John Niemi

Artist Statement

The pixel most often hidden in a digital image. They engage the flow of color and texture, and amplifies positive and negative space creating our visual experience. Having studied graphic design and photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago, the advent of digital cameras and computer-generated editing enables me to combine both original disciplines.
In a visually-driven, digital world I have committed to “paint with a mouse”.

I create spaces and places scraped clean of humankind, free of our visual pollution. Without these references images are open to interpretation. I want the digital image to replace the digital screen; encouraging the viewer to get lost in it. Each is a contemplation of time and space, of warms and cools, of foreign and familiar; a monolith, a sacred space, dangerous or inviting place. The viewer is invited to explore my Horizons and Landscapes.

Manipulating the digital process is at times well defined – adjusting images even a pixel at a time. My challenge is controlling thousands of computer interactions, managing color and texture to interpret the known and unknown world around us.

Many of my current expressions are informed by the ever increasing demand for action to ward off further decay of our world by global warming. While these images assume the destruction of our planet I attempt to hint at Mother Nature’s inevitable ability for rebirth. The places and spaces found in my landscapes and horizons are both a warning and a prayer.