Artist William A. Newman

Martin’s grids, Edvard Munch’s The Scream, Milton Avery’s landscapes, and Chuck Close’s self-portraits.

To Adamson, there is something almost magical in the way the computer fits into Newman’s painting. “There are so many different things Bill pulls into his art. Family, TV, movies, magazines, newspapers, etchings, photographs, other paintings, drawings. In a way, this technology had to be; it had to exist for Bill to produce his art. This technology lets you get everything and more out of the artist. It makes everything possible.”

Newman agrees. “I feel really lucky that it has worked the way it has worked. It’s sort of freaky, really. Someone was looking recently at this mural my students and I painted for NASA, based on digital imagery. They asked me what the difference was between art and science. I said, ‘In science you have rules. In art you don’t. You can do what-ever you want.’ ”

- Ferdinand Protzman is an award-winning cultural writer and art critic who has written for the Washington Post, ARTnews, the New York Times and National Geographic Books.

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MacPaint was followed by what now seems like a never-ending series of advances in the art-making capacity of personal computers. Like all tools, however, advanced digital technology and programs such as Adobe Photoshop are only as good as the person using them. Because of Newman’s talent and determination, he has not only kept up with the technological breakthroughs but incorporated them into his artwork. This was possible, in part, because of his distinctive, highly personal style. Even before his illness was diagnosed, Newman’s paintings were often based on his personal experiences and used an eclectic and esoteric mix of realistic imagery in unusual or unreal settings.

While some of his works seem like contemporary takes on Surrealism, others, such as My Third Eye, a portrait of his wife, Anne, painted in oil on canvas in 1990, exude a kind of reverence for everyday wonders that calls to mind the Magic Realism of the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In My Third Eye, Newman used the MacVision program to turn her giant stretched face, replete with two noses, three eyes, and a nightcrawler-like mouth, into a tribute to modern painting in which the viewer can find traces of Agnes