ART FROM COMPUTERS: EXHIBIT AT UNIVERSITY MUSEUM SHOWCASES PIECES CREATED IN A COMPUTER ART WORKSHOP

A monkey with a computer is still a monkey.

Louise Bodenheimer, who just spent the summer teaching a workshop on computer art, might not state the case to her students so bluntly but the image does illustrate an illusion about creating art on a computer.

"I encourage people to have some kind of artistic sense," she says. "A computer won't make them an artist."

In the workshop exhibition called "Computer Art" now at the University Museum, the 16 artists sketched still lifes and other subjects by hand before engaging their computers. Most were art students or working art teachers seeking ways to adapt the computer to their fine arts skills.

The workshop is the first in computer art ever taught at the university, said Bodenheimer, who usually teaches graphic design and illustration. The students created the work in the computer lab at the art department.

Some of the students were already advanced in using the three Macintosh art programs -- Freehand, Photoshop and Dabbler -- and the Apple scanning program. Others were absolute beginners.

"Everything I learned was brand new," said Judy Comer, who teaches art at Sikeston High School.

But Comer said she caught on quickly and plans to pass the knowledge on to her advanced students. "I know some of them are probably very interested in learning as much as they can about computer art," she said.

One of the snares of creating art on a computer is the multiplicity of options the technology offers. "It can be paralyzing if you're not careful," Bodenheimer says. "There are too many choices."

That's why Bodenheimer started the students off with sketches, to give them something solid to work from. But the choices afforded by the computer also enabled each of the students to make 16 different works of art from their four drawings.

Instead of a brush, artists use a mouse. Instead of paint, they use computer colors that are dizzying in their possible combinations. Images can be made bigger or smaller with the touch of a key.

At its heart, creating computer art is no different from creating any other kind of art, Bodenheimer says. "It's the same risk-taking and trying different things. But it's more immediate. Changes can occur within seconds."

Bodenheimer said the students established a camaraderie that allowed them to help each other in the workshop. "No instructor teaching a computer class can be everywhere," she said.

She said they tackled new things like real troopers. "Every time they were introduced to a new software there was a period of unrest. Then it quieted down," she said.

Other galleries have mounted computer art shows, Bodenheimer says, and some juried shows now accept computer art. Others refuse computer art as they often do photography.

Many of the teachers plan to incorporate computer art into the classes they teach in high school, middle school and even elementary school, Bodenheimer said. One, Clinton Twaddel of Richland High School, already is teaching computer art to his students.

Comer thinks computer technology is going to become very important to commercial artists. But she says computer programs are no substitute for basic technique. "You have to have a good background in fine arts," she said.

The exhibit will continue through Aug. 29.