Solarized Film Frame from “Snake Handlers” 2001
I can be reached at: wbrow02@gmail.com or +01 404 210-1879
William A. Brown
Creating Digital Images that are Robotically Rendered as Oil Paintings.
Works for a Painting Robot 2020-2025
NASA Abstraction 17: Mystic Mountain Overlayed with Deep Space Stars. 2025
Admittedly creating paintings is a new practice for me. When I retired as a Sr. Lecturer at Emory University I was mainly known as a photographer and video artist. But I have always admired great painters and actually wanted to create paintings if and when a robotic technology was perfected. That time has come. A viable robotic painting device was developed at M.I.T. and is commercially available at Matr Labs in New York.
My decisions about painting content are more informed by photography than traditional painting. My creative strategy involves testing multiple “styles” rather than creating a “signature style”. This approach allows me to test different approaches and discover which style works best with this new technology.
The great benefit of this technology is that I can create a huge number of digital pre-paintings meaning I can evaluate images before they are committed to paint. I have no doubt this is the future of painting and I amuse myself with the conceit that I’m one of the first artists to seriously explore this new digital to paint workflow.
William A. Brown
Aleatory 125: Best Result from 544,000 Randomly Mixed Images in a Computer (Nudes in Hell Mixed with an Artist’s Palette). 2023
1.Montages Utilizing Public Domain Art & NASA Imagery
Orbit 05: Proposal to Release Euro-Art Satellites in Low Earth Orbit. 2025
Short But Amusing Video Reviewing My Work. Music Generously Donated by Bruce Hampton.
2. Public Domain Art Deconstructed & Reconstructed:
2D054 Men in Groups 2022
2D025 Hypothetical Bosch & Brueghel Collaboration 2021 Painting in Stock
Comic Relief Image
3. Using a Computer to Randomly Mix 544,000 Photographs.
Aleatory 6620 still470: Knights on a Lock Mechanism. 2026
Aleatory MMM 02. 2026
Video Works 1979-2019
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Still Photography 1979-2019
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Contact Information and C.V.
Four stills from Drop Test, an experimental hyper slow motion film made in 1979.
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Comparison of Digital Files with Robotically Created Paintings:
Montage Made from European Paintings of the Late Renaissance.
Montage Made from European Paintings of the Late Renaissance.
Career Summary:
I left graduate school in psychology to become a photographer in the 1970s. I received a MFA from the University of Florida in 1976. I went on to become a founder of the Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta and the studio program at Emory University where I taught for over 40 years. I also owned Atlanta Video, a video production company that specialized in arts and educational programming. My Emmy Award winning documentary about the Maya Indians, “Apocalypse Then”, aired in primetime on the A&E Network. I also produced classical music videos and artist profile videos for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. I have a certificate in Spanish from the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain.
Before retiring from the Emory University Film & Media Studies Department I was primarily known as a video artist. I Have shown work and won awards at scores of international and national media events. My art videos were slow motion studies of people in crowds on the street, at sporting events, watching parades, or running from bulls in Spain.
In retirement I’ve become an early adapter of the technology that I believe will change the way paintings are created. The efficiency and speed of computers and evolved robotic painting devices will allow the designers of the new painting to create works at a scale and precision associated with the manufacture of any complex mass consumer item. The democratization of fine art painting is upon us and I personally like the idea that paintings by the next avant-garde will be designed in software and rendered by a robot. The era of the 90 million dollar contemporary painting will thankfully end.
Details from Public Domain “Tych” Images 2024