of my sketchbooks
a long time ago. The purpose of the website would be to present, with
tounge firmly placed in cheek, a "hisotry" of my "work"
much the same way as I had hoped
ElectricPoetry would chronicle my verse, and AllThingsMike
would chart my prose writings and essays.
The only thing stopping
this part of the website right now would be my inability to get images
into the computer the way I want to. I have some radical ideas for "digital
art" which involve combining TV or video images, painting, and
photography, with of course the "digital tweaking" that comes
with any number of "art" programs. The ones I dabble in are
the wondrous Micrografx PIcture Publisher, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia
Fireworks, and Ulead Gif Animator. The Studio MX all-in-one product
from Macromedia has the Flash program which enables all those budding
cartoonists on the net to create those neat webcartoons. (Not to mention
Comedy Central hits like South Park). I've been looking forward to the
day when I can afford the program. As it is, I use as much of the artistic
tools in the Dreamweaver program as I can to try to insure that my website
maintains an "artistic" vision. The latest art is displayed
in the Computer Art, section
accessible at the top of every page. In 2005, I intend to create a lot
more "computer art" for this website, and what was once merely
a halfhanded attempt at humor will grow into the main Gallery of The
Computer Art of Michael F. Nyiri.
As much as I enjoy reading
an insightful piece of literature, or seeing a well done film, I enjoy
spending long lazy Sunday afternoons in museums and art galleries. I
have a wild skewered sense of what constitutes art, and have had this
crazy artistic bent for many years, inherited by my mother, whose greatest
sense of artistic expression came from the analog copy/pasting she performed
making felt storyboards for elementary school children and mimeographed
posters for school events. 
Although she wasn't amazingly
talented, she was damn creative, a trait which she gave both my brother,
sister, and myself. My brother Daniel is the only true "painter"
in the family, and when this site originally went up, before the financial
rift with Regina caused our breakup and the stoppage of the inspiration
for the Yes But Is It Art? Gallery, I fully intended to "create"
much more than I have in the succeeding three years.
Mother "created"
an atmosphere of creativity. She was always involved in one school or
church project or another, and both my brother, sister, and I found
stimulation in this atmosphere.
I have always drawn pictures.
When young, my brother and I drew comic books, much like cartoonist
Robert Crumb describes in Terry Zwigoff's delicious biography film,
Crumb. Except my
brother and I drew our magazines in a healthy atmosphere, and though
we both had rather twisted senses of humor, we both practiced our art
happily. Drawing came naturally, and though I haven't really practiced
this art form, also known in certain art circles as "merely cartooning",
for years, I do feature a few
"pencil drawings" from the early eighties when I was fairly
serious about these works as works of art.
My doodles in high school
eventually became "Arnold", my "cartoon character".
Arnold had a bevy of friends and neighbors, and although I really didn't
draw many "comic adventures" besides one "comic book"
Arnold decorated all my notebooks, and appeared in the ediorial cartoons
I made for our high school newspaper. The cartoon character Ziggy resembles
Arnold so much that for years I've felt Tom Wilson must have seen Arnold
and "stole" him. I have not really concentrated on "creating
art". The few "pieces" I've drawn or composited, are
haphazard in frequency, but sometimes I believe I do come up with some
interesting ideas and have achieved a minor sort of artistic integrity.
