A picture's worth 256 colors: Brentano Haleen and the evolution of computer art – Idaho Mountain Express and Guide
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Plentiful sunshine. High 28F. Winds light and variable..
Clear skies. Low 7F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: December 7, 2022 @ 10:19 am
Serving Sun Valley, Ketchum, Hailey, Bellevue and Carey
December 7, 2022
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, from 5-7 p.m. Chapter One will host a book-signing party for Haleen’s “From the Mind’s Eye to the Digital and Beyond” with food and drink.
Reporter
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, from 5-7 p.m. Chapter One will host a book-signing party for Haleen’s “From the Mind’s Eye to the Digital and Beyond” with food and drink.
Over a 50-year career, Brentano Haleen has designed abstract art with computers.
“I use the shapes to express my thoughts and feelings,” Haleen said.
In each work, he tries to use every color or their derivatives.
“You have straight lines, curved lines and color—that’s all there is, wherever you look, whatever you see,” Haleen said. “Basically, curved lines represent nature. Straight lines are an invention of man, for convenience in building and organizing. The differences in color give form to shapes.”
He explores hypnagogic images—the sensations we experience in the space between sleep and consciousness.
“In those profound moments, artists receive the visions that drive their creativity, scientists discover answers to elusive problems and philosophers glimpse the meaning of life,” Haleen writes in the last page of his new book, displaying many of his pieces.
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, from 5-7 p.m., Chapter One in Ketchum will host a book-signing party for Haleen’s “From the Mind’s Eye to the Digital and Beyond” with food and drink.
“It tells the story of the beginning of computer art—not just me, but how it developed,” Haleen said.
His work has shown at the L.A. County Museum of Art, the Boston Computer Museum and New Metropolis in Amsterdam.
“I was there first, very inquisitive. I was hands on. I had to get it. I had to do it. I was born to do artwork on a computer. Now everybody does it. I’m part of the reason.”
Brentano Haleen
“From the Mind’s Eye to the Digital and Beyond”
“People should know about this,” Haleen said. “Of course, I’ve got to blow my own horn a little bit. I feel that what I’ve done has significance and I want to share it. They say, the objective is to find your gift, and then give it away. So I’m trying to share it with more people.”
He had just watched James Cameron’s “Avatar” for the first time, a film consisting mostly of computer-generated imagery.
“I once got paid a lot of money to say you can do anything in Photoshop,” Haleen said. “These days, you can do anything on computers—period.”
Growing up in inner-city Chicago, he started drawing as soon as he could hold a pencil. His parents enrolled him in classes at the Art Institute. Every Saturday, he took the bus downtown and went to the basement.
“I still remember the smell, the ambiance down there,” Haleen said.
After class, he went upstairs, wandering through the quiet rooms and marveling at all the great art.
“That was a formative time for me,” Haleen said.
He studied the surrealism of Max Ernst, Wassilly Kandinsky and M.C. Escher.
“Then, in the early 80s, I was a pioneer in computer art,” Haleen said. “I was on a quest to do fine art on a computer, which I completed by the late 80s.”
In “From the Mind’s Eye,” he tells the story of stumbling across a friend holding a Timex Sinclair 1000 in 1981.
“It looked like a calculator,” Haleen said. “He had it in his hand, I didn’t know what it was.”
At the push of a button, black and white boxes appeared. The simple task was a revelation for Haleen.
“I was hands on,” Haleen said. “I had to get it. I had to do it. I was born to do artwork on a computer. Now everybody does it. I’m part of the reason.”
His work started on a Commodore with 16 colors and low resolution.
Date: Wednesday, Dec. 7
Time: 5-7 p.m.
Location: Chapter One Bookstore, Ketchum
Cost: Free
“It was very cumbersome,” Haleen said.
He discovered supercomputers, used by weather stations and the military to compare data with color. He went to Computer Graphics Manufacturing Association trade shows to ask for time, but it was too expensive.
At long last, he found a man in Minneapolis who let him use a supercomputer for $100 an hour. Each image could use 124 colors. On four separate occasions, he took all his savings and flew to Minneapolis a week at a time in order to master his craft. He designed and sold greeting cards to get the money.
“I pioneered several different areas in computer art. It was just compulsion,” Haleen said. “I worked on primitive computers, I worked on supercomputers and then when the Mac II came out, I just jumped all over it. I knew exactly how to work on a computer.”
The Mac II was released in 1987, offering 256 colors.
“It blew away the system computer industry,” Haleen said. “What used to cost a million dollars cost $7,000 when the Mac II came out.”
He developed on 32-bit, photo-realist color.
“I beta tested for Photoshop before it ever came out from other programs that aren’t around anymore,” Haleen said. “I was in the trenches for years. Crashing and smashing and helping develop basically the technology that everybody works with now.”
The output went from 256 colors to 16 million.
“That was an exciting time,” Haleen said. “To give computer art its legitimacy, you had to get good images off the screen in a way that’s acceptable to the fine art world, which I finally did in 1989 … Now, everybody makes images and throws them around, but not many people have tiptoed into the fine art world. Now it’s so easy to print, publish.”
Over his vast career, he edited the journal of computer aesthetics “Verbum,” he was an expert witness in a computer graphics trial and he animated the background of a live children’s play.
He made famous lithographs, and, for three years, he had Lucky Seven Scarves in Giacobbi Square, selling his artwork printed on silk.
“Ladies loved them, started buying them,” Haleen said. He filled the store with french perfumes, costume jewelry and candles. “I tried to make a kind of a lady store—probably close to half a million dollars worth of scarves—really didn’t make any money though.”
He found there simply wasn’t enough business in the Wood River Valley.
“Finally I just decided oh the hell with it,” Haleen said. “People still ask me for scarves. I don’t really want to be about scarves. I’m more about the imagery.”
He has lived in this area on and off since the early 80s.
“I’ve always figured this was my home,” Haleen said. “Basically, I was following my wives whenever I left wherever they wanted to go. But I always kept a little place here.”
At his current apartment in Ketchum, he has a two-computer set-up: one online and one offline. He still uses a flip phone.
“Forty years ago, I had no idea we’d have computers in our pocket and everybody would be showing videos to each other,” Haleen said. “I accomplished what I wanted to do way back then.”
As for the future of computer art, he envisions artificial intelligence taking over.
“It was impossible to see back in the mid 80s that people would have all this stuff on their phone,” Haleen said. “So it’s a fool’s errand to try to predict the future.”
These days, he mostly only works with colored pencils, posting hundreds of drawings on Facebook. These pieces make up half of “From the Mind’s Eye.” Creating art with computers is meticulous, tinkering with transparencies, splashes, pixels, etc., but “you cannot erase once you put the pencil to the paper,” Haleen said.
He got the idea for “From the Mind’s Eye” during COVID.
“It’s funny making a book—it’s kind of anti-climatic,” Haleen said. “While I’ve done a lot, I still have a lot more to go. I’m still creating and showing and promoting.” 
jthyne@mtexpress.com
Reporter
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