Recent Inspirations (Bright Colors, Lucious Paint–Oh My!)

Dear Blogosphere,

How have you been? I have been great–I’ve been doing a lot of adjusting in these past few weeks. I’m back in North Carolina, and I am already in the midst of homework, projects, and everything else that goes on at college. But…Oh yeah, it’s my last semester of college. This means that besides getting all of my work done, I am also juggling a senior thesis, and all of my life plans.

One thing at a time, one thing at a time. My current attitude about this semester is to enjoy my last months here, to take care of myself, and–for better words–to take this art thesis by the balls. What I mean is that my other work (which is all literature) might get a little slack because so much of my time and energy will go into making this spring show kick-ass. That actually might already be happening.

So, you might be curious about what I’ve been doing in this last month. Honestly, most of my energy so far has gone into excessive planning. Yet, I feel like it’s all been very productive, and now that my work is actually starting, I have a fairly clear direction of where I’m going.

What has really helped me recently is looking at TONS of contemporary influences. This is going to be a blog entry entirely dedicated to these artists. I started to get into this type of research first when Louise Bourgeois passed away last semester, and I thought to myself, “Hm, maybe I should find a couple of new heroes.” Then, genius Judy Pfaff came to Greensboro, and I went to see her work at the Weatherspoon Museum of Art. She became my new hero. My mission is to find even more Judy Pfaffs, to find more inspiration, which will hopefully keep my own work interesting.

Judy Pfaff: http://www.judypfaff.org/

OK, let’s go through the list, shall we? Next up: painter Cecily Brown.

Gorgeous, gorgeous colors in all of her paintings. Exquisite surfaces, textures, and layering. She makes me want to explore what I can do with landscape, playing with positive and negative space, and blending the subject matter into its environment.

Charles Burchfield:

Um, seriously, where has Mr. Burchfield been all of my life? Who knows, maybe his work wouldn’t have interested me a few years ago. Now that I am moving more in the direction of fantastical landscapes (that’s at least what I am striving for), Burchfield’s paintings are right up my alley. Plus, these are painted on PAPER, which makes them even more sultry. Here’s another

Next is an artist with some similar imagery, Kamrooz Aram:

Look at those colors, for goodness sakes.

Lastly, I’m going to post another landscape painter, Alexis Rockman. His work is really speaking to me right now, although I have no desire to paint as realistically as he does. Imagine paintings that are a combination of Kamrooz Aram’s stylization and Alexis Rockman’s expressive brushwork and monumental scale. Eh eh??

(This painting is part of a huge panel of at least six paintings, titled “South.”)

Don’t be deceived by these influences. I am not necessarily trying to paint just like them. My work is still fatty, drippy, and oozy. There also might be a lot less paint than I originally anticipated. Mixed media drawings are really speaking to me right now.

There will be pictures up of my current works-in-progress hopefully over the weekend.

Stay Tuned,

Zoe