continued from 41

and by night he is a passionate `iPad
Junkie: We, as people, really can't
be defined strictly by our careers
or online profiles. How relieving is
that?"

THE MAN, THE ARTIST

"LEGITIMATE" ART?

What Shulman does has many
names: virtual art, iPad art, mobile
digital art. Whatever it's called, how
does it fit into the venerable world
of recognized art forms, such as
those featured in museums around
the world?
Just as the American studio glass
movement, which began in the
early 1960s, took a while to gain ac-
ceptance as "legitimate art," mobile
digital art is definitely moving in
that direction.
This month, Venice's sixth annual
Arte Laguna competition, rank-
ing among top competitions in the
world, gave its first prize to an artist
in its new virtual art category. Shul-
man entered a family portrait and
was named among the top 10 final-
ists out of 400 entries. His work
also has been shown in exhibitions
in San Francisco, England and New
York.
Smaller galleries seem to be tak-
ing the lead, mounting shows that
display work directly on iPads and
iPhones or prints of work done on
the devices.
In 2010, galleries were showing
iPhone art; more recently, iPad
artists have been showing work at
galleries around the world.
Famed British artist David Hock-
ney is boosting the legitimacy of
mobile digital art with exhibitions
in Europe of work he's done on
the iPhone and, more recently, the
iPad. He started exhibiting work on
the devices in 2010. Hockney, 74,
currently has a show of his iPad art
at London's Royal Academy of Art
through April 9.
And work by others is reaching
museums, too.
"They are showing our work,"
says Susan Murtaugh, a respected
mobile digital artist from Wiscon-
sin. "Recently, 30 of us had work
on iPads in Hamburg's Museum of
Modern Art.
"It is not virtual, it is just art," she
says. "It is art, the iPad is a tool, the
person using it is the artist. Artists
choose their medium, and perhaps
they use many. It is valid. It is here
and [we] are on the cusp of it, and
it does bridge traditional into this
new age."
Conk Baldauf, a professor of art
history and practice at four Michi-
gan universities, is familiar with
Shulman's work.
"I see a new narrative in Shul-
man's art practice," she says. "iPad
art is a new and innovative artistic
process. In a crowded, fast-paced
world, Shulman is contextualizing
the iPad as the new virtual art-
ist's studio. Clean, captivating and

Two portraits by Shulman of members of Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr. Members
share photos of themselves, then other members paint them and post their art.

portable.
"His dedication to the practice
of digital painting places him in
the top ranks of a new generation
in contemporary art. His prolific
practice has evolved, joining digital
painting with performance. Beyond
the captivation of observing his
process on a lit screen, his stories
and connections with a handful of
international iPad pioneers point to
a bright artistic future."
Shulman communicates with
iPad artists all the time and is

delighted when he can arrange to
meet them in person. At one such
meeting, he and two other artists
painted portraits of one another
while they sat in a restaurant.
"The network is ever growing,"
Murtaugh says. "It started out quite
small, a handful who would com-
ment on posted work, ever encour-
aging. The number of artists grows
daily. I have well over a thousand
contacts now, and I can't tell you
how much viewing their work has
made my work get better, too."

Richard Shulman is a thoughtful
observer. A darkly handsome and
subtly buff man given to wearing
button-down shirts and sweater
vests. Only his orange Crocs and
oversized watch might give away
his artistic side. His iPad is always
with him.
You'll find him quietly painting
most mornings at the Starbucks
at Maple and Lahser. He is drawn
to realism, reflections, faces. So he
could be painting a mom with a
child on her hip or capturing the
contours and reflection of a crushed
soda can on a table. He might be
there two or three hours, depending
on the demands of his law practice.
"In law, I deal with people having
problems," he says. "With the art,
it's about finding answers and com-
ing up with solutions?'
Shulman had an "a-ha" moment
last fall when he decided to learn
how to commercialize his art and
make some money by painting.
"It's nice to have another source
of income in these times," he says.
His initial investment was for
the iPad — and now the new iPad
(around $800) — professional-level
apps with well-stocked palettes and
brush shapes and sizes (under $10
each) and additional brushes and
styluses ($18-$40 each).
His first thought was to do his
iPad art as a performance. At a
friend's daughter's bat mitzvah, he
set up a camera, screen and printer
and then painted the teen and her
friends from the photographs he
shot. Guests could watch him on
the screen as he painted.
Then, an event planner in New
York hired him last October for a
party given by a real estate mogul
there.
"People liked it," Shulman says.
"It was completely different from
what they've seen before. It was a
lot of work, but rewarding?'
Also in October, he did a live
demonstration painting on the iPad
at the Detroit Institute of Art's an-
nual gala.
"It was really special," he says. "I
gave my Dad a ticket to see me cre-
ate art under the roof of the DIA.
His expression was priceless. That
brought it full circle for me."
A program Shulman uses al-
lows him to paint and record every
brushstroke and then replay it as a
video. It's fascinating to see how the
painting takes shape one brush-
stroke at a time.
Shulman hit on another appli-
cation for the animation. He has
created painted, animated sales
presentations set to music, a perfect
foil to the more traditional, static
Powerpoint option.
He created one for ImageOne, a
managed print services company in
Oak Park, and they loved it.
"It's more efficient because it's

continued on 44

42 April 2012

I RED MUD

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