Influence
What makes a person a person? I mean at their core it’s a really question them nature versus nurture. So the question remains how does this apply to the artist and their art? What are they trying to say or understand? Why their process is going the direction its going and where did it all start?
I believe this is where I am at this point in my process. Yeah you can go on about that I’ve been drawing since I was a little kid but I think that’s kind of redundant. I think more unless you’re looking for milestones that really set you off in your journey as an artist. So those points would be for I would really seem to overlap in my early childhood. Remember seeing my mom doodle that she says these elaborate patterns were got the time. They were never really develop into anything of a visual language like a flower or cloud or a tree. I just remember being captivated by the marks as they crept across the page often never filling them.
Then the next two seem to really go hand-in-hand my grandfather used to have all these crazy masks from different parts of the world apparently it was something that my grandmother and he enjoyed collecting. Somewhere incredibly carved others were sometimes like leather stretch overframe but they all were unique in their own way and seem to have a spirit a life of their own, a representation of the god or deity personality.
Next were these Kachina dolls that my Elementary art teacher brought in. They were elaborately decorated. Somewhere holding what looks like weapons with what seemed to be fur, while others were carved out of wood with small details added to them like feathers or small patches of cloth. At the time you know I remember thinking of them as almost ancient superheroes and like what these the creatures were like, you know what they represent, you know who were they?
I found myself asking that same question all the as I looked at portraits of people, whether it be photographs or paintings you know who were these people. However I do remember looking at a lot of painters depicting scenes, how they would make it feel warm and inviting or cool and empty, you know just setting a mood. Sargent was really good at that.
The more think about it, I did that also when just people I encountered whether that be kids are adults like why are they the way they are. You see the funny part was I never really felt like I fit in and I think that’s a natural feeling for most people. But through that is raised the question of why a person is the way they are? I mean it was the same question I asked about the masks and that Kachina. Which led to the concept of the current work and I’m working on now. Trying to display a link between what is made a person who they are up until that moment in their life making the portrait of narrative of a portion of their life.
What seemed to be a very straightforward answer to what I was trying to say through my work really only came about maybe 3 years ago. How can I display and a person’s emotions while you invoking elements of their past that make them who they are in some aspect of their life.
