W. B. Ringgold: Artist, Mixed Media Artist

Throughout my early teen years, I was exposed to different mediums of art and discovered that I could express myself through more channels than just paper. Although Barry found comfort in her 11 x 17 newsprint and some paint, I was able to focus my energy on making music and taking photographs. Without my art teachers, I wouldn’t have the expressive outlet I do today. My childhood was not filled with unhappiness as Lynda Barry’s was, but from both backgrounds, we found a warmth from the exposure of art that the educational system gave to us.

Wangechi Mutu, born on June 22, 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya, is a female artist that has explored and challenged the idea of gender and racial identity while simultaneously questioning our perception of the individual and the position we have in our culture and the natural world around us. Through her use of painting, collage, sculptor, video and performance mediums she has combined our mainstream ideal of beauty and her vision of what beauty can be to create a new perception of what we are as humans. Wangechi grew up and attended school in Nairobi and eventually moved to Wales to go to the United World College of the Atlantic. She then moved to New York City to study at the New School for Social Research and Parsons School of Art and Design. She has also earned an honorary Masters of Fine Art from Yale University. Wangechi has had a number of co-op exhibits across the world at several museums in the US, Germany, France, Canada and a few solo exhibits in the US, Canada, and Germany. Her

Cindy Sherman, well known for her photography of her representing issues that commonly represent both the roles of being an artist, being a woman and the two combined. Sherman grew up in a large family that did not have any interest in art. Her knowledge of art growing up was very minimal until she went to college. She, then, started to paint. She quickly realized she did not like painting because of the lack of intimacy or recreation of a particular setting. She did, however love photography and started pursued an interest in that.

Kehinde Wiley is an African-American artist who paints portraits of black and brown people from all over the world. History has largely ignored people of color, and Wiley strives to give black and brown people their aesthetic due and start a conversation about race. Wiley classical portraits often directly resembling famous European works of art. Leviathan Zodiac from Wiley’s The World Stage: Israel series bears a strong resemblance to Augustus of Primaporta of 20 B.C.E.

Art is something that is often overlooked and never appreciated. What constitute as art depends on individuals and their interest. There are numerous art styles that contribute to the different styles of art. Famous artist Betye Saar and Charles White both contribute to the idea that art can be done in different ways, styles and methods. Betye Saar and Charles White were two African American artist who were very successful though they had two different styles of art.

Although constantly encouraged in her youth, Carr did not professionally pursue her artistic talent until she was a teenager. Following the death of her parents and to escape living under her sister’s strict rules, Carr moved to California to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. She returned to Victoria after two years of schooling and then moved to London, England where she studied at the Westminister School of Art. After returning back to British Columbia she lived in Vancouver and taught at the Ladies Art Club, unfortunately due to her rude behaviour of smoking and cursing at her students she became unpopular and her classes began to be boycotted by the students, she only held the position for a month.

Julie Becker was born in 1972, and passed away in 2016 at the age of 43[i]. Los Angeles was an integral part of her life as she grew up, created, and died in L.A; however she studied briefly at Hochschule der Kunste, Berlin in 1991 and completed a residency in Basel, Switzerland at Stiftlung Laurenz-Haus Foundation. Becker was the daughter of artists[ii], and subsequently grew up in constant travel from one apartment to the next while her parents worked odd jobs to survive. In lieu of finishing her senior year at Santa Monica High School, she became the youngest student ever to attend California Institute of the Arts in 1989 at the age of 16. From CalArts in Valencia, Becker received her BFA in 1993, and her MFA in 1995. Paul Schimmel, curator at the L.A Museum of Contemporary Art, selected Becker’s MFA thesis project, Researchers, Residents, A Place to Rest 1993-96, for the 23rd São Paulo Biennial, where she was the youngest participant.

Ms. Goodman had always wanted to work with children. She started at the University of Mississippi as an art major. She decided to change her major to education with the hopes of being a special education teacher focusing on art therapy.

