Inspiring Artists

The artist in three of these pictures (bulldozer, train, rubble) is Liu Bolin. He is a Chinese artist who paints his body "to merge as seamlessly as possible with what is behind him." His work appeals to me because many of his backgrounds are not that appealing but he creates art out of them. One background that could be very devastating and depressing to many is the rubble after an earthquake hit China. He said that he wanted to show the development of his country and the problems that linger. His big idea is to create something positive out of the negative. I found his work inspiring because everything is not always happy or pretty to look at but if we change the way we look at it our perspective can change. When first looking at my midterm it seems as though my pictures represent a depressed tone. I wanted my pictures to have some negativeness but I changed the colors of the pictures to create an overall tone of excitement. I feel that our work are both similar because we overshadowed the negative with the positive, even though we can still see rubble (Liu Bolin) and overwhelmed people in the background (my midterm). His work encouraged me to continue with the theme I had for my midterm because at first I felt like my pictures seemed way too depressing, but I wanted them to also be positive. His work reassured me that this was possible by changing the focus of the picture.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1201398/Liu-Bolin-The-Chinese-artist-turns-Invisible-Man.html

http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/meet-the-real-life-invisible-man.html

The artist who created the three other pictures (globe, garden, sailboat) is Julian Beever. He takes chalk and creates optical allusions on pavement. He stretches out his drawings so that when you look at them at a certain angle they appear to be 3D. His artwork appeals to me because it is so unique. While in Europe a year ago I saw many chalk drawers and their pieces of work were absolutely amazing, however this is very different than what most people do. I think the big idea in his work is perspective because his artwork can be nothing special or something spectacular depending on way you literally look at it. I find his work so inspiring because he is taking boring, grey sidewalks and adding color to them to create masterpieces. He reinforced my belief that the way you use color is crucial in any art. I am amazed and baffled at how he focuses on such little detail. This inspires me to pay attention to small aspects of my midterm because the details really do make a picture better.

http://www.julianbeever.net/pave.htm