I think your work is very broad - coming
from the heart. And I enjoy your perspectives on life, art, etc
Jodi Melfi, owner,
AbsoluteArts.com/World Wide Art Resources, December, 2006
Web page copy, courtesy of http://id.sito.org/pyg/
Dr. Rodney Chang, better known as the Internet's Pygoya, Cyberartist, was the first
digital artist to exhibit in Honolulu, back in 1985. Since then he has exhibited
around the world, including France (Paris), New York City, Russia (St.
Petersburg), China (Shanghai), Germany (Frankfurt), England, Australia, Hawaii,
India (Calcutta), Japan, Austria (Vienna), Hungary(Budapest), Malaysia, and
Mexico. His 1988 solo
show at Shangahi Art Museum was China's historic first computer art exhibition.
In 2002 Dr. Chang curated and organized East Hawaii Cultural Center's first
International Cyberart Exhibition and World Tour. Through the 1980s-90s the
artist completed his first major project of computer art (over 150 large painted
canvases), "PaintOuts" (as in "printouts") or "Cyberpaintings",
before dedicating his creative works solely to digital online display , as
content for his virtual 3D museum, The Pygoya Webmuseum, established in 1997.
His latest major contribution to the visual arts of the Web is his "100
Cyberbabies" (as in newborn art for the Internet) exhibition for 2002, to
be followed by 100 more in 2003. For tech-phobics and that population that stays
off-line, the artist's latest passion is producing Digi-oils, or hand executed
oil on canvases from his Web digital art. These are displayed in physical world
exhibits and as 'reproduction' in their own right, then used as
"masters" for third generation Giclee print editions. As such,
Pygoya's imagery becomes familiar in both domains - the traditional art scene
and within online cyberculture. Currently the artist is curator and director for
his online virtual reality Truly Virtual Web Art Museum, retiring as webmaster
for the original East Hawaii Cultural Center and Las Vegas Art Museum web sites
. Pygoya made history in organizing and traveling to Calcutta for India's first
ever international digital art exhibition (1999). In early 2002 Truly Virtual
Web Art Museum proudly greeted its 1 millionth visitor. In the 1980's Dr. Rodney
Chang gained national notoriety as NBC's Real People Show's "Disco
Doc" - filmed dancing in his Honolulu dental clinic's discotheque reception
area, complete with staff DJ. The syndicated television show was televised in
Europe, Asia, Australia as well as the United States. The dancer maintains
Discopower.com as a tribute to the dance and music that has played a tremendous
influence on his life and art as well as the sustained passion for such
energized music. Since forming a popular local rock band before (1963) the
Beatles, Chang continues to this day as a performance artist as the Disco Doc
through his intuitive and unique disco style
in local dance clubs. What the
artist dances today is considered by him not merely still classical disco but a
post-modern disco/hip hop combination. The artist is also recognized in Who's
Who in America and Ripley's Believe It or Not! for earning 10 college degrees,
including 5 masters and 2 doctorates. The artist studied mostly in Chicago and
holds Masters in Painting/Studio Arts and also Computer Art, as well as a Ph.D
in Aesthetic Psychology. A masters in Pychology of Counseling contributes seeded
subliminal content to his cyberart. Freudian, Behaviorist, as well as Holistic
pyschological theories are additional conceptual brushes for the digital artist.
Most recently creative Pygoya is expanding the boundaries of our resources of
remembering the deceased with his virtual cemetery project that is a part of
emerging Cyberculture. But besides this eclectic extension of online
Cyberculture, the artist is most passionate over his leadership in Webism,
materializing into the historic Pygoya's First European Art Tour in 2003. The
online Artist's Journal makes Pygoya one of the most globally documented artists
in history. Through the power of the Internet, this valuable primary source
serves as virtual library of the artist's theories and philosophies of art,
archived personal development in digital art since 1985, and his lifelong use of
the creative process. It also provides insight into his perspective of human
nature besides the meaning and missions of his life. Interested parties, such as
students, historians, museums, galleries, media, and collectors, are permitted
to download any of the writings of the journal. However an email mention of use
to the artist's publicist is courteous and appreciated for documentation. The
artist is represented by Alex Alexander & Associates (USA, California),
Malie Moran (New York City, Hawaii), and Ingrid Kamerbeek (Europe). The Creative
Process The computer serves as assistant in discovering new art visions for
Pygoya. The artist, over the years' parade of changing personal computer
systems, always attempts to reinvent his developed "style" on the
computer, as much his own input as the evolving technical tools. Then, instead
of a hard copy printout that other computer artists exhibit and sell, an
intermediary actual painting on canvas is produced to "dedigitize" the
work This is done in order to remove a purely technical feeling of computer
graphics, which some consider a bit "sterile". Then the working
painting is photographed, "redigitalized" and modified through editing
refinements by the artist. The "final" work of art are either Giclée
or Epson archival inkjet prints or such derived digital cyberart is placed
online for exhibition in Internet cyberspace virtual reality galleries, such as
the 3DPygoya Webmuseum. Most recently, purely digital images are garnered from
3D software and posted as art created for the Internet to contribute to the
global visual arts online cyberculture. As such Pygoya's 100 Cyberbabies in 2002
were inspired by the online life of the artist. Most recently the artist
has turned to novelist and some literary works are
available along with "Pygoyan
Oil Cyber-Paintings" which document his latest art series and offer
collector limited print editions. His latest exploration into the fabric of
existence now includes probing the UFO phenomenom. "Roswell Encounter
Gallery," his novel about a fictitious second spacecraft crash in Roswell
in 2007, is available at Amazon.com after May 2007. It helps commemorate
the 60th anniversary of the "Roswell Incident" of July, 4 1947
(America's Independence Day). If you immensely enjoy reading the book,
write to your Congressman or Hollywood producer acquaintance, urging them to
bring it to the big silver screen for those who can't -or don't- read. It
is inspirational and offers an alternative reality of hope for global peace and
brotherhood.