Students and an alumna share how their favorite artists inspire them to create
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BYU–Hawaii students, with a love for art, said their favorite artists served as inspiration for them as they continued to hone their creative skills. Although they all felt they had things to improve creatively, the students said they are able to stand on the shoulders of giants, using great historical artists’ examples, as they developed their individual styles and techniques.
Jay-R Gallano, a freshman from the Philippines majoring in graphic design, said his favorite artist is Vincent van Gogh. He said, “His painting is more abstract. ... I feel like his paintings are moving sometimes.” Gallano said he sometimes looked at van Gogh’s artwork as a personal therapy when he was stressed out. “I look at his painting, and I just appreciate those kinds of things, like the details and pretty much the outcome of his paintings,” explained Gallano.
Gallano, whose favorite painting from van Gogh is “The Starry Night,” said everyone can learn to bring more life into their world. “If you feel like your world is very messy, just make yourself a way to go with the flow,” said Gallano.
Genevieve De La Cruz, an alumna from Kentucky who graduated with a degree in art education, said one of her favorite artists is Claude Monet. According to the Monet Gallery website, he was a French painter who lived from 1840 to 1926 and was one of the founders of the Impressionist movement, which began around 1860.
According to the United Kingdom Tate website, impressionist artists did not have the goal of painting things exactly as they appeared, but rather they painted an “impression” of what the person, light, atmosphere, object or landscape looked like to them. They often painted with thick, messy brush strokes, to capture the spontaneous feelings of whatever they were looking at, and often did so outdoors with natural light, the website explains.
“I love how he captures light through strokes of various colors. Truthfully, it’s hard to pick just one impressionist artist because I love almost all the artists from that movement.” De La Cruz said she loves the Rouen Cathedral series by Monet in which in each painting he focused on the study of light. “He painted in the same spot and painted the changes in light as they happened. I love to see how the colors change and how he captures that moment in time,” she explained.
“Since I’m mostly a 2D artist, I really like to emulate that impressionist style with colorful brush strokes and broad shapes that give the suggestion of light and the objects. I try not to go for super realistic. Since cameras exist, that’s not my purpose. I want it to look beautiful and painterly, even if it is just a still life,” said De La Cruz.
Jimboy Fajardo, a senior from the Philippines majoring in fine arts, is a sculptor and painter but said he prefers sculpting. He said his favorite sculptor is Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who lived during the Baroque period, which lasted from the early 17th century to the middle of the 18th century.
The statue of the biblical figure David, by the Renaissance artist Michelangelo, is well-known throughout the world and is displayed in Italy. “Michelangelo’s David is really good. It’s really huge and the proportions are very accurate. ... Bernini actually made his own version of David that really attracted me as an artist. For me, it’s more dynamic,” said Fajardo.
He continued, “If you would see the photo of Bernini’s sculpture of David, you would think, ‘Wow!’ It’s very alive and active. Not like Michelangelo’s. The reason why I like Bernini a lot is because of his dynamic action poses every time he does a sculpture. So the muscles are very proportionate. The twisting bodies make you think it’s alive.
“That’s the main reason why, in the sculptures I’m making, I want to show my viewers that sculpture’s are meant to seem like a live object. So I am making sure my sculptures do not just look good, but the viewers will feel something from the sculpture’s emotion and posture. It’s very dynamic, and you can feel the emotion of the sculpture. That’s one of the best things I learned from Bernini in doing sculpture.”
Fajardo said he will continue to follow Bernini’s example in his future art by working to master sculpting the finer details of the human body, such as the muscles. “Even though it’s just a
sculpture, I want to master how to make it really look like a real person. That takes a lot of training and studying.”
[Bernini's] work in marble is incredible. He made marble look like billowing fabric and supple skin. I especially love ‘Ecstasy of Saint Teresa’ and ‘Apollo and Daphne.’ I love how you can see Daphne’s fingers transform into branches and leaves. It’s so delicate. It’s hard to believe that it’s marble. [As a 2D artist,] I find it amazing that he was able to make sculptures like that from a subtractive medium.
De La Cruz said she also loved Bernini and his sculptures. “His work in marble is incredible. He made marble look like billowing fabric and supple skin. I especially love ‘Ecstasy of Saint Teresa’ and ‘Apollo and Daphne.’ I love how you can see Daphne’s fingers transform into branches and leaves. It’s so delicate. It’s hard to believe that it’s marble. [As a 2D artist,] I find it amazing that he was able to make sculptures like that from a subtractive medium,” said De La Cruz.
As for painters, Fajardo said his favorite was Caravaggio. “Caravaggio likes very proportionate, accurate, realistic paintings. ... What attracts me to Caravaggio is the way he uses black backgrounds. ... It looks like the subject of the painting is inside of a dark room and there’s a light shining, reflecting the subject’s skin.” Caravaggio’s use of the dark background prevents any background objects from being a distraction to the viewer, helping them focus on the human figures who are draped in shadows, he explained.
He continued, “It’s just very interesting for me that Caravaggio’s style is speaking to me, that makes me appreciate more the subject matter and gives more emotion to the subject,” described Fajardo.
Ya Yun Lin, a senior from Taiwan majoring in painting, said one of her favorite artists is a Korean artist named Zin Lim. “I first heard about him through Professor [Jeff] Merrill. Most of his artworks are created with charcoal or oil paint.”
Lin said Lim’s series “ID” is her favorite of his paintings. She explained, “It’s a portrait of half-human body paintings with very unique colors, such as blue and green, that creates mystical
feelings. I would like to create something that shows my emotion as well. So in his artworks, there is something that I would like to learn and apply. How to control the brush strokes, and what colors go well together.”