Sol LeWitt

I saved the best for last. My absolute, favorite artist of all time, Sol LeWitt.  His art evolved from stoic contructions to life and color filled installations. In general, his stuff is pretty cool. While I was at the Hirshhorn, I actually almost missed one of his wall drawing because it was a grid drawn out in graphite that covered the middle section of an entire wall. I thought it was just part of the wall until I saw his name on a plaque and started looking for the art.

One of his many "Wall Drawings"

But what you guys might have seen is his Spotch #22, the art that started it all for me. It's in the lobby of the VMFA and it just looks like fun. To me, it's like an explosion at the Willy Wonka factory that has been frozen in time. So really what could be better: candy, sculpture, and color all in one place? He is the perfect balance of artist to me, rules combined with freedom, color combined with shape; I know it sound silly, but he makes art I actually want to look at.

Splotch #22

Patrick Jouin

Born in 1967, Patrick Jouin is one of the leaders in contemporary design on the French and international scene. His is most know for the diversity of his sculptural work, as well as the quantity; he has over 46,000 designs in the urban landscape of Paris.

The piece I found that I like the most is called Oneshot.MGX Stool. It's hard to describe, so I stole the description from his website: "The One_Shot.MGX is a foldable stool which is manufactured by selective laser sintering as one complete piece; the stool emerges from the machine in its final form, complete with hinges that are concealed by the graceful structure of the stool itself. By virtue of gravity combined with a simple twist, an array of rods transforms, in one flowing movement, into a small, useful, strong seat."

Lisa Yuskavage

Lisa Yuskavage is an American artist, born in 1962. I first saw her art and thought "that's what my figures look like," only she does it intentionally. I can always appreciate artists who disagree with our cultures perception of the female body. The amount of pressure that women, young and old, feel to look perfect is unbelievable. None of us can deny that we care how we look and how others perceive those looks, and for some, it is a dangerous obsession. In this painting there is a stark contrast to the girl in the photograph on the wall and the sexualized girl in the room. But which is better? Where can you find the balance between the uniformity in the picture and the conformity to expectations?

Yuskavage stated that her work is an expression of her own "self-deprecation, social climbing, and constant longing for perfection."

Sue Williams

Sue Williams is an artist who fills her paintings with sexual motifs rendered in strokes of vivid color coupled with fluid, cartoonish energy. I must not know what to look for, because I don't see what is supposed to be seen in this painting (spiky heels, pointy shoes, big toes, and feet). I just thought it looked like a fun painting, bursting forth with life and energy, which I think is what she wanted me to see.

"People don't often talk about the fact that my work is funny, but that's definitely one of my criteria. I'm really happy if the paint comes out well and it's a really goofy image, like a new dumb take on toes."

Gabriel Orozco

Gabriel Orozco is someone I found while combing through the MOMA collection. I originally was draw to his work because I thought it might have some strange meaning. But I actually took the time to read his about his work and I love it so much more now.

For Orozco, art is about the concept. This work is based on a precise formula and set of rules, it is about the  process. I love that! It reminds me of Sol LeWitt whose Wall Drawings have instructions that often can be expressed in different ways depending on the surface.

Henrique Oliveira

Henrique Oliveira is an artist from Brazil. He is a very self-directed artist, following whatever medium presents itself, and inspired by the environment and the artists around him. The piece I was most interested in was Bololô. This is a massive wood installation, made especially for the African Art Museum. And as they describe it; "a tangle of roots which seem to both invade and support the walls of this gallery. Like the spinal cords that inspired Sandile Zulu, Oliveira's roots let us reimagine the organic structures that support the world around us."

I love the idea of interconnectedness that Oliveira plays on, especially with the iconic use of wood to symbolize a tree and roots. This brown mass with burn marks and staples is in stark contrast to the white and sterile gallery walls that surround it. The tree is a wake-up call, it invades the perfect world and literally reminds us of our roots, even if we want to forget or ignore the simple fact that we are all connected somehow.

Sandile Zulu

When I went to DC, I was most impressed by two artists; Sandile Zulu and Henrique Olivera. Incedentally, their work was actually in the same room in the African Art Museum. 
Sandile Zulu was born in South Africa and his work centers around humanity, to put it simply. the particular exhibit I saw mirrored our DNA, it was a look at what makes us us. It fascinated me, first how he worked, with fire, and second, how he displayed his work. He displayed his work in a series of panels, and to me that was like a story; over time, we are made up of a series of experiences, our race, our family, our traits, our values, our beliefs, they are all separate, but connected through something truly unique; us.

