Computers are another tool for the creative artist - just as a flat or filbert brush is. But there was a time when I left a jar of medium open by my work station for that painterly smell.

I can truthfully say, in arts I have pretty much seen and done it all and, at my age, I have no patience with wide-eyed artists fooling themselves about their place in history. We should know by now that it is the whim of the elite few who set the rules... those who have fooled themselves into believing that they are God's gift to the ages.

I print giclees for artists and photographers for a livelihood. My original idea was to somehow combine the two.

When we digital artists talk about painting on the computer, that is exactly what we do. The paints we use are pixels, the brush we use is a pressure sensitive pen. The colors are the same as painters use, and how we get to the final image is the same gut wrenching way.

My wife convinced me to try doing the restorations digitally. I thought I could learn the photo editing software over the Thanksgiving weekend. It took me until May of the next year before I sold anything I did with it.

There is no such thing as a completely original technique or subject.

It's certainly going to be different from what people have seen before.