Yoshitomo Nara

Yoshitomo Nara is a Japanese artist who has been painting and drawing since the 80s. Dogs and wide-eyed little girls are common subject matters, all drawn in his unique style. His work is considered by some critics a manifestation of the disillusionment of young people in Japan. I enjoy his work because he paints and draws with either very messy or very clean and precise lines and colors.  

Anni Albers

-American textile designer. June 12, 1899 – May 9, 1994

-Raised in an affluent family in Berlin

-Attended Bauhaus University, and because women were not allowed to take glass workshops, she took a weaving class instead. 

-In her weavings, she worked “with a weaver’s concern with threads as an artistic vehicle, interested greatly in the technique and discipline of the craft.”

-She created "rectilinear abstract designs based on colour relationships" in her weavings.

Some of her pieces have symmetrical patterns, others do not. I am playing around with having some pieces with very repetitive patterns and others that are in more of a fair isle style, and figuring out how to make them all go together. I also find the fact that Albers put so much thought into the textural aspect of her weavings compelling, and especially now that I am starting to think about installation, the interplay of different textures is very important to my own work.

Ghada Amer

- born in Cairo, Egypt and then emigrated to the United States at 11
- went to school both in Paris and Nice, France

work:
- deals with sexuality and gender
- objectification of women throughout history as objects for sexual pleasure
- uses thread and fabric as her medium
- uses pornographic images for her figures
- elements of chaos using thread

*When I started to work with thread and fabric and drew female figures, Kate unveiled Ghada to me. She was a key inspiration to my work then and now. She embraces explicit content and creates work that beautifies women while also providing a visual history to women's sexual objectification.

David Hockney

David Hockney (born in 1937) is an English painter, printmaker, and photographer. He created several landscape pieces, replacing his canvas with an iPad. His drawings embrace technology as a tool and use color in an exciting way. Several of his iPad drawings were featured at the DeYoung in SF. Since I am using technology for my WAS piece, Hockney's work really inspired me and showed me that the end product can be quiet clean and beautiful.

Bruce Munro

Bruce Munro is a british artist known for his large light-based installations.  He relies heavily on his sketchbook to record ideas and references and he likes to use reused materials.  He was a painter before he moved to Australia.  In Australia, he learned about design and lighting and worked with lights in display signs.  He then chose to work specifically with lights because he felt he needed a specific focus.
"I thought that by working in a medium that was very pure and true I could then have the opportunity to express lots of different ideas that filled my head."
His work is about memory and moments in the shared human experience/connection.

I chose this artist because I liked how he worked with lights in these huge outdoor spaces.  It gives his work a type of fantastical element and it's just really nice to look at.

http://www.brucemunro.co.uk/work/installations/

Sadam Yohiszawa

Sadam Yohiszawa is a Japanese artist who draws and designs for skateboard companies. His work is incredibly detailed and he does most of it in ink pens. I chose him as an artist because I am interested in designing skateboard decks. He has had many solo art exhibitions in Japan as well as some in the U.S., including San Francisco. He has done work for many skate companies including Thrasher Skateboard Magazine, Real Skateboards, and Consolidated Skateboards.

These are some of my favorite works by him:

This is a drawing he did with and without color.

http://sdm-r-arm.com/?lang=en

http://sadam-yoshizawa.tumblr.com/

Mike Blabac

Mike Blabac is a skateboard photographer from Michigan. He grew up reading skate mags and paying a  lot of attention to the skate scene. He moved to San Francisco when he was 20 and began shooting the local skaters. Later on in his life he moved to LA and continued his work. He worked for many major skate companies and now works for DC shoes. He is one of the most widely known skate photographers and has been there to shoot some of the craziest events that have happened in skate history.

I chose this person because he is the documentation of the skaters from SF in the 90's that pretty much defined and created skateboarding as it is today. Through my job, I got to meet him and got a signed copy of his book. Its particularly interesting to me because a lot of the people that he photographed are now people that I have met and know.

http://www.blabacphoto.com/