The brush that felt glazed with the abundant horde of a thousand corn leaves rusting from left to right stroked the blank canvas with an orange that reminds me of the Arizonan sunset. Another stroke and the background color of the canvas caught no sign of white. The neutral vibrancy of the painting that was the color of a broad lion was complete and was set for the next coat of paint.

A: After graduating Strathcona Tweedsmuir School, I continued to go to the Royal College of Art which is located in London in The United Kingdom. It has the reputation of being one of the greatest colleges to attend for art and design and I was very fortunate to be able to be

T.C. Steele was a famous painter from Owen County his parents were Samuel and Harriet Steele. His father was a saddle maker and his mom stayed at home. He was best known for his landscape paintings. Steele attended a college prep school called the Waveland Collegiate Institute. There he was given a box of paints and began to develop his talent as an artist. At the age of 13, Steele was giving his fellow students lessons in drawing. Later Steele moved to Indianapolis. In 1870, Steele married Mary Elizabeth Lakin. For the first years of their marriage they lived happily in Battle Creek, Mich. Steele and Mary returned to Indianapolis in 1873. Here T.C. painted portraits for a wealthy Indianapolis resident. These people supported

From trippy patterns to wildly vibrant typography, the psychedelic art style was absolutely endless. The unique art movement was at its best from 1966 to 1972. Although there were many memorable artists at this time, Wes Wilson was known for being the “father of the 60’s rock concert posters.” Psychedelic art was just about everybody’s obsession in the 1960’s because of its unorthodox style and artists that were a part of it.

Diane Nemorev was born on March 14, 1923 in New York City, NY, and grew up in Central Park West, NY. She was the child of wealthy Jewish parents but was mainly raised by several governesses. Because of that, she did not have a good relationship with her parents and often felt alone. Diane felt unreality in her life. When Diane learned new things, she had the feeling she couldn’t experience it. As a child she painted at school. Diane hated painting and when she graduated from High School, she stopped immediately. Painting made her feel shaky, because Arbus hated the smell of paint and the noise of the brush on the paper. People would say Diane was terrific at it, but she felt as if something

The work of art selected by the Artist David Wojnarowicz is a series of twenty-four black-and-white gelatin silver prints known as “Arthur Rimbaud in New York”. David Wojnarowicz was a New York City artist and AIDS activist. He identified himself closely with the French Poet Rimbaud. They led similar lives and lifestyles in that they both came from broken homes and found solace and at times anger through their art. Both Rimbaud and Wojnarowicz had feelings of being denied freedom; they both ran away from their harsh reality and both were homosexuals. Their lives spanned over a hundred years apart but Wojnarowicz identified himself closely with the angst that was Rimbaud. The black and white prints have a grimy appearance to them showing a bit of antiestablishment and alternative lifestyles in hard New York. Wojnarowicz style used collage imagery. His method was similar to the artistic process assemblage. This process brought together two or three-dimensional compositions using other objects. In these series of work, this method is subtle and used in print. The prints themselves are of a friend of Wojnarowicz’s wearing a mask that showed the face of the French Poet Rimbaud. These prints were photographed in many different areas of New York. In the example of one of the prints in the series (3/6), the image is of a friend wearing the mask of Rimbaud and showing themselves as lovers. The image fused the French poet’s identity with modern New York urban

Arthur C. Danto in “The Artworld” provides us with the argument that, “To see something as art requires something that the eye cannot descry-an atmosphere of artistic theory, a knowledge of the history of art: an artworld.” Danto shows us the importance of the artworld in order to know that a work of art is more than just what we can plainly see. Danto provides two theories he calls the “IT” (Imitation theory) and the “RT” (Reality theory). With these two theories, Danto explains how we can define art and why “The Artworld” is needed to help understand art, because after all, “these days one might not be aware he was on artistic terrain without an artistic theory to tell him so.”