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Moved to a New Location
1989 Madison Road
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone Number: (513)-871-6065
E-mail: mwilger@aol.com
Hours: Tues. 10:30AM - 5:00PM
Wed. 10:30AM - 5:00PM
Thurs. 10:30AM - 7:00PM
Fri. 10:30AM - 5:00PM
Sat. 10:30AM - 3:00PM
Open Sundays in December
12:00PM - 4:00PM
Closed Monday
Other artists represented with occasional shows are artworks by Brian Joiner, David Day, Tom Lohre and Joan Smiley, Stewart Fabe, Robert Fabe
Mike Wilger, proprietor, Visual History Gallery
http://visualhistorygallery.com
We accept Master Card & Visa.
Visual History Gallery,
2709 Observatory Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45208,
513-871-6065,
Open: Open Tues-Thurs: 11-6, Fri: 11-5, Sat: 10-3:30, Sunday by chance or appointment.
Closed Monday Web Site: http://visualhistorygallery.com
Link to "Artisto" paintings in the show: https://tomlohre.com/newart.htm
Link to the brochure about "Artisto": https://tomlohre.com/VHG08.pdf
autumediasmall.wmv Watch the video of Windo, Remoto & Artisto
Link to the Press Release: https://tomlohre.com/PressRelease.pdf
Links to some of the traditional formal portraits in the show.
https://tomlohre.com/morgan.htm, https://tomlohre.com/maggie.htm
https://tomlohre.com/mason.htm, https://tomlohre.com/sydney.htm
The
Story:
The show was a juxtaposition of paintings done by “Artisto” and
Tom Lohre. Tom showed recent portraits painted during the last six years including
six of young children. “Artisto” the Lego MindStorm Invention demonstrated
his tecnique during the opening and showing recent paintings started in February
2006 when “Artisto” was born from a command in RoboLab, the computer
language used with Lego’s MindStorm Invention System. “Artisto”
takes color and placement information from a plate created by Tom Lohre, his
creator, and places the right color in the right place on the canvas.
In 1987 Tom started exploring the possibility of having a machine paint. In
2003 he discovered Lego's MindStorm Invention System and spent four years learning
the software. On January 5th, 2007 at 9:53 PM Tom finally cracked the code to
write a program that took information from an image in the computer and fed
it to a robot.
In the past year, Tom has learned that “Artisto”, the name Tom has
given to the robot, is like a classical assistant. Artisto lays one of eight
colors in generally the correct spot and Tom manipulates it to refine its placement.
Tom initially creates an image in the computer that Artisto follows. The painting
process takes 18 hours for a 16” x 20” having 4163 dots. Tom can
turn “Artisto” off while working on a painting so the painting does
not have to be done all at one time. All the paintings in the show are close
ups of faces because the resolution is so low that he has to rely on the viewer
to fill in the blanks.
In the future, Tom sees “Artisto” painting still life's and landscapes
with Tom working closely with Artisto continually adjusting the paint as it
is laid down. “Artisto” is funded by an individual artists grant
from the City of Cincinnati. This is the second City of Cincinnati grant Tom
Lohre has received for his painting robot.
Show of Art Work by Tom Lohre and a Lego Robot Assistant named “Artisto”
For Immediate Release
This press release on-line by: https://tomlohre.com/VHG08.htm
Subject: Art Show
Title: Show of Art Work by Tom Lohre and a Lego Robot Assistant
Opening: Friday, April 18th, 2008, 6 to 9 p.m. Closing May 18th
Presenter information: Tom Lohre, 619 Evanswood Place, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220
Cell 513-236-1704, Home 513-861-4146, tom@tomlohre.com
Please publish web page: tomlohre.com
Venue information: Owner: Mike Wilger, proprietor, Visual History Gallery, 2709
Observatory Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45208, http://visualhistorygallery.com , 513-871-6065,
please publish number, Hyde Park Neighborhood
Brief Description: Tom Lohre will show 10 - 16” x 20” portrait paintings made
with the assistance of a Lego Robot named “Artisto.”
Opening Friday April 18th, 2008, 6 to 9 p.m. Closing May 18, 2008
Event information: Name: Show of Art Work by Tom Lohre and a Lego Robot Assistant
Public can call Tom Lohre at 513-236-1704 for more information
Free, No reservation needed. Children welcomed.
Opening: Friday April 18, 2008, 6 to 9 p.m., light refreshments served.
Show on display until May 18, 2008
Open: Open Tues-Thurs: 11-6, Fri: 11-5, Sat: 10-3:30, Sunday by chance or appointment.
Closed Monday
E-Mail: tom@tomlohre.com
Web Site: http://visualhistorygallery.com
Image for publication https://tomlohre.com/vhglohre.jpg
Caption: This latest work, a close up of the lady on top of Fountain Square
by Tom Lohre was made with the assistance of his Lego Robot “Artisto,” shown
on top of the painting. The robot lays in the color in and Tom refines the placement.
