Being the artist's muse has some benefits. One of them is that you can choose whatever image you like for a post. I love this picture. It is so strong, and yet exudes a gentle and delicate beauty. It's pure Tony Karp.

This is the first installment of a series covering the wide ranging work Tony has produced as he has blended art and technology over the past 5 decades. During that time he's won art director awards, been nominated for an Academy Award, and developed numerous inventive and creative ways of displaying his art on the web.

Art in the 3rd dimension

In 2013, Tony began to explore methods to print his work using a 3D printer. The problem was that most available 3d printers could only print one color. But then he found a new printer that produced full-color 3d prints on a beautiful material that resembles sandstone.

Tony's three dimensional starts with an existing image. Each of the pieces began as an image displayed on the web, as a print, or in one of Tony's books. The new process he invented forms the shape by manipulating the image. This is how he gets the image on every surface, front, back, inside of both the box and the lid. The image is projected onto and through the surfaces of the piece. It was actually printed on space.

Until now, most artworks have been done on flat surfaces, all the way from cave paintings, through frescoes, paintings on wood and canvas, lithographs and etchings, all the way through photographic prints.

Now these images can be projected into the 3rd dimension. And unlike most “3d art”, it's in full color. The pieces are created by printing layer and layer of material and colored ink. The pieces are then finished with a sealant to ensure durability and vivid colors. Please keep in mind that this full color sandstone is brittle, so be careful with your pieces. The colors are similar to inkjet printer ink.

Tony’s new process is the first time that anyone has transformed art created in two dimensions into a piece of art that you can hold in your hand, turnover, walk around it. This has never been done before. Over time others will do this but Tony Karp’s Art in the 3rd Dimension is the first

Here's a catalog for Art in the 3rd dimension. Art in the 3rd dimension

If you see something you like Email us