Date: Fri 21-Jun-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: C-1

Quick Words:

Ken-Graff-artist-photographer

Full Text:

(feature on graphic/computer artist Ken Graff, 6/21/96)

Vision & Imagination: The Computer Art of Ken Graff

(with photos)

By Shannon Hicks

Ken Graff hates the term "computer artist." It is extremely important to him

people understand that while he uses a computer program to get the final

result of the art he produces these days - graffic illusions (a word play on

his name) - it is not something just anyone can do with a computer and a

program.

Ken has been a professional photographer for thirty years. For 26 of those

years it was straight photography: using the traditional camera and a variety

of lenses, followed by the film developing process to produce photographic

images. However, about four years ago Ken began playing with his computer,

working on a way to enhance his photographs even further with the art of a

Stylist program - akin to an electronic brush.

"The computer doesn't do this for you," Ken stresses. In fact, he says,

graffic illusions came about by trying to get away from computer-generated

art. "Just by having [the computer as a] tool does not mean you will get the

same results. A computer doesn't do everything for you. It aids you, but it

doesn't design something for you. It only enhances your ability."

With a backlog of negatives from the past thirty years, Ken has an incredible

number of images from which to choose. Of course, he still uses his camera to

go out and take new photographs, as well.

"Right now this has sparked a new interest," said Ken, who is manager of

photography at Union Carbide in Danbury. "I can now work the next twenty years

refining works from the last thirty years. I have photos I've taken out of my

files from 25 years and do them completely different."

The result is a portfolio of works that are neither photographs nor drawings,

but a hybrid of the two forms of art. Taking photographs and giving them a

more artistic touch - recomposing pictures to the way he feels the look best -

Ken calls these works graffic illusions. Audiences will call them incredible.

Newtown art lovers will have their first chance to view a full show of Ken

Graff's works beginning this month when Sandy Hook's Grey Horse Gallery

presents a show of his images, June 25 through August 1. An opening reception

at the Berkshire Road gallery is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

"Graffic Illusions" will present nearly seventy images, a large number of them

featuring Newtown. The fun part about Ken's works is what he has done with his

Newtown images: He has moved some of the town's most famous buildings and

landmarks, most noticeably the historic flagpole at the top of Church Hill

Road. And not only have some of Newtown's buildings been moved, but in a

series featuring the aforementioned flagpole, a number of outside - but still

just as famous - landmarks have been "brought in" to Newtown.

One whimsical series features the flagpole with a traffic signal light,

another with the 100-foot tall flagpole smack dab in the center of Newtown's

Ram Pasture. Additional images have the Statue of Liberty next to the

flagpole, another with the flagpole sandwiched between a pair of Empire State

Build ings.

The flagpole isn't the only thing Ken has toyed with in town. The Newtown

General Store has been picked up and "moved" down to Sandy Hook Center,

situated next to the former Sandy Hook Post Office building (now Grey Horse

Gallery); and the offices of the Bee Publishing Co., in one Graff work, are

now adjacent to the Newtown Meeting House (the former Congregational Church).

While much of the show is devoted to Newtown images familiar and unfamiliar -

"When I first came up with the idea of doing a show, it was going to be just

Newtown," Ken said. "Then I decided to expand it." - "Graffic Illusions" will

also present graffic illusions of non-Newtown images. But, he says, Newtown to

him was a logical starting point.

"With Newtown being such a traditional place, I thought I would fool around

with the flagpole," Ken said. "It's the easiest way to get people to the

center of town... just move them."

"Graffic Illusions" will be presented at Grey Horse Gallery from June 25 to

August 1. An opening reception, to which the public is invited, will be

presented Saturday, June 22, from noon to 4 pm. Grey Horse is in the former

Sandy Hook Post Office building, at the corner of Berkshire and Church Hill

Roads.