Artist Interview: Robert P. Fine
Robert P. Fine is a contemporary American artist known for his code-based work that draws inspiration from pioneering computer artists like Harold Cohen and Vera Molnar. His art distinguishes itself through its largely representational style, incorporating naturalistic three-dimensional scenes.
Fine utilizes recursive techniques to create objects such as trees and branching systems, while also employing algorithms that simulate light transport, resulting in a textured interplay of colors and shadows reminiscent of Seurat’s pointillism. Fine's work highlights the ongoing evolution of Western art and invites viewers to reflect on its continuous narrative.
We asked Bob about his art, creative process, and inspirations.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Seurat's Dog - Homage to Seurat
Tell us about your background as a digital artist. How did you get started in this field?
In my view, making art is fundamentally, before aesthetic or economic considerations enter the picture, an act of creation. I was attracted to digital art as a medium because of its newness and because I love playing with numbers. It strikes me that, more than other fine art mediums, it offers the challenge to create something absolutely unique, not derivative – something that would prompt someone to say “I’ve never seen that style before. It’s beautiful!”.
Digital art in the first quarter of the 21st century is still a melting pot of ideas and objectives. Although digital art has become ubiquitous in our culture, it still serves many masters and has not yet reached that state of self consciousness that, in my view, is absolutely necessary as a precondition to it becoming fine art.
So in my view, the opportunity exists, as it did for the Impressionists in late 19th century France, to spearhead the creation of a new fine art movement, one utilizing digital technology as its medium. As with Impressionism, a group of like-minded artists, critics, gallerists, curators, and collectors who embody a shared sensibility and esthetic and a rejection of past norms will need to gather together. This process will evolve organically. It will not happen quickly. However, it is incredibly inspiring to be a part of what is currently taking place and hopefully to be able to make a contribution, however small, to its ultimate success.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Fall of Icarus - Homage to Bruegel
Are there any particular themes or subjects that you explore in your artwork?
The subject I am most passionate about exploring is the intersection between digital art and fine art. I’ve pretty well got my head around digital art. What fine art is is a little bit more difficult to pin down.
I’ve got an answer however. It's based on the experience I had visiting the parietal art of the caves at Lascaux in southwestern France in my early 20s. I still have vivid memories of those delicately drawn animal figures nearly jumping off the walls, full of life. It struck me only later how the origins of Western art began in an act of beautiful creation deep in the most private living spaces of the human beings that existed 17,000 years ago.
For me, therefore, creating fine art presupposes not only an understanding of a set of artistic tools, but an understanding of what is most important in the world not simply to oneself but more importantly to others. It means creating art that people are comfortable bringing into their homes, living with, existing with every day, and seeking solace and meaning from, as emotions and imperatives otherwise incommunicable are reflected back from the walls.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Floral Study
What is an event which you consider a milestone in your digital art career?
A few years ago, a mutual artist friend whom I knew in Charleston SC where my wife and I had retired in 2018 and who was aware of my digital work, told me of once having dinner at his home with a friend who had brought along an acquaintance who had been doing digital effects in Hollywood for 15 years and was now teaching computer graphics at Clemson University (on the other side of the state from Charleston). His name was Dr. Jerry Tessendorf and my artist friend was kind enough to make an introduction on my behalf. He had been trained as a physicist but in Hollywood got involved with the special effects industry. He developed the seminal algorithms for rendering the movement of ocean waves. His work played the pivotal role in developing the ocean scenes seen in the Titanic and Life of Pi. In 2007, he was awarded an Academy Award for Technical Achievement.
As a result of my artist friend's introduction, Jerry and I became friends and I studied cutting edge computer graphics under him for nearly five years. Also, as a result of participating in the computer graphics program at Clemson I was able to establish relationships with a number of brilliant students who have been instrumental in helping me perfect my code.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Generative Mountain Scene
Can you tell us about how the works of Harold Cohen and Vera Molnar have shaped your artistic style and creative approach?
Harold Cohen and Vera Molnar were pioneers in the early development of digital art. In the 1960s and 1970s, access to computers was limited to huge mainframes filling large rooms at universities, and high level computer languages were still in an early stage of development (Fortran was most often the language of choice at that time). Cohen and Molnar, artists in their own right, had the foresight to imagine how computational thinking could be used to instruct a machine to draw lines and images and had the passion and to become involved in university settings where they had access to computers. Their work was experimental and their art, initially, was abstract.
