Sunday, March 16, 2014

Influences

Through the process of working on a grant application and writing about my work I became more interested in the surrealists. When I first started my Silent Voices series I didn't think about what 'ism' that work would fit into. It wasn't a case of intentionally setting out to create surrealist work, it was a case of putting a very personal and emotional part of my life on canvas. In fact I don't generally care about any 'isms' when I'm working. It's not something I think about.

Frida Kahlo
What the Water Gave Me

Frida Kahlo was a painter who didn't separate her life from her art. I always admired her courage and the openness with which she shared herself. I wanted to create like that - with the freedom to say something with the work and be comfortable doing it.

Rene Magritte
Son of Man

It's been a very long time since art history class in college so I went to the book store and picked up a book on the surrealists to refresh my memory of some of the other painters. One of them jumped out at me.... Rene Magritte. Of course we're familiar with the one above - Son of Man but it was interesting to see other of Magritte's pieces.

Rene Magritte
Georgette

I could really relate to his imagery and style, especially in his piece Georgette. Can you tell why? I had never seen that particular painting of his before last week.The way he blocked off the elements in the picture, the candle, the envelope, the 2 faces, the egg (a theme in some of my pieces) - interesting. It's also interesting to me that he uses the bird nest in some of his other work. Makes me wonder if I really had seen much more of his work way back when and it was just buried in my subconscious, waiting to bubble up and appear as an influence. Something to think about....



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