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ABN SHEILA ELIAS MODERNIZES THE ACT OF CREATION WITH HER IPAD BY REBECCA PAHLE S heila Elias has worked with a variety of media, includ- ing painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography. But her newest method for creating art calls upon a tool that is altogether modern: T e iPad. If you believe what Apple's ads tell you, the iPad can be used for just about any task under the sun. But at the top of the list of what people are doing with these tablets are the same old humdrum things: Send- ing e-mails, watching videos, and listening to music. Awareness of the iPad as a tool for creating art is on the rise, and indeed there are many Photoshop- esque apps that turn the gadget into a touchscreen canvas. An increasing number of tech-inclined artists have been using those apps to create digital art, but Elias is taking the technol- ogy one step further, using her iPad as a single part of a larger, broader method that integrates digital art and painting to create gallery-quality pieces. T e art and technology worlds have both responded with enthusiasm. Elias' "iPaint on my iPad" series was the subject of a solo exhibition—Techne Revelation—at New York City's Mayson Gallery this fall, and the Miami-based artist was also invited to participate in the GREY AREA Instagram Project, part of the Whitney's 2012 Studio Party. Perhaps even more exciting is how Elias has been embraced by Apple: An exhibit at an Apple Store in Aventura, Florida was so successful that it was repeated in New York City. For Elias, "iPainting" isn't just a fad. It's a legitimate way to create art that requires just as much skill as traditional methods. "Like any tool, it is really the talent of the person executing the work that is important," says Elias. Even so, Elias admits that her tool of choice does make her art 30 iPAINTING THE FUTURE more impressive to some—particularly the younger generation: "When I mention I had a painting shown at the Louvre, very young people are slightly impressed. When I tell them I have also shown at the Apple Store at Lincoln Center they say, 'Wow!'" REBECCA PAHLE (ABN): How do you create your iPad art? What apps do you use, and what non-digital techniques go into each piece? SHEILA ELIAS (SE): I create my iPad art by actually just using my fi nger... I would say that I only use the stylus one percent of the time, while I use my fi nger 99 percent of the time. T e apps I use are Omni[Sketch], SketchBook [Pro], Brushes and Pistachio, to name a few. T ere are pieces that I have created, such as Marvel, that orig- inate by using my trained artist's eye to copy by hand the pieces I have originally executed on the iPad. I translate them to a larger format using traditional media such as acrylics and brushes. On other works, I downloaded the original fi le from the iPad onto the computer and—aſt er multiple processes have been ap- plied to the image—I have the works professionally printed on canvas and then sent to a printer, who is able to do large format printing. When the prints are returned I have them stretched WINTER 2012