Artistic Influences in Childhood

[commandax]

I posted a little personal piece on my blog the other day about the artistic images that exerted an influence on me when I was a child. I thought maybe you guys – both collectors and artists – might have some interest in sharing some of the imagery that shaped your aesthetic. Here are a few of mine:

Henry Justice Ford – "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" from The Blue Fairy Book


Paul Gauguin – "Fatata te miti" ("By the Sea")


Maxfield Parrish – "Interlude"


Vincent Van Gogh – "Starry Night"

[dangler]

Cool thread...

Easily the greatest influence of wanting to become an artist for me, the book "Animalia" by Graeme Base. My Dad would look at this book with me nearly every night to get me to sleep. He would have me find tiny details within the plethora of visuals, a game much like "Where's Waldo"... hence where my obsession with detail began.



Ever since I saw this piece by Dali in person I knew I wanted to paint wild stuff:


My art teacher in elementary school introduced me to Hieronymus Bosch, before seeing this painting I always thought the only art that existed was pretty portraits lol... I was fascinated.


Need I say more?:

[Bytor]

I read this thread and loved it...
dangler, I think we might be brother and sister, I had that book also when I was a kid and you are so right about all the small details in it and The Labyrinth and Muppets in general where awesome! I also adore Dali and he was a huge influence on me when I was a teenager, but I think it was this painting that really took my breath away.

With an occasional acid trip and Dali by my side the rest is history, ok Just kidding, there is a lot more to me than that... my father had a great influence on me, I had never heard the term "lowbrow" until about 2 or 3 years ago, I have always just painted this way because I grew up around a father, mother , and family that where open minded people. The family also owned a "old school " Harley shop. My father custom built and custom painted the bikes, he often used images influenced by fantasy arts Boris and Franzetta. So I to was majorly influenced my them...here is a few photos of my father on his "Dr Seuss" trike . He use to take me to kindergarten school on this( I don't have a good photo of the painting he did on the tank, but it was Dr Seuss inspired.

Here is my grandfather on his bike, I have a photo of my grandmother, grandfather and there riding friends somewhere but just don't have the time to fish it out, I can't believe I even found time to do this post, haha, I guess what I am saying is my whole way of life and my family history and their way of life has been my greatest influence on me and my art

[roqlarue]

Bytor- those pictures are amazing! How fabulous to have that in your family!

[sabotage]

I'm so happy this thread was revived and so happy that people are showing more interest the second time around. Commandax, thanks for the thread/ blog post, it has really opened my eyes to how very influential my early years are to my current art interests.

My early years were a little more "low brow" than many. I grew up in a blue collar home where art was not given much priority. I don't think I visited a museum until I was in college. i thought art was boring. I thought all art was portraits of dead people long gone. i didn't realize that I was being exposed to art against my will everyday.

Very early on I loved the art and poems of Shel Silverstein. His simplistic approach is something that I'm still drawn to. One of my all time favorites is "Don Quixote" by Picasso.


In my pre-teen/early teen years I was crazy about comics. I spent every cent I had on X-men, Spiderman, MAD, Cracked, etc.


I grew up in an urban environment and rap music was fresh and hot, the graffiti was bright and almost illegible, but so creative. I practiced my block lettering on my school folders and wanted to tag when I got a little older (I never did).

In my teens we moved to the 'burbs and rap and graffiti was less of an influence. It was then that I discovered rock and roll. Iron Maiden, the psychadelic art of the Grateful Dead, and GnR and Robert Williams.
At the time I had no idea who Robt Williams was, and the picture was so disturbing, it almost scared me. I guess thats why I liked it.

In college I discovered Kandinsky, Magritte, and that all art wasn't as I thought. Almost everything I'm interested in today can be traced to these roots.

I'm looking forward to hearing more people's experiences.

[commandax]

Mar 7, 2009 0:51:38 GMT -8 dangler said:

Cool thread...

Ever since I saw this piece by Dali in person I knew I wanted to paint wild stuff:

Hi Matt, thanks for kicking off this thread! The Dali that I was obsessed with when I was a kid was "Temptation of St. Anthony." I even wrote a poem about it when I was in college. I also made a side trip to Brussels when I was backpacking around Europe just to see the original at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts.



I was also mesmerized by Escher's "Three Worlds" when I was young. I have always loved paintings of underwater worlds.

[Bytor]

Mar 7, 2009 10:49:27 GMT -8 roqlarue said:

Bytor- those pictures are amazing! How fabulous to have that in your family!

THx Roqlarue, it was a lot of fun growing up in my family, I found this picture and thought you might enjoy it, my father took a very old sewing machine and turned it into a pottery wheel when I was a kid, I am the youngest girl in the front, I think this photo speaks volumes about my love for art and creating things( note the expression on my face ;D ) my dad was an amazing father and person too.

[commandax]

I've been thinking about another piece of art that made a great impact on me when I was in high school, Edward Kienholz's "The Beanery," created in 1965. Based on Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood, the walk-in installation recreates a seedy bar filled with scrofulous, indifferent patrons with clocks (set to 10:10) in place of their faces. Outside, a newspaper in a vending machine screams, "Children Killing Children in Vietnam!" The dimly lit interior reeks of stale beer and is populated with the sounds of idle bar chatter. The walls run with a gelatinous ooze that somehow evokes the creeping evil of complacency. A sign reads "F*gots Stay Out," which is particularly ironic since today Barney's Beanery sits square in the middle of Boy's Town.





I remember first seeing a photograph of the sculpture in an art history class I took in high school. We had waded through several millennia of art by the time we got to the last chapter of the textbook, which briefly surveyed what had happened from about 1950 to perhaps 1975. "The Beanery" made a deep impression on me, and I sought it out in Amsterdam in 1989 at the Stedelijk Museum, which holds it in its collection.

In 1996, MOCA hosted a Kienholz retrospective, and I was able to stand inside "The Beanery" (which is apparently not possible anymore). It was claustrophobic and unpleasant, but very impactful... sort of like stepping into one of the more unsanitary and unsettling films of the Brothers Quay. The exhibition held a great number of Kienholz's other works, as well, which were interesting to see.

[travislouie]

stories of the Cardiff Giant always enthralled me as a kid.
I always imagined what it would be like if someone unearthed the real thing.