Why pick an artist? In my volunteer work with Picture Lab, I think a lot about choosing artists to enlighten a large community. Artists have messages to tell, or maybe I have a message to tell through an artist. You'll never know. I have the honor of attracting people's attention to those particular topics.
Given the construct of the women artist, by Art Club, I had a variety of ideas that were rising to the top, until I had a conversation pertaining to my own work. This past summer I had my first show in years at AMO in Waitsburg. Art has risen to the top of my priority list like sweet cream. The last few years as I settle into my back seat chair at Art Club, I have been experiencing, and exploring this reengagement. After what seems like a great hibernation, and a Quantum leap. I am artist again.
So, when it was asked whom I looked to for inspiration, three artists came up. Kiki Smith, (maybe a future talk). David Shrigley, a dark witty illustrations, and Maira Kalman, a designer first, or is it writer first? or is it painter first....? An avid producer of the illustrated "snapshot." She has flipped the viewers experience, through "narrative drawing and expressive illustrations." I had only been a viewer, and I needed to delve into what she considers, and the world behind the claim that she, Maira is a life-ist.