What Inspires Me

What I love about art is its power to passionately intrigue a viewer. That doesn't mean every work has the same effect on every individual, but one be closer to the artwork than another. Every so often I have these manias where I develop a fetish or liking for something, and I see myself as a passionate person in this respect. What inspires me is a number of different things, usually whimsical and out of the ordinary, and occasionally things that make society shudder. Two people who inspire me are Todd Oldham, a designer, and Charley Harper, a modernist artist. 

It's no coincidence that I fell in love with the interior design of Todd Oldham and eventually the art of Charley Harper, after discovering an article I was cutting out of a magazine in my art class last year, that showed the design of Todd Oldham's home and Harper's art within. It was full of framed images of these seemingly simple bird paintings, the birds formed out of simple shapes. Oldham's house is so colorful and full of bird decorations! It's also complete with Gama-Go pillows that look like a campfire and a club, and retro looking couches with similar birds. There are also colorful velvet pillows in the living room and bedroom, with a bedspread covered in horses. It is absolutely my inspiration for what I want my room and house to look like someday!

And while wondering how I could transform my room into such a neat living space, I also wondered where I could buy such lovely bird paintings. I didn't realize it at the time, but those painting were by Charley Harper, an artist who created many works based on nature (and birds!). He was a modernist artist who apparently derived some of his techniques from cubism. He used very simple shapes arranged in a complicated manner to create his animal artworks. I had unknowingly discovered Harper's work in the images of Todd Oldham's house, and rediscovered him this past weekend when I bought a blank card at Blick's with an image of birds on it for Kyle (and one for myself) and saw the stationary sets of his artwork. It brought back the feeling I had while looking at Oldham's house, and I until now discovered that Oldham was a huge fan of his and wrote a book about him! Which will soon be on the bookshelf in my room.

And speaking of artworks, it is definitely worth mentioning my newfound love of an anime I have rediscovered. Rurouni Kenshin, an anime series I had watched when it came to the United States around the time I was 13, has inspired an anime "renaissance" within me. The series is so sweet and such a delight to watch. It is a historical fiction about a wandering swordsman during the Meiji era of Japan who has vowed to help protect people with his sword as atonement for killing people during the war. It truly is a romance, in the sense of action and adventure, with an almost love story within.

-PrettyPidjun