Part 1: Close Up Radio Spotlights Artist Joan Truckenbrod

Corvallis, OR – Joan Truckenbrod is a retired professor of art and technology, now digital artist, whose art creates an intuitive conduit between technology and nature.

Joan is known for her hand digitally-assisted weavings. Inspired by visible and invisible traces of light waves, her art combines algorithmic drawings with digital weaving, “embodying the ephemeral trajectories of light.”

Joan creates an image in her computer, assigning colors and weave structures, and then works with a “digital loom.” The screen Joan is working on is in black and white. She doesn’t see her creation in full color until it’s woven.

Joan says she’s always had an impulse to “shake the computer to get the image out of it.” Subverting the way technology should be used brings an inherent uniqueness to the final work. It can’t be taken apart and put back together.

“The way I have always worked is that I have an idea of something I want to do or make and then I figure out how to do it,” says Joan. “It’s more spontaneous this way. I get to work more intuitively.”

Many of Joan’s pieces reflect her deep passion for social and environmental issues. After teaching at the Arts Institute of Chicago for 25 years, Joan moved to Oregon. She says she hopes to introduce her community to a different approach to professional art.

“Art is incredibly important, both for the maker and for the viewer,” says Joan. “I do believe a lot of contemporary artwork is difficult to interact with because we're living in a time when there are so many difficult issues, but the other role of art is to bring exhilaration and joy to people.”

For more information, visit www.joantruckenbrod.com