A place to talk about art on Farcaster. Artwork created by jacob.eth

Hal Lasko, who was better known as Grandpa, worked as a graphic artist back when everything was done by hand. His family introduced him to the computer and Microsoft Paint in his 90s, long after he retired. He would spend ten hours a day moving pixels around his computer paintings. His work is a blend of pointillism and 8-bit art.

Here’s some bits I’ve read, collected and written about Hal, The Grandpa.

“You know I do a lot of my painting with my eyes shut?”

Grandpa spent his entire working life as a graphic artist, creating ads and hand-drawn typographic guides. At the beginning of his career, he left civilian life to serve in WWII, drafting directional and weather maps for bombing raids.

“the art guy”™ at lisafoundation.com, ex R/GA. notes on art and design. screenshots of things i've learned. all misspells are my own.

When he retired in the 90s his family showed him the computer. He didn't find much use for it until he discovered Microsoft Paint. He was hooked. Since then, Grandpa spent ten hours a day placing pixels around his computer paintings. His work is like a collision of pointillism and 8-Bit art.

"When I started to go blind, I wasn’t able to get the brush quite where I wanted it. So when I got into the art program on the computer, I appreciated that I could blow it up eight hundred times [larger] and be sure that I was hitting the right spot."

He will talk to you about art for longer than you want it listen to him. Sometimes he talks about it in his sleep. “See if it takes me two years to do that I can spend it. I got a lot of patience. That's what you really need anyway”.

4:42 I got interested in the trees when I used
4:44 to caddy all year long they change color
4:47 and everything and then I had a third
4:50 grade teacher that she taught me a poem
4:54 you remember it from way back then?
4:57 oh yes

— Do you think about your paintings a lot?
— That's all I do.

Hal Lasko passed away at the age of 98, after a lifelong design career, serving in the army, building a beautiful family, and producing more than 150 paintings in his 90s. 

There's a beautiful video about Hal, produced a few years ago—take 10 minutes to watch it: https://vimeo.com/70748579

Be like Grandpa ❤️

This made me think about googling more artists who used basic digital tools and eventually reading about Hal. It's somehow really hard to do any form of longer writing, but I'll aim to do more.

Thank you for reading this humongous cast.

This made me think about googling more artists who used basic digital tools and eventually reading about Hal. It's somehow really hard to do any form of longer writing, but I'll aim to do more.

Thank you for reading this humongous cast.

https://warpcast.com/ilyat/0x762e8f7c