Tradigitalist: Edgy Images are the Result of Multiple Media Processes

The Elmhurst Artists’ Guild will host a new exhibit, PolyChromatic, featuring eclectic, vibrant works ranging from architectural to contemporary abstract imagery by prominent Glen Ellyn artist and EAG Board member Randal Stringer. 

PolyChromatic will be held in the Elmhurst Artists’ Guild Gallery, located in the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 Cottage Hill Ave. The exhibition opens Tuesday, Jan. 17, and runs through Feb. 17. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday. 

Members of the public can meet the artist at a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20.

Although Stringer’s subjects and inspiration vary, from recognizable Chicago architectural landmarks to graffiti-decorated urban surroundings to peaceful landscapes and themes with spiritual undertones, the common thread is the assault of vibrant colors. Stringer describes his style as “pushing my creative abilities, blending traditional art techniques with the experimental avenues artists have at their disposal in this digital age. I call my style “tradigitalism,” because I merge traditional art techniques with digital applications.”

Stringer utilizes a multi-level process to create his edgy images, working with pen and ink, watercolor, acrylic, photography and digital mixed media to produce intensely colored, heavily manipulated concepts that reveal the creative force of the natural and digital world. Some works begin as a photograph, upon which he paints, scans and digitally manipulates to create the final abstract output. Others may begin as a traditional painting, and then are put through digital processes. Still others are unmanipulated, traditionally painted abstract works.

Formally trained in fine arts and graphic design at Southern Missouri State University, Stringer’s fine arts professor told him he would never make it as an artist. Looking at this novel, creative body of work, reflecting upon the professor’s assessment of this career artist pushing new boundaries to contemporary art nearly 20 years later, one is reminded of the report of Fred Astaire’s first screen test: “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Can dance a little.”

Stringer’s Beyond One’s Capacity expresses the ever-changing canvas of the graffiti world. Beginning with a photograph of an infamous alley in Ann Arbor, Mich., augmented by painting and digital manipulation, Stringer describes the message of this piece as “beyond one person’s capacity to bring this angel to life, and of death with the underlying connotations of nuclear war.”

Tsunami is an acrylic painting finished several days after the Japanese tsunami of 2011. This textured, abstract painting evokes the destruction, chaos, and energy of nature’s fury—a village being swallowed by the waves, a forest taken out to sea, lives lost.  Stringer used a handmade tool to create the effect.

For more information, visit Stinger's web site.