What Inspires You to Create?

Sometimes I wonder what inspires people to do creative things. Is it going somewhere new? Discussing a topic of great interest to you? Remembering inspiration from the past?

I always seem to get inspired when I see other artist’s work. Going to galleries and seeing something so new and fresh really gets me inspired. The other day I was walking down Ventura Blvd and went into a gallery near Laurel Canyon Blvd and the artist there had a very creative combination of images and typography. For example; a silkscreen of the American Express card with the card name “American Excess” done as the logo on the card. Quite a statement.

Beauty inspires me. People in photographs or paintings or just very aesthetic surroundings.

The Mountains above Park City, Utah

Thank goodness my iPhone takes very good photographs. This was taken from my car.

What inspires you?

Excellent Video Art

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If Angels wore Tattoos and rode Harleys

"Where will my next arrow go?"

This piece of art was created by three artists using multiple media and over a period of 100 years.

The original painting was done by Bouguereau without tattoos and without the motorcycle.

The Tattoos were added as part of the

Anachronisms in fine art photoshopping contest

http://boingboing.net/2008/04/07/anachronisms-in-fine.htm

I added the motorcycle to complete the image as I would like to see it.

I think the tattoos bring something special to this cherub and offers an attitude not seen before but could express an alter-ego for these mischievious characters.

It’s not a stretch to imagine this angel climbing on the bike and roaring off in search of her next “victim” to cast an arrow towards.

With many illustrations on her body I suppose she would be welcome in any biker bar and most likely would find a sorrowful fellow to take pity on and sling a shaft towards.

My only hope would be that who ever the poor fellow happened to be looking at in the moment of the arrows penetration be worthy of his fall from “freedom” to a life of relationship “hell”.

The Fine Art of a Lifestyle – last year, this year or any year.

So, it’s 2010 and I’m sure many of you out there have been asked about your New Year’s resolutions. Right? I have been asked many times over the past month what will I do this coming year and I usually respond with something like “I’m going to really blow it out this year!”
I find it interesting how the start of a new year acts as a starting point for all new adventures and a time to just change as much as you can to get that much closer to your life’s goals. Why not just make sure you’re still on track from the previous years and add to your already winning abilities and daily functions and activities?
I know some people who just keep doing what there doing and just do it better and better and bigger and bigger and more of what’s been working for them.
There’s a friend of mine I can’t imagine really changing anything because he’s so prolific and busy he doesn’t even bother sitting done to reflect over the past year and start a new with drastic changes. He just continues to expand as a lifestyle.
The only this that I am doing more of this new year is living life as if it was my last moment and never looking back. Making every day count as much as I can. Just getting it done and getting it done as if my every breath depended on it. It’s a very intense time for me now and I’m enjoying it very much.
A lifestyle can be lived as though it is art can be a lot of fun and the outcome is usually very colorful and dynamic.
Try it!
My Best.

The Color of a Beautiful Woman.

Here’s another portrait just completed of an attractive woman. The color just intensifies her attributes.

A mother’s love is incomparable, uncompromising and unconditional.

This is another portrait commissioned featuring a woman and her child. Pure love.

Warhol would either be proud or pissed!

I have been trying to find a way to do what Warhol had done – use a commercial technique in his fine art.
Well I have finally done that. Today, in this digital age, we designers use photoshop much as Warhol used stat cameras to transfer his polaroid pictures into fine art portraits.
I was commissioned to complete 16 portraits similar to that which I did for the patron requesting the series.
Here’s the first of them. Your thoughts..impressions?

What’s better than a painting studio at the beach?

What’s better than a painting studio at the beach? Not a whole lot for me. I’ve been walking around telling me wife I’d like to have a place to paint at the beach for years and then I got a call from a friend who says another friend of his is looking to rent out part of his loft space so he can start his fine art career and would like me to come and share it with him!

Wow! Not too bad, huh? And, I know the guy and his work and we’ve even got the same “think” about how we want to eventually just be fine artists and slide away from commercial graphics but never seem to “just do it!”

I spoke to him on the phone and then went to see the space and it’s perfect! I won’t get into too much detail here, but let’s just say within a month I’ll be gettin’ pretty dirty with paint and sand!

Here’s a few pictures of the place…

Blue door on the right is the entrance and that's the beach far left!

What is inspiration for an artist?

This is a question that has puzzled me all my life because of two primary reasons; does an artist have an idea for a piece of art or does the artist become inspired to create because of something or someone they’ve come in contact with?

For me personally, sometimes I can just look at a person and envision what kind of artwork would be fun to create or maybe I’m in a beautiful environment and the whole place just seems like I’m walking around in a painting. Those kinds of places make me just start taking photographs. Maybe that’s why people like bringing home lots of pictures of their vacations.

I also usually will always be inspired by seeing other artists work in galleries or their studios. If I like the artwork I usually come home and within a couple of days I’m right into a new piece.

For years I’ve seen beautiful paintings as portraits of people that were generally either their relatives or close friends. Once I went into the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and found a painting of a young boy done by Rembrandt which according to the description was his son and was not a finished piece. It was a remarkable painting. It has that quality of “this is just a study” as well as being a “labor of love.”

I’ve seen many other artists who use their family members as subjects and create portraits that are truly beautiful works of art. There is a fine artist from Spain who makes fantastic portraits of his daughters.

A few years ago I decided to try my hand a oil painting and slowed my process way down in time as a trial of my own talents to see if I could paint a portrait in somewhat of the styles of the masters. I needed a subject. My son became the likely candidate. Now in these modern times most artists that I know usually won’t ask people to “sit” for them as they did before we had cameras, so I took a photograph of my son and started from there.

From the photo I projected the image onto a large canvas and sketched out the image until there was enough information on the canvas to start painting.

I was patient with myself and concentrated on color and likeness as the photo was a pretty straight forward look of my son Max.

I recognized why family members are used at times as it is an artists visual diary of his family and family members are easy to ask and very willing to help .

This was one of my first paintings of this technique and it did take much more time to complete than I generally like to spend on my art. But time was not in the equation for this exercise. Style and passion were the two ingredients for this particular inspiration.

There are things I like and I don’t like about the piece but I do have it hanging in my office and my daughter in law wants it at some point so I’ll take it as a successful project.

I have tried a few other portraits but in different styles as I’ve decided for me that the portrait can be defined by how the artist wants to portray the person. Different strokes for different folks.