The *StarShip*'s Featured Amiga Artist in Residence for March
            In an electronic exhibit at Gallery 44:  Zak Jarvis
    _____                   by deb Christensen
   / _   )
  / / ) /ur Amiga Artist in Residence for March, Zak Jarvis, is one of
 / (_/ / those people that the original Amiga advertising slogan "The
(_____/ Computer For The Creative Mind" was made for.  He's had an Amiga
since 1988, and currently uses an Amiga 1200 and an Amiga 2500. Resisting
all influences of the burgeoning computer marketplace to move to another
platform, Zak has remained an avid Amiga fan. He refers to himself as "an
artist/writer/game designer" and a "loyal Amiga fanatic."

Zak's first art was with a computer, and it continues to be that way today.
Like many traditional artists, who study the structures and media of
conventional drawing and art techniques, Zak studies the tools and
techniques of computer art. His sketches don't start on a piece of paper in
a bound sketchbook, but directly on the screen where the Amiga and the
mouse give life to his visions.

Influenced by artists with and without computers, Zak finds the work of Jim
Sachs, Louis Markoya, Bill Graham and Menzies inspiring. Like many of the
rest of us, he finds much to admire in many pieces of drawn and rendered
art, some of it even unsigned. When it comes to more traditional art forms,
he enjoys Bosch, Goya, Maxfield Parish, Pierre Paul Vever and Rene Lalique.

You can see some of his production work and style in three of the first
issues of the Amiga version of GEnie's LiveWire magazine, the November,
December and January issues. Of the ones he worked on, his personal
favorite is the December one, where he tried to create the atmosphere of a
futuristic cyber-link monitor in the colors and framing of the artwork and
interface surrounding the presentation of the articles. You can still
download the back issues at GEnie page 20, for free even, and see his
beautiful animations and main clip art and small clip arts featured in the
December issue. I helped him work on that issue, and I think he has every
reason to be very proud of it, too.  The spinning globe inside a holocube
was featured on two pages in the issue, and is a great example of a
beautiful and compact animation. Who can forget the awesome opening screen
power button he created to set the mood for the entire December LiveWire,
or the blinking LED-like glowing fonts which proclaimed the titles, bylines
and navigation limit indicators?

Zak just finished the album cover for Eric "SideWinder" Gieseke's first CD
album of music - all produced and written on an Amiga - "Future Shock 2".
You can take a peek at what the CD jacket art will look like; the picture
is part of Zak's exhibit online in the *StarShip*. It's a futuristic
landscape, only the landscape is a circuit board. I think you'll find it
intriguing.  Zak created the imagery with Imagine.

In addition to his love for and talent with computer arts, Zak is currently
developing a multiplayer game with his girlfriend of several years, Sharon.
They live in Syracuse, NY, and share an apartment with his two Amigas, her
Macintoshes, and one very dumb cat, Pilgrim. I'd call that a progressive
and tolerant household!  :)

Most of Zak's Amiga artistry is done with DPaint IV and Imagine 2.0.
Sometimes he uses Brilliance. He calls his Bernoulli an 'indispensable'
tool, and has been going on and on about a new Canon BubbleJet 200 printer.
One of the time saving and often-used features of his Amiga systems is
Parnet, which networks his two Amigas together.

You'll find Zak's work in the March Multimedia ViewPort - the severed
parallel cable in The Amigaphile, the jukebox scene in the Blues Machine,
as well as the design of the Contents page and the general look of the
issue.

Look for Zak's art on display in our own Gallery 44, an electronic art
exhibit in these files:


  13089 BALLRMJP.LZH          57,600   Still: 24bit JPeg of a ballroom.
  12576 DARKNESS.LZH          18,816   Still:  A picture of suffering.
  12673 SKELE2.LZH           111,616   An animation of a skeleton hand.
  13237 GREATSWORD.LZH       284,928   Spinning ornate sword anim
  20789 BIOSHIPANIM.LHA      931,200   Ham-8 anim of Bio spaceship.
  22713 POWERPC_ANIM.LHA      30,848   It's Square, silicon, & it moves!
  22716 AMIGA_AD.LZH           6,144   Still: Ad you're not likely to see.


You'll be able to share these pictures with your non-Amiga friends, look
for the GIF and JPEG versions which will be available in Gallery 44 soon.


If you think your project could benefit from an artist of Zak's calibre,
contact him. He's taking work on now in 2 or 3-D animations and in stills.
You may contact Zak directly in GE-Mail at the address:  WINTERLORN
or, via Internet, at:  WINTERLORN@genie.geis.com

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