During the fall semester of 1997, I was a visiting professor at Jinan University in the Department of Computer Science. During that time I was fortunate to be able to travel to the major cities in China and created the following work while in China. The work consists of paintings and computer manipulated photographs.

My research at Jinan University was concerned with the potential of graphics based computer software for the creation of fine art. The images displayed here reflect the use of traditional drawing and painting techniques as well as the attempt to employ the same techniques in the use of digitial media. The software used was Adobe Photoshop version 3 and Corel Paint. All the electronic images were printed on an Epson Stylus color ink-jet printer. The first exhibition of the work occurred at Jinan University at the Computer Science Research Institute in Guangzhou. It will be displayed simultaneous to the Faculty Show at UWEC as a web site which may be visited by the students and faculty of Jinan University as a reminder of my visit.

For the subject of my research, I chose to focus on the people of China who are new to me and whom I admired for their friendliness, spirit and hard work. I made a number of drawings, paintings and photographs during this short stay which I have tried to integrate together into a series of "faces". The images were collected in Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Nanchang, Jiujiang, Jingdezhen, Cuiheng, Zhongshan, and Chong Hua.

I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to Professor Cai the Chairman of the Computer Science Department who saw the need for me to have a computer to work on, and to the Computer Software Research Institute at Jinan University for their help and assistance. My special thanks go to Dean Wu and Professor Zhang who were always willing to accommodate my needs, Ms. Tan who had the unfortunate job of helping me with all manner of problems, and most of all the students who had the difficult job of actually assisting me.

Bobby Pitts