My favorite visual artist.......

[RichardH]

It is silly in a way to have a favorite artist. Of course it is personal, and one person's favorite might leave another person cold. While it is important not to fall into "love me, love my dog", and take personally whether other people are moved by the same things you are, it is nice to share what we love. I would like to share, and would love if others could also share on this thread.

What artwork or vision moves you? What do you find beautiful in a deep resonant way? What disturbs and stirs you? In Buddhist teachings there are six senses, with the abstract perceptions of mind being the 6th, but this thread is limited to eye, to visual arts, in any medium contemporary or traditional. The artist can be well known, or completely unknown. Just someone making things that move you. Please post more than one image if available, so that a sense of the person's different facets can be seen.


As a painter I've gone through love affairs with different artists and periods, depending on the kind of work I was exploring in the studio at the time, which goes to show how subjective this is. Here is my favorite right now, Richard Diebenkorn (American 1922 –1993)......

http://imgur.com/a/weEcV


Please do share, and thank you.


Gassho
Daizan

sat today

[Cooperix]

Yay Daizan!
Diebenkorn is one of my favorites as well.

but my all time favorite artist is the minimalist Robert Irwin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Irwin_(artist)

He works with issues of perception often using only light as his medium.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/arts/design/robert-irwins-big-visions-barely-seen.html?_r=0

Robert Weschler's book about Irwin, 'Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees' is a wonderful read. Originally written in 1982 there's an updated edition available.
NO book I've ever read goes into the creative mind of an artist like Weschler's! Just think about its title...

https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Forgetting-Name-Thing-Sees/dp/0520256093/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QHZT498BDWNPXXWTTSQC

There are so many wonderful, inspired artists out there, but for now I'll hold off on listing more.

Anne
~st~

[Byrne]

My favorite painter is the surrealist painter Yves Tanguy. When I first saw his stuff I thought to myself "It looks like this guy is just rolling with a thing he discovered by chance." After reading his bio it turns out that was right. It inspired me at the age of 15 to give visual art a try.

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Gassho

Sat Today

[Joyo]

I love to draw, and beautiful drawings that have emotion move me, regardless of the subject matter.

This has been one of my favourites for awhile now

http://zeldis.deviantart.com/art/Rain2-61016596?q=boost:popular%20in:traditional/drawings&qo=9

These beautiful, loose pencil sketches move me also, so much detail, yet so simple

http://zeldis.deviantart.com/art/Rain2-61016596?q=boost:popular%20in:traditional/drawings&qo=9

I don't have a favourite artist though. I am a bit obsessed, looking at a variety of artist's work on the internet, and also enjoying making my own pencil sketches and paintings.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Jishin]

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Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Kyonin]

Hi Daizan!

I am a total ignorant about art, but I have a few artists that I really like.

I really like impressionism. Manet, Cézane, Degas... all of them!

Lately I have developed a taste for urban art like Banksy. Awesome guy.

Lastly, my have a fond love for Japanese artists like Shirow Masamune:

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And Amano Yoshitaka:

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Yes, I'm a nerd :)

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Jishin]

Jishin, the art critic Peter Schjeldahl said Munch's reputation "has circled the canon of modern art like a big plane seeking a runway" for more than a century. :p

gassho, -0

st[gassholook]

I have a vivid imagination but average eye coordination. During my last manic episode in 1996 I sketched this on a blackboard in medical school. The sketch got the dean's attention who was a psychiatrist. He quickly recognized that the sketch along other behavior meant I was in trouble and eventually I had to sit out my first year of medical school.

There is a nice book that talks about the temperament of artists:

Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament

I had never consciously seen the painting prior to me sketching it and it was years before I realized that I must have seen it somehow to sketch it during my nervous break down. Freaky, huh?

[emoji2]

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Oheso]

very freaky. I'd say you must have a good visual memory as well. Maybe Munch's big airplane passed over you while looking for that runway to land. [scared]

gassho, -0

td. I did it again

[RichardH]

Wow, thank you for these contributions. It is all beautiful, the "nerdy" stuff too. Oheso, the image you show reminded me of David Milne a wonderful Canadian painter. Here is a bomb crater painted by him from the First World War....

http://canadianart.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/david-milne-legacy1.jpg


Regarding the book, Jishin, if you work in the arts and know a lot of people, you see that "the artistic temperament" is a romantic myth. Artists , and I mean working artists not "artistic types", have a wide range of temperaments, and I personally do not know any manic depressives. This is not to say there has not been some spectacular mental illness in the narrative of art history, it is just to say generalizations are iffy. I feel, and most working artists I know would surely agree, that the romantic myth of suffering in the name art is a poor message for young artists.
If anyone is suffering from mental illness, it is best to get treated, and not view it as part and parcel of creativity.

