Technology with a human face chisels a stunning new profile for a neglected art

LEGENDS ON THE SCREEN

Revolutions are rarely one-person affairs. Nonetheless, Lillian Schwartz
sparked a fire that continues to burn. "I was the painter who started computer
art in 1968," says Schwartz. By now, using the computer as an artistic tool has
become second nature to her. "When I'm using it, I don't think of it as a
computer," she says. "When I have a mouse in my hand it's just as comfortable
as a paintbrush."

The images here, the newest from the New Jersey-based artist and featured in her
upcoming book The Computer Artist's Handbook, represent a bold undertaking: an
attempt to retrieve portrait art from the clutches of photography. "Portrait
painting went out when photography came in," Schwartz says. "With the computer,
I'm looking for a way to redefine the portrait."

Electronic elasticity has helped Schwartz with her creations. She began by
scanning pictures of herself into the computer. Images from different time
periods followed. Schwartz then blended elements from her own face to
established images, adding elements, subtracting them, or drawing freehand.
"It's actually painting," the artist says. "I take portions of my face and
incorporate them with other portions. With the computer, I can shrink things,
enlarge them, age them.... It's a wonderful tool for portrait work."

Proficiency with this tool has helped the artist's creativity bloom in a new
way. -"One day I wondered what I would be like, say, as Sarah Bernhardt,"
Schwartz says. "So I began to work these images together in the computer."
Realism is not necessarily required or even desired. "There's no hint of Sarah
Bernhardt in the piece I titled Sarah Bernhardt, but I wanted to get the form
and essence of the person. And I do. People look at my work and say, 'Oh,
yeah, that is Sarah Bernhardt. You captured a hint of her soul."'

Yet Schwartz makes no conscious attempts to direct her portraits during the act
of composition. They seem to rise from a catharsis between the artist and the
image itself. "Some of these images are purely symbolic," Schwartz says. "Some
are made up. As I step back and watch, I blend with my subjects. During the
journey I re-create myself as famous people. In the end, the face isn't me
anymore. It becomes a different face, Only when the works are finished do the
names come to me. Still, a part of me is in every picture."

As modern artists ponder the creative process, they frequently define themselves
as creators, inspiring a flurry of self-portraits. Some may call this urge
egomaniacal. Schwartz thinks this notion is poppycock. "I love saying, Well,
they've done that; I don't need to do that," says the artist of masterpieces of
the past. "I don't feel the need to repeat things. I'll always search and
study the masters and look for the muses. But I'm really pushing the tools to
their limit to create new kinds of imagery."

As the potential of computer-based art expands, Schwartz finds new areas to
explore. "Virtual reality is amazing," she says. "I can actually see images in
3-D or feel as though I'm walking through space." She has already toyed with
this emerging art form, creating sculpture within the computer.

Schwartz still takes up her watercolors and sketches with pencils from time to
time. But electronic realities engage her most. "'My needs of expression are
complete with the computer," she says.