"As in the nature of every dialogue, the interchange of knowledge, experience and expression leads, at least from a critical point of view, to imaginaries of identity, privilege, power and economic status. These, in turn, bring about a confrontation with greater issues of creativity, art making and the social environment in a global context. But dialogue on a global stage is always a complex proposition. It is this tension and attention that inspired my dialogical premise."

"You see in my work details which have reference to histories of religion, to revolutionary politics, art making, psychological relationships. There are many forces within myself as an individual and as an artist in South Africa, external forces around me and international forces. I am aware that the question of self-identity is very much determined by one's cultural heritage."

Saxton Freymann

Saxton Freymann is an artists, much like my last artist, who uses fruits and vegetables as his medium. But unlike my last artist, I think this guy is really quite talented. He gives character and life to things that we normally just eat, and he uses them as illustrations for children's books. So now he really has high points in my book. I stumbled across his work in middle school actually and I was impressed most by the confidence he must have to approach the art world and say "I use fruit." 

His work reminds me of all those 'found object sculpture' assignments that I dreaded, only he made something that people love, and he was fairly successful. 

Call it what you will but I think it's art.

I wonder if he eats it when he's done.

Takashi Itoh

I promise to bring you the weird and the wonderful (maybe), so behold Takashi Itoh, the watermelon carver. This tradition originated some 700 years ago in Thailand as a festival to thank the Soul of the Water. The people would decorate lanterns and send this down the river... this somehow, over 700 years, turned into ornate watermelon carvings. (The story doesn't make sense to me, but this stuff is incredible). In all honesty, I have never seen anything like it, so I thought Takashi Itoh deserved a place among my 50 artists.

This would take me years!

How about a watermelon portrait for your party?

Apparently inspired by Picasso

Words cannot describe how strange this is

Bill Watterson

Now my real secrets come out... This guy is basically my childhood hero. He is the writer and illustrator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Now you have to understand, I was a fairly sheltered child so when I went to my grandfather's house, my sister and I would steal pepsi's out of the fridge, crawl under our beds, and read Calvin and Hobbes; we were such rebels! So for me, Watterson's work is the root of all the mischief I accomplished in my childhood, and there was a lot.

It's possible my sister and I tried this...

On an artistic note, why I love his illustrations so much is the simplicity. Of course it's a comic trip so simplicity is key, but something about his lines just inspires me to mischeif. It's as though he captures childhood in every gesture.

David Burnett

David Burnett is a photojournalist, and if you have opened a National Geographic in the last few years, you've probably seen his work. His work is extremely diverse from war photographs from the 70's to current photographs of Obama.

My favorite series of his is the series of men who participated in the WWII D-Day invasion. It's my favorite series because it has so much history and you can see the story in the men's faces. I'm not really a History person, but I am a fan when the moments can be expressed through photography.

Check out the full Portfolio

Bridget Hunt

I really don't know much about Bridget Hunt, other than the few photos I have seen of hers. She does amazing photographs of life, life as it is, as it happens; those are the photographs I can truly appreciate.

Incidentally, I found her because of my love of coffee, check out this photography that she took, completely untouched.

Nathan Mckenna

Nathan Mckenna is an illustrator and concept artist based in Zürich, Switzerland. Most of Nathan's work is conceptual art for video games, sequential art for comics and storyboards, illustrations for print and new media, stencil art and animations and games for mobile devices. And he normally uses a medium that relates directly to the creative expectations; from oils, and spray cans to photographs and Wacoms.

I wasn't really interested in his video game design, although I have seen it before in actual video games, but this one portrait caught my eye. I love the technique, it seems very brave to me, and I would love to try something like it.

Katharine Asher

So I was going to write about Katharine, but I thought she said it better: "I have worked as a freelance within illustration and design for many years, specialising in figurative work. My early formal training at Harrow College of Art focused on strong traditional drawing skills, the ability to think in three dimensions and a thorough understanding of anatomy and movement. This has proved to be the backbone of my skill base, enabling me to attract work from a wide variety of commercial sources from publishing and advertising to film."

