Artwork copyright Karen Guzak. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Silver Shimmy, 1987

Karen Guzak
American (born 1939)

Location: Sidney Glen Elementary, Port Orchard

About the Artwork

Silver Shimmy by artist Karen Guzak combines energetic gestures with geometric elements. It is part of a suite of twelve lithograph prints created by using her "computer drawings as an image matrix." Each print uses 11 plates on average and features 28 or more colors. Her process highlights how our use of computer-based designs and programs has evolved rapidly in the past thirty years. Guzak explains her process: "I created the original computer drawings using a Florida Computer Graphics computer with 896 KB of memory, a 640x480 CRT monitor, 70 MB Winchester hard drive, two 512 KB floppies, and a Tektronix 4695 color inkjet printer. The software is IBIS, a color-graphics illustration system... I drew on a digitizing tablet with an electronic stylus and spent from 4 to 12 hours completing a drawing... I modified the inkjet prints both by computer command and by hand manipulation and had four or five photographically enlarged negatives made for each print." She created 134 lithography plates from the negatives. She notes, "The computer has provided an opportunity to integrate electronic technology with the technology of the painter's method, and has challenged me to balance the new with the old, science and art, human intuition with the logic of mathematics and has sharpened my search for meaning."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with South Kitsap School District.

About the Artist

Karen Guzak runs an artist studio in Snohomish, AngelArmWorks, renovated from a historic church. She has taught art at Seattle Pacific University and acted as president of the board of Artist Trust. She has committed herself to art, public service, and yoga.