Autodidatic: Self Taught - Eclectic: Choosing From Various Systems

A read an article about Chinese art and the Chinese art schools, basically artists are being trained like Olympic athletics. The Western world has a so called huge appetite for anything Chinese so at a recent art auction at Sotheby’s in London the Eastern art sold for record breaking millions.

This got me to thinking about art schools, being self taught, the elitist mindset, who buys art and why they buy art, and my art making in general, because once again “it’s all about me.” My artwork is to use a big pretentious word is autodidactic. My skills and techniques are eclectic and learned from anywhere and everywhere, I glean knowledge from: books, lectures, others willing to share, studying the masters, DaVinci, Botticelli, etc. I draw inspiration from artist’s lives like Georgia O’Keefe; I love the surrealistic art of Salvatore Dali. Gustav Kilmt is a fascinating artist and I love, love, love Frida Kalho.
Have I dropped enough names yet?

The other night when Carmen and I attended the lecture by Jari-Pekka Vanhala, chief curator at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, he had a slide presentation of photographs and talked about the influences of nature in contemporary art and used the word “tension” a lot. He also mentioned the movement towards “outsider art” people living in the country and making art. When they were asked why the created some of thier huge creations are they said "it was to communicate and bring joy to others." They moved some of the art to public locations but most of was built to stay where is was with nature, so they took interesting photographs. We saw some fascinating photos and got a sence of the people of Finland and their art expressed through photography. I liked the fact that there was a Gothic presence in their art. Check out this site about the museum and watch the slide show http://www.kiasma.fi/index.php?id=11&FL=1&L=0

I always say "if you’re going to copy someone else’s work, then copy a master." Here is my study of Venus Rising by Botticelli, in process.......She is so pretty...

I enjoying the process of learning and practicing my craft everyday,

My art is my personal vision of the world through dreams and imagination. It is my mission to communicate this and to bring joy to others.