THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511020204
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK
DATELINE: COLINGTON HARBOUR LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
IT'S A MATTER of using the right tools.
Artist Mike Miller's instrument is a gadget that many artists turn up their noses at: the computer.
Computers' ability to duplicate and alter existing art draws scorn from many purists. But Miller's work with a freehand digital pen lays to waste typically insipid computer works with his fierce colors and images that are at once bizarre, charming and reverent.
As partners in CraZyFoot Designs, Miller, 34, and technical adviser Heidi Leo spent months working the kinks out of a painting program, which includes access to nearly every artist tool available.
The result is as wildly original as the artist himself.
``So many rules are broken,'' says Miller, a self-described Army brat who learned early on that he wasn't wired to conform. ``There's so many boundless avenues. . . It makes it extremely fun.''
Since CraZyFoot was conceived last December, Miller's artwork has been reproduced locally on the menu cover of Frisco's Restaurant and Lounge, on T-shirts for SunDaze and in logos for several local companies. Soon his design will be used on a mural to be blazoned on the side of the Sampson Coatings' building in Kill Devil Hills.
But Miller and Leo have higher aspirations.
``I am actively seeking an investor to take this to a new level,'' says Leo, 36.
As the owner of Computer Solutions, a training and consulting service, Leo says freehand computer art - that not reproduced onto the computer by a scanner - is rare.
``That's what makes our art so different,'' she says. ``It's not just about putting together a brochure; it's not about putting something on a T-shirt. It's more of an art form.''
In fact, Leo says, what Miller manages to create with the digital pen is nearly ``a physical impossibility.''
But Miller shrugs, declaring that Leo is the only reason he can paint like he does on the computer.
Undoubtedly, it's a fortunate blending of talent.
CraZyFoot evolved by chance after Leo saw what Miller could do on the standard painting program installed in most PCs.
``We were goofing around one night and he gets on the computer,'' she recounts, shaking her head. ``It was out of control.''
Showing one of his first creations - a stark, longhorned steer silhouetted against an immense yellow moon - Leo says she was amazed he had done it entirely with a mouse.
``I said, 'OK, we've got something here,' '' Leo recalls.
Leo immediately started exploring the newer computer art programs, eventually settling on Painter 3.1 by Fractal Design, an application Leo says is used most commonly for creating and modifying film and videos.
She credits another artist, Turtle Heart, whom Leo met on the Internet, with turning her onto the program. Turtle Heart, an Objibway from California, creates Native American art with the Painter program. Although Leo says the program initially confronted her with a series of ``little technical nightmares'' - like freezing up every 20 minutes - the partners' perseverance paid off.
With Leo's technical wizardry clearing the palette, Miller was able to use paper with different patterns, thickness and weave; a multitude of brushes, spray nozzles, crayons and felt pens; watercolor or oil paint in the entire color range; pen or ink - virtually everything a traditional artist would use, but formatted for the computer.
Choices of medium are selected. Then the actual drawing is done on a special pad with a digital pen-shaped wand.
``I was surprised at what I could get away with,'' Miller says. ``Like, I could mix oil and watercolors together. And the great thing is, there aren't 150 million paintbrushes in this room like there really should be. I used to have a closet stuffed with them and sketchbooks.''
Although Miller says he always loved to draw, the only painting he had done for years were the houses he painted for his business, M & M Painting.
But then it was as if a dam had burst.
Hour after hour was spent creating art on the computer, resulting in dozens of paintings. Dolphins, birds, fish, turtles, sky at dawn or dusk, trees, sun and moon are all recurring themes.
Many images are of Native Americans on horseback in a spectacular natural setting. But his obvious reverence for nature is often tempered with humor: A turtle walking serenely along the coast balances a surfboard on its back; a young dolphin against a Halloween sky peers curiously into the face of a jack-o'-lantern perched on a reef; colorful fish stare out of ocean foliage with Buster Keaton eyes.
Miller explains that the intense colors he chooses are inspired by what he sees in nature. As a sport fisherman and hunter, he says the explosiveness of his skies reflects the sunrises and sunsets he has seen.
As for his fish, he hopes they ``are just as weird, or weirder,'' than those in the ocean. And he says he loves the freedom and mystery that dolphins possess.
``I've seen the most breathtaking sunrises duck hunting,'' he says, ``that would make the hardest man's heart stop.
``But I don't think my drawings are near as beautiful as the real thing in nature.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by CATHERINE KOZAK
Artist Mike Miller, a partner in CraZyFoot Designs, has designed
artwork for a menu cover, T-shirts and logos for several local
companies.
by CNB