DEDDY PAW: Apple Digital Printing Sketch

He is now identified by the “apple” digital printing masterwork.

“I had my worries, but fortunately he is one genius, expressed Martha Gunawan, founder and manager of the Mon Décor gallery on Thursday, 28 January 2010, in Wisma Mulia, Jl. Gatot Subroto, Southern Jakarta. The “he” she was implying to is artist Deddy PAW. According to Martha, Deddy PAW possesses the intelligence in interpreting “orders”.

Some time ago Martha was giving presentation of her idea to managers of hotels, apartments and other buildings to decorate their buildings with paintings. Two participants agreed to follow up on her idea, one of which is the manager of Wisma Mulia. Martha had her confusion on finding an artist with the ability to work rapidly, accurately, in accommodation, with off the rack masterpieces. The name Deddy Paw then came to mind.

“Yes I had Paw in mind and sent the proposal. The result was approval from Wisma Mulia. It turned out that Mrs. Barbara, one of the managers of Wisma Mulia is already familiar with Paw’s works. She liked the apple and silver color chose by PAW, and has already collected his pieces. It was a match”.

PAW soon wrapped up two large size paintings, each measured 5 x 5 meters. They are now posted on the lobby wall of the 56 story building. Those large size paintings were completed by PAW in speed and detail. His experience of being a Visual Editor for 14 years and Cultural Art Editor for 4 in the public newspaper “Media Indonesia”, which demanded him to “interpret” people’s ideas into visual work and familiarize himself with computer as the main tool in working on visual design, played a major role.

Paw has proved that he is a meticulous worker. He learned how to edit and comprehend the composition of words, sentences, paragraphs, and also studied writing. His shift from working as Visual Editor to Writing Editor had also brought many benefits. Firstly, PAW became an avid reader and learned how to write communicatively. Secondly, he started to cover many affairs and conduct interviews. Thirdly, PAW became a frequent visitor of various exhibition launchings which were very useful in expanding his knowledge and social network.

In year 2003, he began painting with apples as his objects, manually sketched using pencil or crayon on canvas. In 2007, PAW went back to sketching by digital printing technology, which allowed him to be more productive in creating. By mid of May 2008, PAW were participated in the exhibition “Technosign: From Painting to Digital Art”, in Surabaya Art Link, Surabaya, mastered by Djuli Djatiprambudi and Mikke Susanto.

According to both masters, PAW were invited to participate because technically he is one of several examples of fine-artists that is successful in combining digital imaging as the object transfer media. In other words, he was still using digital printing as a mean to ‘draw’. The digital technique was applied only as the tool to lock in the object before finally imprinted with manual skill.

The use of digital printing for this sketch, according to PAW, is because technically, the approach he applies in completing his paintings tends to refer to realism or rather hyper-realism technique, which in the perspective of contemporary painting art is known as a technique that focuses more to objective accuracy. Sketching with digital printing can fulfill the realistic concept.

“That is the reason why I use medias of photography and graphic computer as the supporting tool to record and process “shapes”, before then digitally printed on canvas,” explained the artist who was born in Magelang, 18 October 1963.

Early 2007, PAW were back to sketching with digital printing technology, after finding a digital printing company in Jakarta that will and can print on large scale canvases. Printing machineries such as Roland (resolution 1440 dpi) and Wit Color (720 dpi) owned by that company are able to print wide Talens canvases up to 310 cm. The Skytech printing machinery could even print on canvases with width up to 500 cm.

PAW described that the ink used in digital printing will not damage the canvas and adhering paint, moreover when using high quality canvas and oil paint. This is because high evaporate thin paint that absorb into the canvas will ‘die’ or blend in as soon as oil paint is brushed on the first layer. Also, the printing ink is assured to vanish from sight because it is covered by the oil paint that brush over it in layers.

In year 2009, PAW again held his sole exhibition in the Art Seasons Gallery in Singapore, entitling it “Say It With Apple”. To date, PAW is known as the visual artist who uses digital printing for sketching needs, and with the apple as his object identification, his name is often tagged as Deddy “Pelukis Apel Wae”, or Deddy “Who Paints Only Apple”.

Thanks to his skill, PAW’s stand as an artist now becomes stronger. In this year of 2010, he is invited to hold a sole exhibition in the “Bazaar Art Jakarta” in the Ritz Carlton Jakarta Pacific Place (end of July), and in Srisasanti Art House (end of December). Meanwhile the agenda of collective exhibition which he would be participating in 2010 amongst others will be in the cities of Surabaya, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, and Singapore.