The focus of a lot of their work was on manipulating line segments to create intriguing patterns based on mathematical equations. At that time, such work was printed using dot matrix printers and pen plotters. Cohen ended up writing his own code set, a program he called “Aaron”, which he continued to use until his death in 2020. The program was semi-autonomous in the sense that, given a set of points distributed on a two dimensional plane and a set of rules and constraints governing the position of line segments relative to those points, the computer was able to develop engaging patterns. Vera Molnar, in a similar manner, worked on her art until her death in Paris in 2023.
Cohen and Molnar are inspirations and have had a significant influence on the development of generative art and a generation of generative artists whose work embodies the use of rules and geometric constraints to develop complex and intriguing patterns.
Read more about Robert P. Fine’s insights on Cohen and Molnar’s legacy on the Community Blog.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: In the Garden of Good and Evil - Homage to Bosch
Where does your work fit in relation to the history of digital art?
The path from Harold Cohen and Vera Molnar to my work is somewhat circuitous. I would say by way of introduction, that my work builds off of their legacy by adding to my tool box a set of algorithms and functions that allow me to model the transport of light within three dimensional scenes. This aspect of computer graphics was not yet available to be incorporated into the early works of computer artists nor does it appear to be heavily emphasized by the Generative Art movement later on. From the perspective of Cohen and Molnar in the 1970s, three dimensional rendering using global illumination techniques were still at least 20 years away and would require yet to be developed theory and code as well as the proliferation of modern hardware and high capacity processors.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Meadow Scene
What is global illumination and path-tracing?
As I suggest above, my work moves a step beyond generative art in that my code set, while employing a number of generative algorithms, also incorporates the ability to model the transport and distribution of light within a scene.
Global illumination loosely refers to a set of algorithms that are designed to add more realistic lighting to three dimensional scenes. Critically, they take into account the physical properties of both direct and indirect lighting in nature. It is important to understand that an object in a room not only reflects light rays which have hit it directly from a light source (direct illumination) but that it also reflects light rays from that same source which have been reflected off of other surfaces in the scene before hitting the object in question (indirect lighting).
This effect is achieved programmatically in code using a Monte Carlo rendering method called “path tracing”. Using a random number generator and basic principles of linear algebra, the code is able to simulate, for each individual pixel, the propagation of light rays moving in random directions within the scene. Whether a ray has hit an object is determined mathematically, and if a hit occurs, the color value of that object is returned and stored in a data structure. For each pixel, a ray can be sent out multiple times. Each time, a color value is returned and stored. Finally, all the color values retained are averaged together and expressed as a single color value for that pixel.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Ocean Scene
What materials, software, and tools do you typically use to create your digital art?
Over the past five years, I have developed my own proprietary software written in C++ that I use to create my images. It has a user interface, a number of generative functions, and a three dimensional renderer. At times, I will also import open source three dimensional digital assets such as plants and trees that I find on the internet. The software emulates basic physical principles of projective geometry, fractal geometry, and light transport.
To give you a slightly oversimplified view of my workflow, it involves creating an abstract three dimensional scene by choosing among a list of geometric primitives (e.g. planar surface or sphere) and processes. Each of the primitives reflects the object's mathematical definition, color, and an xyz coordinate position in space. The processes one can choose from operates on the primitive. So, if I were creating a sky, I would choose a “plane”, give it a coordinate position in the scene, give it a color (presumably a shade of blue) and assign to it a “cloud pattern” process.
As a rule, I do not use any of the commercially available 3D rendering such as Maya, Cinema 3D , or Render Man. Occasionally, I will reach out to Blender to help prepare digit assets for importing into my software.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Generative Beach Formations
My work is largely deterministic. I do not use any of the AI tools currently in vogue. In my coded C++ model I have access to a UI containing over 100 variables that I set manually to define scene objects, rendering methods to be employed, color values, and camera settings.
I strived for my work to be original. It strikes me that work generated by AI tools is by definition derivative. How could it be anything else given that it is drawing on statistical relationships within data models of previously harvested internet art and data?
Variability in the rendering of my work is introduced only to the extent that a random number generator is used to determine the direction of light rays, placement of objects instanced within a scene, and the shape of generative branching patterns.
I make prints myself using an 44 inch wide Epson P 9000 printer that I own.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Rising Orb
What role does modeling random processes and patterns play in your work?
The modeling of random processes and patterns found in nature plays a large role in my work and is an area where the computer is highly proficient. For example, use of a random number generator to model a random distribution light ray directions is a critical part of the global illumination and path tracing techniques discussed above.
The algorithms I use to model various natural patterns including clouds, mountains, branching systems, and water surfaces also require the use of random numbers even though the patterns themselves have structure and may not immediately be perceived as being random.
Generative Art by Robert P. Fine: Desert Scene
