Artist Uses Zire 71 for Exhibition

Renowned artist Dane Picard's latest exhibit, "Portraits, Ids, and Snapshots," which opens Saturday at the Richard Heller Gallery in Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, Calif. Fusing art and technology, the exhibit features Zire 71 handhelds with Picard's digital vision.

"I use collections of photographs to explore the nature of singularity, aloneness, and seeing," says Picard. Comprising short digital animations looped and displayed on Zire 71 handhelds mounted on the gallery walls, the portraits embody the contemporary fast pace of multimedia and computer-generated imagery.

"This pace is a reflection of our current social pulse," says Picard. "They are at once an obsessive stare and a meditation. I am questioning how we see ourselves through the use of photography as well as the increasing proliferation of digital imagery throughout every moment of our lives."

Picard sees the morphed photos as a living history. The Zire 71 handheld serves as a human memory in digital form, storing the portraits without the limitations of time and the human tendency to forget and distort memory.

Furthering his vision of old and new fused in digital form, Picard's piece titled "Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: 81 Self Portraits" is inspired by his respect for the lasting and historical imprint Rembrandt's work made in the world and made possible by the large number of self portraits Rembrandt painted. The piece brings traditional art and contemporary art together in a unique form, eliciting interest from people who previously were devoted to either traditional or modern art while still dazzling the casual art collector.

The exhibit runs through Dec. 20, 2003. More information about the gallery is available at www.richardhellergallery.com.

The Palm Zire 71 handheld is available now for an estimated U.S. street price of $299. The PalmInfocenter review can be found here. You can order online from the palmOne store, or find a deal with PriceGrabber.

Previously in 2000, a UK artist Tom Kemp created an enormous painting using only his Palm Vx and Teal Paint. The painting, called Analysis, is an amazing 4 feet high and 17 feet wide.