Houston Business Journal

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With the integration of technology into almost every profession, few have been more forced to adapt more radically than the 21st Century artist.

Some have traded pencil and brush for a computer. Others have held steadfast to them, working as fine artists.

Syndication of work, corporate mergers and a decline in the number of newspapers have all spelled trouble for newspaper cartoonists. Their numbers are dwindling, says Houston freelance artist Lambert Der.

"When a company buys another company, they look at ways to cut costs, and people get laid off," says Der, an award-winning editorial cartoonist who now works on a freelance basis. "Cartoonists are usually the first to go; they are very expendable:'

Nearly extinct are the newspaper cartoons that poked fun at local figures such as the school board or mayor. They've been replaced by syndicated cartoons used for many markets.

"If you're in Galveston or Lubbock, you get a cartoon about Iraq or Russia. You don't have focus on local issues, and that's where a newspaper has the most impact,' Der says.

Der is one of the remaining working artists who uses only ink and paper to make a living. Some now use a computer program for creating cartoons, never making a physical copy of their work. Artists who began their careers using only pencil or brush found themselves forced into a technological age during the 1980s and '90s and had to learn new skills in order to be marketable.

Charles Criner, artist in residence at the Museum of Printing History near downtown Houston, began his career at The Houston Post in 1970. As a staff artist who designed advertisements, he and other artists of the day used clip art and two hands to manually piece together work. Criner left the post to pursue his own business in 1984, and in 1992 when the Post asked him to return, they told him it was a timely offer - because computers were being purchased for the art department, all artists were about to be retrained. He laughs when he recalls his initial awakening to the conveniences of technology.

I didn't know much about computers' he admits. "When I came back I saw (other artists), printing out copies of clip art on the computers and throwing it away. Well, I was fishing it out, saying, "I can use this later and put it in my file, and they said, 'No, you don't have to do that any more:"

Criner adapted, learning to use software such as Quark and Photoshop to design advertisements for the Post while also creating cartoons by hand.

Still somewhat a creature of habit, he prefers to work an older model Macintosh.

At the museum, Criner combines both the old and the new, using age-old print-making techniques to create works of art and a more modern "Gicleé" method of print-making in which artwork is scanned, stored on a computer disk but printed in limited editions to be signed and numbered. Like musicians recording a song on a master tape, the disks can be handed down to descendants, who may print more editions of the work after the artist's death.

Unlike many artists who either retired or changed careers when forced to go high-tech, Criner was lucky. He had learned to type in high school, was versatile and had been trained that his art must reflect himself and his surroundings. He says he doesn't regret being part of a technological revolution in the art world.

"I can capitalize on the renaissance' he says. "I learned from Dr. (John) Biggers (noted African-American muralist) to draw and paint the things I am interested in. Now, I can go to the computer and work ill want to. A lot of people now either can work on the computer or work in other media:'

Unlike Criner, a generation of younger artists who learned in art school to use charcoal, paints and ink in the 1980s were thrown upon graduation into a high-tech world in which many had no training.

Chris Jones, a graphic artist who now redesigns Web sites on a freelance basis, says he was thrown for a loop after his 1989 graduation from art school.

"Every job available wanted artists with computer training, and at that point I had no way of achieving that:' Jones says. "Back then if I wanted to purchase a computer for my home, it would have cost me over $5,000."

Jones enlisted the help of a friend to give him a crash course in computers. He obtained his first job as a graphic artists and continued to bring home manuals to study in his spare time.

"I learned Pagemaker 4.2, Photoshop 2 and illustrator 3 to where I could at least do my job, and soon started to be rather good at it," he says.

Eighteen years after graduating with no computer skills, Jones has had experience in print, video editing, Web site design, database programming and marketing research.

"It is sad, but ever since I started working as a professional, I have put my pencil down:' he says. "Ironically, I think 85 percent of the artists I graduated with do not work in the field. Most went on to other careers:'

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