Patrick Millard is an artist who originates from the small Western Michigan town of Lamont and now lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His work in photography, painting, mixed media, new media, video, sound and installation has resulted in a diversified portfolio that addresses ideas about media, digital culture, technology and the interactions that human beings have within their own synthetic environment. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and continues to gain recognition.
Recent exhibitions include the international art happening, Blow the City in Ghent, Belgium; Digital Fringe at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in Melbourne, Australia; Fauna Show at The Workshop Gallery in Bialystok, Poland; Origins at the Fox Art Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Snap To Grid at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art in Los Angeles, California, The Human Canvas at The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado, SMart Festival at Open Concepts Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI and A Million Little Pictures at Art House in Decatur, Georgia.
In 2008, Patrick began to show his work inside the virtual simulation world Second Life; exhibitions that advance beyond two-dimension work and expand his ideas of simulation, virtual reality, and the synthetic future where the physical object gives way to its virtual counterpart and its presence is valued entirely for its idea rather than its place in space.
Patrick received a bachelor’s of arts in photography from Grand Valley State University and a master’s in fine arts for photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
He currently works as an adjunct professor of photography at Grand Valley State University and Grand Rapids Community College as well as the photography instructor at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids.
Patrick’s interest in Orion’s Arm comes from having encountered the Freegem starship, Rising in Light, in Second Life. He was inspired to photograph in Rising as part of his Virtual Lens exhibition. Here’s the artist on that work:
Virtual Lens
Virtual Environments have become increasingly popular as we have moved forward into the 21st Century, and with this trend we are witnessing an expansion of our reality and the notion of objecthood. The developing world of virtuality has resulted in a market of goods that are bought and sold but no longer tangible to the buyer or seller. The outcome is a greater respect and enthusiasm for information as product itself. Goods are continually becoming cherished more for their ability to carry concept and idea rather than their physical place in space.
In Virtual Lens this world of virtuality [Second Life] is seen for its visual and informational offerings. The world possesses artistic, educational, social, retail, residential, commerce, etc. in a diverse number of configurations that are both recognizable from the world we have known in our ‘real life’ structure and as new developments that have been created by the users of the virtual environment.
Photographically these image captures represent a new development in the digital era. Much like viewing a web cam of a location from the world that extends well beyond our place in that world, the captures taken in Second Life are a collection of representations taken from a new and developing reality that some have predicted will be the mainstay of our time in the 21st Century.
It is without doubt that virtual environments will play a major role in our understanding of the world. They will both remind us of the memory from a time before such experiences and offer a reformation of the way we make sense of our surroundings and ourselves.
-Patrick Millard
[...] Imagery: Rising in Light, by Patrick Millard [...]