For most of my life I haven’t had any sort of interest in art.
The art I am referring to is not the performance art Lady Gaga displays on stage, the kind of art Banksy sprays on the side of a building, or the kind of art someone is creating out of garbage and old Stop signs. The kind of art I am referring to is the paintings and sculptures from the masters of previous eras.
Six months ago I sat in my first Art History class thinking it would be the most boring class I’ve taken. My teacher explained we are at an art school, we all want to be some sort of visual artists (some video, some photography, some fashion design) and need a basic understanding of art history. I couldn’t disagree with him there. I knew being able to hold an intelligent conversation about an artist or piece of work could come in handy in the future. I had no idea that six months later, I would be obsessed.
My teacher was able to present the information in a way that not only held my attention, but had me craving more knowledge. It also had me looking at my own work in a different way. When Rembrandt painted a portrait he had to study light, and I mean really study light. The light was always so soft and delicate, yet more dramatic than most photographs you have ever seen. When I learned about Delacroix’ Liberty Leading The People, and the use of a woman carrying the tri-colored flag of the revolution over bodies of the fallen, I realized the lack of allegorical figures in photography. Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding is seriously one of the most complex paintings, I don’t know where to begin. When was the last time a photograph made me (or you) think or say that? When I learned about how long it took Picasso and Braque to create the Cubism Art Movement I realized that you must take risks, but mainly that success doesn’t come overnight and some things take years to perfect, and years to catch people’s attention. One person I wish knew this was van Gogh, as his suicide came after selling only one painting his entire career. Everything about van Gogh represents the failed artist. If only he knew his paintings are now fetching 140 million. (By the way, a new book is challenging the claim that van Gogh committed suicide, I am waiting for my copy in the mail right now. Click here to check it out.)
Like most business right now, my college is going through a hard time and recently had to do a batch of layoffs before the new school quarter started two weeks ago. I learned this past week they let go of my Art History teacher, Dr. Brookins. I actually teared up when I heard the news, because he will never know how much of an impact he had on me and hopefully my future as an artist.
Last quarter I was in Dr. Brookins’ Art History 2 class, as well as a printing class. We had to do a final project in my printing class where we produced rather large prints, and the subject could be whatever we desired. There was no way that my project wouldn’t somehow relate to my new art obsession, so I decided to do a series of still life images, and try to recreate Rembrandt side lighting. Also, I wanted to give these images a painterly feel, which I created in photoshop. Each photo took around four hours of editing, and seeing them this small on a screen does not do them justice. The brighter your screen is the more ‘brush strokes’ and details you will be able to see. Each image is slightly different in color and details; because when was the last time you saw two paintings that were identical? I printed the images on a textured matte paper, which helped achieve the painterly feel I was going for. Click here if interested in seeing full size details of the first image.
This blog post and these images are dedicated to you, Dr. Brookins!