Gassho
Daizan

Sat today

[Jishin]

Hi Daizan,

Touched by fire is a fascinating read. A lot of case studies

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Redfield_Jamison

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touched_with_Fire

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity_and_mental_illness

It is said that manic depression is a condition that benefits society at the cost of the individual.

Given the same amount of talent, I much rather see the work of someone that has gone to hell, comeback and maybe going again versus someone who has not gone to hell and is afraid of going.

My 2 cents.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[RichardH]

Hi Daizan,

Touched by fire is a fascinating read. A lot of case studies

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Redfield_Jamison

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touched_with_Fire

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity_and_mental_illness

It is said that manic depression is a condition that benefits society at the cost of the individual.

Given the same amount of talent, I much rather see the work of someone that has gone to hell, comeback and maybe going again versus someone who has not gone to hell and is afraid of going.

My 2 cents.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

Hi Jishin. I'm all for going to hell and back. But as an art teacher and the father of an aspiring young filmmaker, I have to be straight with students and young people. I have known creative people who suffered mental illness, and the result was they also suffered not blooming as artists, having tragic, muted, careers. they just suffered, that's all. There is no romantic redemption in it, no big story.

The reality in the art world now is that equating mental illness with creativity is not a "thing" anymore. There is more emphasis on being engaged socially and politically and that favours a temperament different than the old image of the artist tormented in his garret. I hope that people who do suffer get the best treatment possible, and are not told it is a creative necessity. As for going to hell, well., don't presume with anyone, mental illness or not.

Gassho
Daizan

Sat today

[Jishin]

Hi Daizan,

I have to be straight with folks too. I have to sell people on the idea that overall it is better to steadily produce vs wild productivity and related mood issues. That said, artists that have gone to hell and back are more interesting and you know this from experience because you are an interesting artist. [emoji2]

Metta to all.

[Byrne]

If you want to be an artist it's best to do something rather than nothing. Your personal habits are circumstantial.

Gassho

Sat Today

[RichardH]

This is a good discussion to have, and I hope others might engage it here.

People living with mental illness have played an important role in the arts. They are stories that need to be told. There can also be a fine line between the non-ordinary states that come with intense creative activity, as well as "religious" experiences, and the spectrum of mental illnesses. The only point of caution here is around the idea of "artistic temperament" . It is a term that does not match experience working in the arts.

Gassho
Daizan

Sat today

[Oheso]

I think it good to note that not all creative volcanoes vent hell, so no coming back seems to be necessary.

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thankfully,

gassho,

-Ostd[gassholook]

[Geika]

Sometimes artists have had a hard time and are good. Sometimes artists have a hard time and are bad. Sometimes artists have a good time and are good. Sometimes artists have a good time and are bad. What is bad and good, and a bad time and good time, anyway, but in the eye of the beholder and the experiencer?

I don't know... all this back and forth seems to be pointless. What's the argument here? Well, maybe it's not an argument, but anyway: artists make art. Some have a tragic history or struggle and some do not. It is the same with all people and all fields.

I make art, and I also have had a bit of a rough upbringing and slight bents of personality disorder. I don't feel these parts of me fuel my creativity. Maybe they do. Mostly, I just try to be happier now, because these things tend to stop me from being creative.

I had a friend growing up who was a lot like me, but darker in thoughts. We used to get into who's-had-it-worse "arguments." We were both quite creative, and now I look back at these things as a waste of time and wish I could get back in touch with her.

Gasssho, sat today

[Jishin]

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[emoji2]

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jishin]

Here is a cool CNN article with some nice paintings.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/world/the-dark-side-of-creativity-vincent-van-gogh/

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Oheso]

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George Inness, The home of the heron, 1893

[Oheso]

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John Sloan, Sunday, Women drying their hair, 1912

this painting was exhibited in the New York Armory Show of 1913.

[RichardH]

Oh George Inness. Lovely. :)

Gassho
Daizan

Sat today

[Mp]

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George Inness, The home of the heron, 1893

This is beautiful! =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today