 About a week ago, during a certain, super nerve-wracking (for me) (always) thing, I was asked on the spot who my influences were, and which artists I ‘copied’ (my interlocutor’s words, not mine). This was kind of a difficult question for me to answer; I mean, I know what has influenced my art, I’ve written about that here on the jillablog before. But who, exactly, well. I mean, I know who my heroes are, at least, and I guess it makes sense for someone you admire to influence you, even in subtle ways, that is, even if you’re not, like, outright copying the work of that person. Arguably my first art heroI do remember outright copying one person, though. When I was about 11 or 12 I guess (please excuse my poor memory, it was a gajillion years ago), I copied the illustrations out of a Wind in the Willows we had floating around in the house. I remember copying the bunnies (it sure as heck wasn’t the t-o-a-d) (anyone who really knows me knows I have a mortal fear of those things). And I put my coloured pencil copies on handmade greeting cards for Easter. I probably have one or two of the cards floating around in my ‘deep storage’ back here (which you can see in last month’s post) ~ and while I would’ve loved to post a picture here, I’m afraid I’m not inclined at the moment to dig them up ^^; I’m ashamed to say I don’t 100 per cent remember who the illustrator was; I think I left the book behind me when I left my father’s house. But I’m fairly sure it was Michael Hague ~ it’s a bit difficult to figure that out now because of the bazillion versions of this book out there ~ in any case, I guess you could say he would be my first influence or art hero. Arguably my *real* art heroesAnyway, I thought I’d write this post, mainly for my own benefit in case I should get asked this question out of nowhere again ^^; Mainly so I don’t feel like I’m being put on the spot or ‘forced’ to come up with an answer (that wouldn’t make me look (more) like an idiot or something hahahhahaha) But because these are the three artists who I mentioned (in this order) on the spur of the moment as my influences, I guess one might say they really are. I’m kind of a big believer in, something someone says in the heat of the moment or something that was surprised out of you as in zero premeditation ~ 10 to one ‘must be the truth’ (as Sherly says). 1. Vincent I’ve always been a huge fan. I guess here’s something I made that might be said to be an outright copy, although it was honestly not my intention when I made it at the time. (Can’t remember exactly when, but this photo is dated 2012.)  Do you know, I actually know somebody who doesn’t like his work? A good, very scholarly friend of mine back in uni take one, told me she found Vincent’s work very, I don’t know. Unrefined, or brusque, or raw. Funny cos that’s just what I love so much about it ~ even if you didn’t know his legendary back story that some have said pretty much eclipses his work, by now. In any case, here’s one of my favourite forever websites (and one of gajillons I guess who’ve done this sort of thing with his work) ~ where you can lose yourself in his work. 2. Ang Kiukok Since we’re being honest here (and I figure nobody reads these mental regurgitations of mine anyhow lol) ~ almost as soon as I said ‘Van Gogh’ I figured 1. Everybody says that (although I really and truly love him) and 2. That wasn’t very patriotic of me x I ought to be. But I really do love Ang Kiukok’s work, and I first fell in love with it because of a blue painting of a horse I had a copy of on one of those blank greeting cards I had when… I was a lot younger ^^ I can’t find a photo of it online and while I’m fairly sure I have it floating around on my bookshelves somewhere, I’m probably not allowed to take a photo of that to share here. But here’s a yellow painting of his of a horsey that I also love (and not just because of my horse thing, either). 3. SapridOkay, I’ll admit it’s my horse thing that makes me love Solomon Saprid lol ~ although, it’s the way he creates his tikbalangs that I’m just so crazy about (because of course, bazillions of artists have their own interpretations of my forever favourite monster <3). I remember trying not to look weird in public (*dies laughing remembering how my sister had to tell me to stop sticking my tongue out in public just last Sunday*) (sorry, bad habit). I had been staring at one of these epic (no other word for it, really) sculptures at Ayala Museum ~ I could spend forever just looking at it, you can almost see it move. My art heroes, assembledOkay so, here’s the list I came up with over the past week since that ‘pop quiz’ last weekend (goes without saying the three above are ‘auto-on’ the list). I’m sure many of my heroes will be familiar to you ~ or at least I hope they are, particularly if you’re from where I’m from. In any case I hope you’ll excuse the lazy Wikipedia links for those of them who are (from my neck of the woods), and my not being able to find Wikimedia Commons photos for some of them (like Saprid) ^^; 1. Hieronymus Bosch Some of his work makes me uncomfortable but all of it really inspires me in terms of, you know, storytelling