100 Dallas Creatives: No. 48 Technological Painter John Pomara

Mixmaster presents "100 Creatives," in which we feature cultural entrepreneurs of Dallas in random order.

John Pomara exhibited artwork before the Internet. With degrees in studio art, and exhibitions on his resume dating back to the 80's, it was more than a decade into his practice before he took an interest in technology. Now, he brings a painterly eye to the digital world, focusing much of work on the intersection of painting and new media. He magnifies images, incorporates computer stenciling, and focuses on the capacity for human error in the technological world. It's savvy abstraction, and it's a visual delight.

If he's not in his studio, manipulating images or shaking up a can of spray paint, he's investing in the future of art, instructing young artists at the University of Texas at Dallas. His most recent work can be seen at Barry Whistler Gallery through November 24.

Barry Whistler Gallery

One of Pomara's newer works.

In much of your recent work you seem interested in the proliferation of digital technology in art making, which in some ways has streamlined artistic practices. You use technology in your work, but as one of many steps to a final product. Are you working against digital technology or with it?
I work with and against technology in a funny way. I incorporate the language and vernacular of the digital world but work against it in that I use glitch accidents that disrupt the image and allow chance to alter it from its correct form. The current work at Barry Whistler gallery does this. I scanned organic drips I made on photo paper and digitized them but then uploaded them to a free glitch site on the internet and where you can totally distort the original through an algorithmic breakup so to speak.

Also in the newest paintings I added spray paint from a can onto the surface juxtaposed with stenciled pixilation so it is again having the digital and the analog hand coexisting on the surface of the painting. The mechanical and the personal coexist on the surface.

When did you find yourself interested in technology and how has that changed your practice?
I found myself interested in technology at first through the use of copy machines and moving images on them that were drip patterns off my studio floor. That was around 1992. They were my drawings and studies for large black and white paintings. I was trying to make the paintings appear as large scale photocopies made by hand. Two or three years later I got my first apple computer and a scanner and my whole world opened up with a vast new horizon to play with as a painter. Accidental glitched digital prints replaced the photo copies as subject matter.

Are there good/bad habits that you see in young artists that may be explained by technology?
I at times see both good and bad habits by younger artists using technology. I mostly see really great things. It's just one more tool to add to your studio practice where you can alter or change the form or color of things in matter of a few moments. You can deconstruct and rebuild an image into something else whether it's a digital photo, video or a study for a painting.

I see its bad use when an artists doesn't take it far enough and it is easily recognizable the type of program or filter they used in Photoshop.

Why did you choose to spend your career in Dallas?
I choose to spend my career in Dallas by accident in a way. I tried to leave back in the early 1980's and moved to NYC for 4 years when I was in grad school. I never wanted to live in Texas but my wife at the time became pregnant and I needed a job and was offered a visiting artists position. So I came back. It was a lot easier economically raising a daughter here then in NYC at the time. I continued to work as an adjunct off and on and eventually started teaching at The University of Texas at Dallas around 1998 in tenure track position.

Can you pinpoint periods of great creativity or breakthrough moments in your career? What or when were they?
There have been several great leaps or periods in my work. The first was as I mentioned using the photo copy machine to make a distortion of my work. The second getting a computer in the mid 1990's. But in 2001 I was asked to do a Concentrations Exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art. Then I really pushed the work to a more rigorous and conceptual way. First off I started painting on aluminum surfaces, pulling paint across the surface with squeegee like tools, that created the effect off a smooth glossy photo but large. I also disrupted my printer and created hundreds of glitched prints of paint drip patterns I had scanned into my computer and enlarged them as paintings. I also began using vinyl stencils in the process. Also for that exhibition, I produced 6 foot digital photos of the glitched prints from printer, mounted them on aluminum panels and hung them along side the hand made paintings.

There have been several others but I do think the current show reflects a new change in the work using the same painting process on aluminum sheets but adding spray paint into the mix. With these paintings the loosely spray paint off-kilter stripes are laid down first then I paint the pixilation lines on top like an off set overlay.

100 Creatives:
100. Theater Mastermind Matt Posey
99. Comedy Queen Amanda Austin
98. Deep Ellum Enterpriser Brandon Castillo
97. Humanitarian Artist Willie Baronet
96. Funny Man Paul Varghese
95. Painting Provocateur Art Peña
94. Magic Man Trigg Watson
93. Enigmatic Musician George Quartz
92. Artistic Luminary Joshua King
91. Inventive Director Rene Moreno
90. Color Mavens Marianne Newsom and Sunny Sliger
89. Literary Lion Thea Temple
88. Movie Maestro Eric Steele
87. Storytelling Dynamo Nicole Stewart
86. Collaborative Artist Ryder Richards
85. Party Planning Print maker Raymond Butler
84. Avant-gardist Publisher Javier Valadez
83. Movie Nerd James Wallace
82. Artistic Tastemakers Elissa & Erin Stafford
81. Pioneering Arts Advocates Mark Lowry & Michael Warner
80. Imaginative Director Jeremy Bartel
79. Behind-the-Scenes Teacher Rachel Hull
78. Kaleidoscopic Artist Taylor "Effin" Cleveland
77. Filmmaker & Environmentalist Michael Cain
76. Music Activist Salim Nourallah
75. Underground Entrepreneur Daniel Yanez
74. Original Talent Celia Eberle
73. Comic Artist Aaron Aryanpur
72. Classical Thespian Raphael Parry
71. Dance Captain Valerie Shelton Tabor
70. Underground Culture Mainstay Karen X. Minzer
69. Effervescent Gallerist Brandy Michele Adams
68. Birthday Party Enthusiast Paige Chenault
67. Community Architect Monica Diodati
66. Intrepid Publisher Will Evans
65. Writerly Wit Noa Gavin
64. Maverick Artist Roberto Munguia
63. Fresh Perspective Kelsey Leigh Ervi
62. Virtuosic Violinist Nathan Olson
61. Open Classical's Dynamic Duo Mark Landson & Patricia Yakesch
60. Rising Talent Michelle Rawlings
59. Adventurous Filmmaker Toby Halbrooks
58. Man of Mystery Edward Ruiz
57. Inquisitive Sculptor Val Curry
56. Offbeat Intellect Thomas Riccio
55. Doers and Makers Shannon Driscoll & Kayli House Cusick
54. Performance Pioneer Katherine Owens
53. Experimental Filmmaker and Video Artist Mike Morris
52. Flowering Fashioner Lucy Dang
51. Insightful Artist Stephen Lapthisophon
50. Dallas Arts District
49. Farmer's Market Localvore Sarah Perry