Roast of Harold D Artwork

Born 1958 in Manhasset, L.I., NYI am a third generation painter. But unlike my Viennese father and grandmother, I am the first to dip into a digital tool box, and the first to do art for your sake, and not my own. I opened Art For Your Sake in 2004 as a mecca for digital camera buffs to commission wishful reality from the best of their litter. . Today, I create prescriptive photomontages to heal loss and regrets, mend ruptured relationships and cause positive change in behavior. Specialty areas are bereavement, eating disorders and LGBT acceptance. My first love affair with cutting and pasting was for my college thesis which called for a "biotectural" interior collaged from architectural and gardening magazine clippings. My next big epiphany was 20 years later, when I created a tender series of photo collages for my firstborn's bar-mitzvah. This time, in the absence of the "right photos" (i.e. endearing shots of my son Sam with specific family members or family friends), I simply invented them from existing photos I had in my albums. Using this method, I was able to reunite Sam with his grandmothers, Lola and Ilse, who had since passed away. Influences? The MAGNUM photographers of the 30s, the photo-collages of Jacques Prevert, Polish poster art, and the great photo-retouchers of the Stalinist period.In my previous life I was in advertising, and in some sense, Im still in advertising, suspending disbelief and turning things on their head. Only this time, I'm doing it in the service of comfort and joy. Titled "healing dreamscapes," these digital photomontages feel like a snapshot of a dream. Seamless and with real shadow play, they are moments frozen in time that lavish attention on memory. Populated with people, symbolic objects or landscapes from my clients own archival photos, memorabilia or even personal artwork, these dreamscapes include also minutiae and backgrounds from my own photography as well. Often, they are infused with humor and witty effects that become liberating inside jokes for the client. All these elements tell a story which I co-create with my clients. After retouching the images scale and lighting, I re-integrate them into an altered reality which brings positive memories to the front while safely removing more negative or painful associations conjured up by the original photographs. This reconstructed past in the form of an archival print becomes reality for my clients.