GossipNet

I have been on the Internet since 1993 - more than 20 years. Some of you vast crowd of readers have been on the Internet for longer than that, even 30 years if you count local "bulletin boards." I have also been doing digital art and graphics since 1991, when I got my first computer which was equipped with the CorelDraw graphics program. This illustration was done for a long-forgotten magazine called "Internet World," which as its title describes was for users of that exotic electronic telephone network where you could read each other's postings! The illustration was for an article about libel and gossip on the Net and what the laws were, if there were any. You can see the "flames" arising from the virtual tabloid where various tacky articles appear, as well as an ad for learning computer programming at home. (Which, if I had the time, I would like to do.) The person holding the tabloid is none other than Me, since I was the model for the sleazy reader. Not much has changed. I created the tabloid magazine in CorelDraw, and collaged the printed page into the drawing. Note the crude printing texture, the output of a very early ink-jet printer.

Watercolor and collaged print on illustration board, 6" x 8", August 1993. Some light blue Photoshop restoration in the sky area. Click on the pic to read the gossip.