“Is this art?” is a question countless puzzled gallery-goers have wondered about a work or installation which seemed ridiculous, bizarre or just plain crazy.For American artist and Bermuda resident Theresa Airey, however, the question is: “Is this cheating?”Her exhibition, Bermuda in Three Dimensions, includes a group of 15 pastel renderings which combine modern technology with traditional techniques.Purists suggest this is cheating, but Mrs Airey begs to differ.“All the pastels are camera-generated. I took the pictures, I printed them out as a light sketch onto fine artist papers, and I hand-painted them with pastel pencils and chalks,” she explained.It is an approach which she feels best suits her skills and modus operandi.“I am not comfortable with my drawing skills, and I love to photograph, so I have found a way to use my photographic and computer skills, and combine them with my love of painting. I can work faster, and produce more with this technique. I do not enjoy drawing and spending hours or days getting the perspective correct. So now the question arises: Is this cheating? I am not a purist so I don’t think so. I am simply utilising the most modern-day tools available to me for my work.”To reinforce her argument, Mrs. Airey points out that artists have been incorporating new inventions into their work as far back as 500BC.“Most famous old masters including Leonardo da Vinci, Johannes Vermeer, Bellotto and Canaletto, used ‘modern-day inventions’ such as the camera obscura, which projected an image through light onto paper. With this technique an artist could trace an image, including fine details, onto canvas or paper and proceed to create a painting.”Along with improvements over time to the camera obscura came the camera lucida — a concept known as an art tool since the 1500s.Today’s artists have at their disposal a large variety of technical tools to create base sketches on paper or canvas from projected images, including the Lucid-Art camera, the KopyKake system and slide projectors.“So here I am in the 21st century with a digital camera, a computer and an archival printer which uses archival inks and papers,” Mrs Airey said. “I am a digital artist crossing the boundaries between traditional printmaking, painting, drawing, photography, and digital art as a tool, by using the computer to begin to integrate, orchestrate, and create new images.“Many artists use the ‘art’ tools but won’t admit it, but I am not trying to deceive the public. In fact, I have written five creative technique books to date, the latest of which, ‘Digital Photo Art: New Dimensions’, has many ideas for creating art, and how to do it step by step.“So is it cheating to use these modern tools? My answer is, emphatically, ‘No’.”Mrs Airey is also showing works in other media — 15 metal and board prints of the ever-popular Gombeys, and 11 black and white digital etchings using her secret technique.“[The Gombeys] are so unique and colourful,” she said. “There is not one person standing on the sidelines who isn’t moving with the drums and being fascinated by the dance. It is primal and basic, and stirs everyone up in a rhythm that is as old as time itself.”To best capture their essence, Mrs Airey created a special technique “just to show the excitement and the movement of the dancing”.Her chosen medium of metal prints for 12 of the gombey images uses a new art form for preserving photos. Dyes are infused directly into specially coated aluminium sheets, giving them an “almost magical luminescence”.A bonus for local collectors is that these archival prints are durable without glass, ultra-hard, scratch-resistant and waterproof, and will last for generations when displayed indoors and away from direct sunlight. They can also be washed with soap and water or window cleaner.The remaining three works in the gombey series are on board.For the third group, Mrs Airey is showing 11 works using a new photographic process she created which makes them look like etchings.“The process begins with a black and white infrared photograph, but as I have not shown this technique, nor had it published to date, I cannot at this point reveal how it was accomplished,” she said. “It is unique, and to my knowledge no one else has published or shown work using this technique.”(bul) ‘Bermuda in Three Dimensions’ continues through October 18 at the Windjammer II gallery in the Fairmont Hamilton Princess. For gallery hours and further information, telephone 295-1783 or e-mail windjammer2@logic.bm.