and stuff ^^ I particularly like this one, though (I’m glad Wikicom had a photo) ~ 2. Mary Cassatt I used to sleep over at my cousin’s house as a kid and I remember she had a print of this in her bathroom ^^ But when I got a little older and I got a book about Cassatt as a present I learned to appreciate her work more and fell in love with her work the same way I loved Joya’s drawings (see below). She also taught me that it wasn’t always easy for girls to be artists ~ but you shouldn’t let a little thing like that stop you ^^ 3. Marc Chagall I love this guy because losing yourself in his work is like dreaming with your eyes open. 4. Carlos ‘Botong’ V Francisco I have a soft spot for Botong for two reasons: one, because I couldn’t forget his work even if I wanted to because a sizeable chunk of my early advertising work was spent on promoting his work. (His paintings were printed on ‘phone cards’ (back in the day, we had public payphones you stuck cards into instead of change) and our client was the phone company.) And two: While I was working on promoting his work I learned that he never finished art school ~ and that taught me that just because you didn’t graduate… 5. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres My goal in life is to draw like this guy ~ after that, I can die. (So I’ll probably be immortal then LOL) Oh, one funny thing about Ingres ~ I remember my art history teacher saying how the drawing paper was named after him (and very rightly, too). But you’ll never get anyone at the local bookstore to find it for you if you said his name right ^O^ 6. Jose Joya Weirdly, I only found out later that Joya was an abstract artist because the first works I ever remember seeing of his were these soft pastel mother and child drawings I fell in love with when I was about 12. I have a vague memory of a gigantic non-rep mural of his in the lobby of this bank I used to work at which I could easily lose myself in (the mural, not the bank lol). I think this is it, but I can’t seem to find anything saying it had ever been at that bank’s head office. 7. Vicente ManansalaMy grand uncle used to have this magnificent watercolour landscape by Manansala above the buffet table in his dining room (this wasn’t it, but here’s one of them). I never minded having to wait my turn because I was always busy turning green with envy over how very wet and masterful that landscape was. Honestly I have always been willing to give my eye teeth for that painting (and all my teeth for mad skills like that), but there’s never been any way on earth I could have afforded it (plus falling teeth is another deep seated phobia for me). 8. Rembrandt Here’s another guy I ‘copied’ but only because I was required to in art school. No complaints here because 1. I learned ever so much doing that (in fact I’ve been toying with the idea of making something in the same style before I totally forget how to do it). And 2. I really enjoyed that plate because I did the stabbing detail in the Blinding of Samson ^_^ Seriously though, I’m almost as big a fan of his as I am of Vincent’s, and I would’ve auto-said his name after Vincent’s if I hadn’t thought, yeah. I love his drawings too the same way I love Ingres’. 9. Henri Rousseau 10. Nena SaguilI love the soothing and hypnotic quality of Nena Saguil’s work, but I confess I liked her more when I came across this quote by Ambeth Ocampo: When I asked her in 1984 why she never married, she replied: ‘Isn’t it the dream of every artist to do what he wants? To be free? Perhaps that's why I remained single. Perhaps God wanted me to become a painter. Besides, there is a moral side to it: How can I tell my husband, ‘Bahala ka na sa damit mo (‘Take care of your clothes yourself’), I have to paint’ ? And what about our children? One poet said that if you want to be an artist, you have to be alone. If you are alone you are one. If there are two of you, you become one-half ~ half of your personality is gone…’ (So sorry, I didn’t save where I saw this quote, and if this is bad because of copyright or something please let me know and I’ll delete this bit ^^;) My other league of art heroesSo this is long now again, so sorry, but before I go, I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned how illustrated children’s books and comic books were and still very much are huge influences. (Along with video games and movies and music, and, and effin' and ^^)
For comic books, I have always admired Jim Lee and Jim Balent, and of course Whilce Portacio (and super of course, Akira Toriyama). If you thought that was a super short shortlist, wait till you get a loada this one I’ve got for illustrators of children’s books (and then some ^_^).
In closing I’d like to add two more art heroes to this list: Peter Villanoy and Jun Quinton, both of whom have watercolour chops I can only dream of. They’re the art directors I talked about under ‘The last of the Mad-hicans’ in my post about how my day job influences my art too. Speaking of which, I’m actually seriously considering switching day jobs at the moment, but that’s a jillablog post for another time ^^
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