5 Artists Who Inspire Me the Most
Which artists truly inspire you? Like, really. Let’s be honest, every time you click onto one of these articles, you are expecting to see some rendition of the “Pablo Picasso inspired me to start painting” story. Well, here, today, I will not be sharing that same story with you.
My journey with art was not graceful and determined by any means. I never took a professional art class in high school before joining an art college. I never even experimented with the Adobe Creative Suite before deciding I would be a graphic designer. And I had never drawn a successful human figure that was not a stick figure in my life. So when I tell you that I had no true exposure to the vast amount of artists before college, it really is an understatement.
I would highly encourage you to look up these artists and their work, if you are struggling for inspiration or not.
I remember very well the first artist research project that I completed, we got to choose any artists of any field. When I was thinking about all of the artists that I knew at that time, and it dawned on me that I had never truly exposed myself to true art culture before. Finally being at a point in my life where I could emerge myself in the vast expanse of the art world, the first thing that I did was to do a Google search of graphic designers of the past.
This very broad Google search led me to the first artist of the list, Paul Rand.
Most of you probably would recognize the things he has created, such as the IBS logo, the ABC TV channel logo, and the UPS logo, along with many, many more! He was one of the leaders of the graphic design industry during his time, and one of his most infamous jobs was actually with Steve Jobs, and people began calling it the $100,000 logo. He never stopped learning, no matter his age, and he always kept up with changing technologies. Before I even knew of this amazing artist, I had a personal aspiration to continue to learn new skills and technologies throughout my life. His success and inspiration in the art world is what I strive for, even if that never comes to pass.
The second of the artists on this list is Barbara Kruger.
She is a very prominent visual artists who did most of her work to fight for the feminist movement, something that I am very interested in as well. One of my favorite works by her is called “Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face”. Her work is characterized by bold pictures and colors and is very characteristic of the graphic design genre of art. If you are interested in graphic design and collage, I would highly recommend going to her website (linked here) for some wonderful inspiration and to see exactly how she shares her message through her art.
Thirdly on the list is none other than Andy Warhol himself.
I am quite sure that there are several people who don’t understand and will never understand the work of Andy Warhol. Because of his unique approach to the idea of art, that art in and of itself was undefinable, he created things that were then undefinable and sometimes replicas of other items. He is truly an inspiration for me when I feel like stepping outside of my comfort zone and trying either new products or methods.
Another favorite artist of mine is Jean-Michel Basquiat.
His particular style of art is very abstract, bright, bold, and extremely expressionistic. From the very first moment that I saw his artwork, I was attracted to it, probably because it almost the complete opposite of what I think of when I paint. In fact, most of the reason that he creates the way he does is because he started his career as a graffiti artists. Very poetic right? My favorite piece by him is actually “Untitled (Skull)”. It is a very graphic piece, yet it does not feel garish or intrusive upon your mind.
The last artist of my personally opinionated list is Henri Matisse.
He is considered a painter and collage artist, but he is not traditional by any means. When you take a look at some of his work, you will quickly realize that he works with 2D figures, items, and surfaces instead of making his image look hyper-realistic. All of his images are very vibrant and most of them are either collage or painted to look as such. He is a very diverse artist overall.
So, I guess you noticed a pattern in this list, but that’s fine. If each artist had to put together a list of other artists that inspire them, the list itself would show off the style of the first artist.
I would love to hear which artists inspire you! What style are you most drawn to? Drop a comment or send me an email! I would love to hear from you!