Link to the paintings in the show: https://tomlohre.com/newart.htm
The Story:
The paintings on display at the Visual History Gallery are modern impressionism
with a seminal twist. The large dots of bold color cover the canvases in a regular
manner reminiscence of Seurat and Van Gogh. It's only when you get back about
fifty feet you realize the vibrant arrangement of dots is a face. Each painting
has only eight colors but that does not to diminish the vibrant effect.
The gallery located on Observatory Rd just off Hyde Park Square, regularly shows
the photographs of Sarge Marsh, a commercial photographer who pasted away in
2003. Mike Wilger purchased Sarge's collection of negatives and offers prints
of them for sale. By far the most popular subjects are the sports images of
the Reds.
.
It's therefore no surprise that many of the faces in the art show are of sports
figures like, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson. The artist
Tom Lohre, also has portraits of Cincinnati celebrities like, George Clooney,
Carmen Electra, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nick Lishey. Tom purposefully selected
known faces because the technique he uses to create the work is of very low
resolution. You have to get back at least forty feet to see the faces.
The colors for each painting are bright and across the spectrum. The olors
work with each other to create the illusion of gray. Bright reds can be seen
next to dull greens as well as bright purples against brown. Each painting has
a carefully selected range of colors that act as eight steps from black to white.
Although the paintings stand alone as seminal modern impressionism there is
the other side of the story: A Lego robot helped in the making.
After 18 years of working on the problem Tom Lohre finally has a solid body of work done with the assistance of a robot. It took 14 years, working one month a year, to develop a painting method that satisfied the robots mechanism and Tom's aesthetic manner. Now that the robot is producing amazing results, Tom will work year round with the robot as well as paint his own formal portraits and scenes from around the world.
It was Tom's scenic painting that prompted him to embark on such a long journey to make a robot that painted. Spending long hours placing thousands of dots of color on his canvases made him think about how to have a machine do it. At first he used a simple palette with tubes of color screwed in from underneath. He would just squeeze color out as he worked. Then he made a mechanical oil paint mixer that looked like a gun. He would set various angles for each color and when he pulled the trigger a certain color would come out.. But all these methods were too unpredictable. It was only when he discovered Lego's MindStorm Invention system that he had the tools needed to affordably create a painting robot. Tom's first Lego robot painted using pastels. The robot would walk around the paper on wheels made of saw blades scrapping color as it went. Following a printing plate suspended above it, it would eventually complete an image. Later Tom changed to using oil pastels that were carefully applied to a hot surface. This is the manner used for the paintings in this show.
Why would anyone want use a robot to paint with? What is wrong with painting
with a brush and palette? The human feeling in a brush stroke seems to have
a little bit of the artists’ soul in every stroke. But Tom could not come to
believe that paint and brush is the end of all artistic tools? Before there
were oil paints there was egg tempera. Before egg tempera there was plaster
fresco. When you look into the future what do you see artists working with?
Maybe there will be a chip inside the artists’ head that allows a robot to do
the painting while the artist lays in bed thinking about doing it.
In fact this something similar is being done today with a monkey and a robot.
The scientists have been able to make a monkey think about having a robot walk
and have that robot walk. They are hoping that some day electrodes placed into
a humans brain will allow them to use a robot to carry out tasks.
Tom is obsessed with working with and creating machines that paint is because
it is his future. By creating a machine that imitates his painting process Tom
discovered aspects of him otherwise not revealed. A case in point is that Tom
always wanted to work abstractly with brilliant color schemes but never could
do it. It was his robot that taught him to use strong color effectively in a
semi abstract way and still not to appear to be forced color effects.
Eventually Tom's robots will be able to see, paint and talk at the same time.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Creating a robot that paints like
you is to distill your essence not into a bottle but onto a canvas.
The Artisto Family of Art Machines
Work started in 1980 using a Radio Shack Color Computer to address individual
pixels, creating computer art. Later Tom purchased a stepper motor controller
using the Radio Shack Color Computer in 1989 and created a metering and dispensing
oil paint device using screw driven plungers.
Tom’s simplest painting device was a palette he screwed four oil paint tubes
into the base and squeezed out the paint, as he needed it. Tom used the simple
palette for three years as he studied color mixing. A derivative of this was
adapted caulking gun where the plunger drove angled treaded rods that squeezed
out various quantities of oil paint determined by the angle created. Following
this device, Tom developed an air pressure palette where oil paint was dispensed
according to various air pressure applied to oil paint in syringes.