I guess I just love illustrations, but figures and gesture drawings are my favorite. I also think there is something romantic about watercolor, maybe it's the softness, maybe it's how it can be use in so many different ways, for so many different moods, but I love it.

I like Katherine's work because it's so classically feminine yet modern. 

Also, I love her treatment of eyes; eyes really are the doors to our soul, so how an artist captures the eyes dictates the mood of the work. 

Philip Bannister

Philip Bannister studied at Batley College of Art in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and after first working in advertising and design became a professional illustrator. 

"My traditional illustration techniques are used to create pictures with zest and drama, spontaneous and thoughtful, historically literate and fresh as today, with maybe sometimes a hint of mystery."

This is the work that reminds me of my sister.

I love his work, first off because it reminds me of my sister. She is a very passionate persona and infuses every situation with life and joy. I feel as though Philip captures this spirit.

Derek Bacon

Derek Bacon is a painter with a self-described "versatile style combining photo-montage and digital painting."

His art is wacky and fun. I first saw it and thought "What on earth?" but the obserdity of it all has started to grow on me. 

There are so many strange nuances to his work that you could stare at it for hours and still miss the details.

Hannah Davies

Hannah Davies is an award winning Welsh based freelance designer and illustrator, who recently won an award in New Designers 2010. She is a fine-detail Surface Pattern Design specialist who draws on her love of nature for inspiration, producing intricate work rich in texture and color. 

She combines illustration and pattern design; “I use my imaginative and detailed hand-drawing as a starting point. I then develop this using my own vibrant watercolours and collage techniques”

I love her work because it is so detailed, yet whimsical and fun! Seriously, I want to be her...

Christian David Moore

Christian David Moore is a London based illustrator, specializing in fashion and beauty imagery. He works in mainly watercolor and I love the expression he uses in his lines. 

I like his work primarily because it is mostly portraits, but also because of the minimal amount of detail he uses on the actual faces juxtaposed with the incredible detail in the works themselves.

I wish all my portraits and watercolors looked like these.

Anthony Discenza

Anthony Discenza has a graduate degree in Film and Video from California College of Art and an undergraduate degree in Studio Art from Wesleyan University. His work is directed by a preoccupation with interrupting the flow of information in various formats, primarily in video, but also other media such as computer generated sound, text, and imagery.

The Way it Is

This is where I have a problem with "art," this is more of a social commentary; I would not consider this art. Sure, it's interesting and thought provoking, but why does the starving writers think they want to be the starving artists?

Dirtier

You decide.

Michael Flohr

Michael Flohr is another "modern impressionist" that I love. His art mainly focuses on urban scenes, and something I love about him is that he is not afraid of color!

"My goal as a modern impressionist is to capture a gesture and a mood, not necessarily every pore on the face of a person depicted in one of my paintings. I want my figures to be a part of the painting, not the painting itself. They work together in the environment creating the movement and emotion in a piece."

Eli Beaumont

Eli Beaumont is an English fine artist living and working in Amsterdam. He has done some sculpture, but his paintings are what really captured my attention. 

Anemones 

I grew up with a mother who loves, loves, loves impressionism, so I tend to appreciate it. His work, to me is like modern impressionism, he does lots of flowers, animals, and other things found in nature, but I really enjoyed this work. 

Lacecap

A lot of people criticize "pretty" and "cute" art, they want it to have deep and profound meaning, but sometimes, art should just be about celebrating the beauty that is all around us.

Poppy

Joerg Miedza & JanLeonardo Woellert

Joerg Miedza and JanLeonardo Woellert are the creators of LAPP : Light Art Performance Photography. They use light to create stunning photographs, and the result is an explosion of colors and lights. They make these photos without any post-processing by taking them with a long exposure time and with models manipulating the light. These artists orchestrate the movements to capture the full effect of their vision, and it's pretty amazing.

Sudha Daniel

Sudha Daniel witnessed the Tsunami in India first hand. This experience acted as a catalyst for him to give up his job and concentrate on his art.


He was born in India to a Christian father and a Hindu mother, consequently his works are heavily laden with spiritual meaning. His paintings incorporate many traditional Hindu symbols, while also representing aspects of Christ and Christianity.

Floating Lamps