Lately I have been brought back to review my list of influences and artists I admire. Of course, the Cezanne and Beyond show is the obvious inspiration but I have had a list for quite a while.
I made it several years ago and I still stand by it with a few additions. It is a good way to clarify who you are, where you are, and where you want to be in your art-making. Today I look at my list and think I have a long way to go and that I am not looking at enough contemporary art. ( I will put that on my agenda.)
So, in the spirit of the interactive blogs of Pam Farrell, John Tallman and J.T. Kirkland I invite you to email your top 10-15 influences with a Jpeg of your work and I will challenge myself to figure out how to post them.
lpart@earthlink.net
My list is what inspires me in each artist's work (not in any order)Eva Hesse: the oddness, the quirkiness, the beauty of the strange, the persona
Ree Morton: changed the way I looked and thought about sculpture
Philip Guston: the courage of his later paintings, humor, irony
Jackson Pollock: the power of the unconsciousSqueak Carnwath: use of words, stories, paint Rembrandt: lights and darks
Vermeer: the window light
Brice Marden: calligraphy is drawing, the meditative state
Matisse: the joy of color, the use of black
Rothko: emotive power of color light
Jasper Johns : intelligence
Giacometti: the isolation of his figures and mark making in his paintingsJoan Mitchell: her use of color, brushstroke, her abstract painting of nature and landscape
Amy Sillman: interesting, narrative paintings
Andy Goldsworthy: amazing use of materials, relationship to landscape and nature
Michal Revner: the real thing, image, depth, intelligence, personal yet political and her use of media (photography and video ) in a painterly way
Martin Puryear: his sculpture has it all
