DOES NOT COMPUTE

Those of us who are computer artists are pleased that Jennifer Steinkamp has met with some degree of success with her art (“Awash in a Dance of Colors,” by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Nov. 19), but I am dismayed at her elitist, negative attitude toward other computer artists: “Most computer art is terrible.”

Like a growing number of artists, she has opted to use computer technology to express herself. Like many of us, she has discovered that the computer allows artists to expand their vision and imagination in limitless and inspiring new ways. Just as the paintbrush and camera opened fresh means of expression to the artist, so too does the computer. But the computer does not create the art--the artist does.

For Ms. Steinkamp to dismiss the work of an entire new and exciting artistic community is absurd. Her restricted view of most computer art as being “terrible” only demonstrates the limited exposure she has had to the field. There are so many respected artists experimenting in this medium, such as David Hockney, Paul Davis, Barbara Kasten, Pedro Meyer and David Douglas Duncan, to name just a few. It’s unfortunate that Ms. Steinkamp is a teacher, since she clearly has so much left to learn.

JANE GOTTLIEB

Santa Monica