The Xara Xone Featured Artist Gallery
The Art of Tad Bridenthal

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March 2003
Tad Bridenthal

My wife thinks I should say "Born 1942. Not yet dead" (She's a writer. She likes things succinct.) But I am a bit more expansive than she, so I will say more than that.

Perhaps the best place to begin is with what I am NOT. What I am NOT, is an illustrator, although I do create courtroom exhibits in my professional life. I do not draw either, although I do use Autocad regularly. My recent work looks like paintings, but I don't paint. What I AM, I think, is a recovering sculptor.

Around age 10, I was taking photos with a box brownie. I liked that well enough, but had no love for my uncle's abandoned darkroom. Since darkrooms and developing were so essential to photograpy then, I did not pursue photography at that time. Instead, at age 16, I started building what I called "light machines." These structures projected moving images from concave mirrors. They were cool. I thought I was involved in science rather than art.

So I went to the state college (in Oklahoma) and got a bachelors degree in Sciences (chemistry, physics, math). From there, I went into the Air Force for 4 years, where I was ultimately stationed on the coast of California. I went to Haight-Ashbury during the "summer of love" and got out of the Air Force as soon as I could. I went back to college on the G.I. Bill and got a masters degree in sculpture.

I was still making "light machines", sculptures of light and mirrors and reflective surfaces. Kinetic Sculpture was my "movement". In 1969 I was part of the west coast EAT group (Experiments in Art and Technology). We had a show in the Oakland Museum; then another in San Francisco for the opening of the Exploratorium. I erected my ten foot high mirrored dodecahedron for the show and it remained in the Exploratorium for several years thereafter.

In 1974 I was "introduced" by a major San Francisco gallery to rave reviews, but didn't sell doodly squat. By this time my art had mutated to vacuumed-formed plastics, cast paper and cast bronze, as well as the larger mirrored environments and light machines. In 1980 I was included in a couple of Art History books which was great for my self esteem. That's putting it politely. Artists are egomaniacs, and I'm no exception. But, I'll tell you this, living on the art roller coaster all those years cut me down to size

In 1979 I went off to be a Professor of Art at the University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana) for two years. Academia and brutal winters can be hard on a California artist and his San Francisco fiancee. I decided I would rather be a struggling artist in San Francisco than a salaried art professor in Champaign/Urbana. I returned to San Francisco in 1981 where I have remained ever since.

Over the years I struggled with ways to make a living and continued to do my art. Finally, I realized that the problem with being a sculptor is that you soon create a major storage problem. That realization and the evolution of the computer, which virtually eliminated the importance of darkrooms and toxic chemicals, turned me back towards photography. And my box brownie took on new possibilities with digital cameras, scanners, and video cameras.

I use over 20 programs to equip my "digital darkroom", but I do the final refinement, page layout, and printing in Xara. Being on the Xara forum and exchanging ideas with artists from other disciplines has stimulated and enhanced my art. It is a real honor to be among this very talented group.

—Tad Bridenthal

My Website

Selected Exhibitions

All images ©Tad Bridenthal and may not be
copied or reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the artist

Click on the thumbnail images to see the larger
and complete image.


Bridge in New York City  ŠTad Bridenthal

BRIDGE IN CENTRAL PARK, NYC
 

Cream Puff, Oregon ŠTad Bridenthal

CREAM PUFF, OREGON
 

Crossing the River ŠTad Bridenthal

CROSSING THE RIVER
 

NYC Window ŠTad Bridenthal

NYC WINDOW
 

Self Portrait (Detail) ŠTad Bridenthal

SELF PORTRAIT
 

Yellow Roses ŠTad Bridenthal

YELLOW ROSES
 

Paris Rooftops ŠTad Bridenthal

PARIS ROOFTOPS
 

Bridge in New York City (Detail) ŠTad Bridenthal

BRIDGE IN CENTRAL PARK, NYC
DETAIL

Cream Puff, Oregon (Detail) ŠTad Bridenthal

CREAM PUFF, OREGON
DETAIL

Crossing the River (Detail) ŠTad Bridenthal

CROSSING THE RIVER
DETAIL

NYC Window (Detail) ŠTad Bridenthal

NYC WINDOW
DETAIL

Self Portrait (Detail) ŠTad Bridenthal

SELF PORTRAIT
(DETAIL)

Yellow Roses (Detail) ŠTad Bridenthal

YELLOW ROSES
(DETAIL)

Paris Rooftops (Detail) ŠTad Bridenthal

PARIS ROOFTOPS
(DETAIL)

The images here are photographs I have taken, plus one taken by my wife. They have been manipulated in bitmap programs, then brought into Xara to finish the creative process. I am particularly fond of the bitmap tracer and the color reduction selection. Even though Xara has a 1324 pixel width limitation, the 16 color dither is the best I have seen. Only one of the dithered images is shown here, but I have done many more of those than the traces.

Bitmap tracing is a limitless adventure in discovery. The slightest change of the settings makes major changes in the trace. Image size, itself, is probably the biggest factor. Xara's transparency options give me many chances to adjust saturation, contrast, etc., until I am happy with the color.

I use Xara for page layout, where I resize and stack up several images for printing.


XARA Artists Wanted! We are always looking for new artists to feature on this page. If you would like to be considered for one of the future featured artists, Click Here to contact us. Please don't send images at this time. What works best is for you to place some of your best images on a Web page and send us the URL. If we decide to feature you and your images, we will contact you and provide further instructions.

The Xara Xone ©2003 Gary W. Priester All rights reserved.

 

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