Next, Tom started to create small windup devices that made strokes on paper
with watercolor dispensed through a brush from a syringe. He elaborated on this
idea by adapting a remote controlled car into a painting robot. Tom laid off
small robot art machines for a year because they started to seem menacing. Instead
he created three man powered art machines, a pushcart, flying bicycle and a
sculpture making exercise machine. But it was not until Tom was confronted with
the conundrum that the brush could not be the ultimate painting device that
he set afresh. He purchased several Lego Mindstorm Invention System Kits and
quickly prototyped three robot printers. One was a large format pastel printer
that followed a same size paper plate suspended above the robot as it copied
the plate below it in pastel. The second printer used a pantograph system to
follow a smaller size plate. This system used a advanced method of applying
color, wax sticks on a hot surface. It allowed quick application instead of
the laborious going over that occurred with the pastel. The third system was
a computer controlled printer where one of eight colors is chosen to be applied
to 4163 spots on a 16" X 20" aluminum canvas.
In the past year, Tom has learned that “Artisto”, the name Tom has given to
the robot, is like a classical assistant. Artisto lays one of eight colors in
generally the correct spot and Tom manipulates it to refine its placement. Tom
initially creates an image in the computer that Artisto follows. The painting
process takes 18 hours for a 16” x 20” having 4163 dots. Tom can turn “Artisto”
off while working on a painting so the painting does not have to be done all
at one time. All the paintings in the show are close ups of faces because the
low resolution has to rely on the viewer to fill in the blanks.
On the drawing table is a similar robot using state-of-the-art vision software
provided as part of RoboLab, the graphic programming computer language that
drives Lego’s MindStorm Invention System’s motors and sensors. It is the same
vision software used to analyze medical images and automatic industrial assembly.
The new robot will use frequency and spatial filtering, quantitative analysis,
morphology and pattern matching to look at a subject in real time and deliver
color and placement information to canvas.
What: A Show of Art of Tom Lohre and David Day at the Visual History Gallery
Where: Visual History Gallery, 2709 Observatory Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45208, 513-871-6065
When: April 21 to May 10, 2006
Opening: The artists will be present from 6-9 on Friday April 21, 2006 Light refreshments will be served.
Images available on-line for publication:
Caption: This 11” x 17” print of Fountain Square Esplanade shows how it looked in 1898 is by David Day. The print is highly detailed and accurate of the Square and the surrounding buildings.
Caption: Tom Lohre painted this 12” x 16” oil on board “View of Ludlow Avenue” from life.
Web Pages:
David Day’s work: https://tomlohre.com/day.htm
Tom Lohre’s work: https://tomlohre.com/figure.htm
Contacts:
Tom Lohre, 513-861-4146, Cell 513-236-1704, 619 Evanswood Place, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220, tom@tomlohre.com
David Day, designer & Assoc., Inc., 1310 Pendleton St., Cincinnati, OH 45202, 513-621-4060, ddaydesign@fuse.net
Mike Wilger, proprietor, Visual History Gallery, 2709 Observatory Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45208, 513-871-6065, https://tomlohre.com/vhg.htm
The Story:
Tom Lohre, fine artist & David Day, designer, will have a group show at the Visual History Gallery. The Visual History Gallery has moved from Michigan Avenue to Observatory Avenue just east of Edwards on the south side of the street.
Tom will be showing his “Figure in a Landscape Series” oil paintings. David Day will be showing prints of his meticulously accurate drawings of Cincinnati streetscapes.
The show runs from April 21 to May 10, 2006. The artists will be present from 6-9 on Friday April 21, 2006. Light refreshments will be served.
David Day has been called many names: engineer, artist, historian, businessman, and architect. He is none of the above, while at the same time, all of the above and more. It is through his work that definitions disappear: a sheet of paper is transformed into a three dimensional sculpture, an urban parking lot becomes a surprising garden oasis, a city wall - a canvas on which to tell a visual story. This fifth generation Cincinnatian, from a long line of craftsmen, mechanics and artisans, has articulated a passion for this river city's history.
On view at The Visual History Gallery, David Day, a master draftsman, shows meticulously accurate reproductions of his work, most done by commission, some for the sheer fun of it. Because his imagination is so intensely private, he is always surprised when the public takes an interest in his work.
Tom Lohre will show his “Urban Landscape Series.” He melds his formidable portrait skills with his accomplished “en plein air” manner.
For thirty years he has painted formal portraits that sometimes take upwards of a year to paint. The life size portraits are masterpieces of modern romanticism. The surface of the canvas is amazing to look at for Tom uses the white of the canvas and transparent tints to create lifelike form. Tom is obsessed with the surface of the painting. He emulates the great master figurative painter William Adolph Bouguereau. You can see Tom painting in the window of the Visual History Gallery during the show.
Tom started his “en plein air” work, artwork painted outdoors, after mastering his portrait manner. He honed his skills by painting outdoors everyday. He would paint scenes devoid of people even though they would be in very popular locations.
Now Tom incorporates well wrought figures into his “en plein air” work. The figures and composition are worked up in the studio and painted on location. Nature is Tom’s inspiration. He takes numerous photographs of people milling about and uses these images as stepping off points for the figures he creates in his canvases. The ten inch high figures in the new work can be portraits. The small figure in the painting can look just like a person but the size prevents it from becoming to ponderous.
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