Jim Warren

Jim Warren has paintings that remind you of a coloring crayon box that exploded. His work is just completely beautiful and the colors are fantastic. You can tell he gets inspiration from landscapes and the human form, since his photography has a lot to do with human bodies and faces being depicted within some sort of landscape. The colors are what really stands out. It is almost Lisa Frank like with the colors he uses, most children would be drawn to his work just based on the fact that it is so brightly colored and magnificent.

Yoko Ono

Yes- she is blamed for making the Beatles split up. True she is one of the more annoying artists of anything out there. Did anyone think that maybe she is actually good though? Yoko Ono, as hyped up as she is by her name, is actually quite underrated. She needs no introduction really, because she was in love with the most influential man in music, and she played her role well. She has done everything. She sings, sculpts, paints, and so much more. She has kept going even though there is a certain stigma about her name, especially since she has been called "the woman who broke up the Beatles" Her talent may be overshadowed by this, but in reality I believe this is what makes her great. She became the scape goat for Beatles fans to blame, but took it with stride. Even though she is Mrs. Lennon, she has overcome what has happened- made something more of herself, and become who she is today.

Richard Zoland

An impressionist who's paintings have gone fairly unnoticed is Richard Zoland. He was an artist whose art grew purely out of his inspiration and his talent. His inspirations included his day to day life and nature. Significant exhibitions include the Metropolitan Galleries in Osaka, Japan, the World Trade Center, 
Cape Cod Art Association, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, 
and his private gallery, Zolan’s On The Avenue in Palm Desert, California. He was once described as the 
man who was America. He build up new ideas from old traditions. He never let the work become more than
what it was. Never making it too big of a deal, or toning it down to mute it either.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was a predominantly a landscape photographer, but not in the sense that a lot of people think. He took pictures of beautiful places or interesting places in the world, not just going around taking pictures of houses from a plane. You know the type I'm talking about- They come to your house with a giant picture of your home, attempting to sell it to you because it is an arial photograph of your home. No- this isn't Ansel. He started off as a musician- playing piano was predominantly his passion. The started transforming from a pianist to a photographer over a few years, and then his star really began to shine in the 1930s. He traveled the world seeking new and eccentric places to photograph. He was always searching for a bit more. He was an activist for the environment, and rallied and traveled in support for natural preserves and conservation efforts.

Though his love was the forest and the environment, his passion was photography. Mixing the two was only second nature, and a completely perfect combination.

Louise Bourgeouis

Louise Bourgeouis had a very rough start in her Art career. When she was 21 her mother died, and at the time Louise was studying Math, but this inspired her to study Art. Her father thought that art was a waste and wouldn't help her further her education. In her work you can see where her inspiration came from. She had references to her past like her childhood. This gives the world a constant insight to the way she was raised and what kind of experiences she had as a child. During the middle stages of her career (despite being celebrated for her contributions to the art community) she was seemingly unpopular, and received very little attention from artists everywhere.

Louise liked to take what made people uncomfortable, and turn it into art. In much of her work you see the human figure dismantled or awkwardly placed in a situation, often times it is disfigured as well. Her art was quite frequently about the human form, but also about emotions such as fear and disgust. An artist who can get this much emotion out of people just by a piece of art, is by far a great artist.

Robert Hughes Film-

I chose to analyze Jeff Koonz, because I enjoy how much everyone loves to hate him.
The piece "Puppy" is an excellent piece to look at for this.


1. How does the artist utilize material/media/found object in an art historical context, versus a contemporary context?
Koonz piece is made out of something you can find outside practically every spring. Flowers and dirt. The simplicity of this piece is awesome, and the fact that dirt and flowers are normally found outside really makes this piece work from a historical stand point.2. How do these materials inform the meaning of the piece?
The materials are super organic, outside of the metal frame work used to hold it up. The materials literally hare dirt and flowers. It makes the piece simple, yet complex at the same time. It is a massive piece of topiary, which the colors make complicated.3. What site was chosen for the artwork?
The original site for "Puppy" was in Germany, and in 2000 it did a brief exhibition in Rockefeller center where the massive christmas tree usually sits. 4. How does the site/place inform the meaning of the artwork?
The site has changed several times for this piece, which I believe each individual site brings something else to the table. In Rockefeller center, I think that the site helped show how the busy city needs to come down to more simple things, like a giant dog.

Alma Gomez

Alma Gomez is my art 109 drawing foundations teacher. For such a talented woman, she is very humble and close to her roots. She has done exhibitions all across Idaho, Utah and Nevada, and also does art work for Boise State as well. Several of her pieces reside in the student union building at BSU, as well as over in the Education building, and I believe one in the Morrison center.

A lot of her work has a spanish feel to it. Usually portraying people of Latin American heritage in them, or titled something in spanish. Most of the men are dark haired, leaving that spanish or latin feel, as many europeans are blond. You can tell she draws a lot of inspiration from her roots, as she incorporates her Latin roots into her paintings. Her still life pictures are often times non representational, or they have no real cultural feel to them. They are done by Alma, but she does not always incorporate her heritage into her pieces.

I had a hard time getting pictures of her work for my blog, as most of them are copyrighted and I am not allowed to paste them here. Bummer- I know.
But this is Alma herself-

Molly Hill

Molly Hill was featured at the Basement Gallery in Boise on 4/7/11. Her pieces were interesting, so I decided to focus on her for today. Most of her work has an oriental feel to it, even if it is not completely intended. Her inspirations come from Chinese culture, and the amazing historical sites there as well. She got a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts in conjunction with her visit to mount a one-person exhibit titled China Daydream at J Crist Gallery in December, 2007. This is where the oriental feel came into her work.

The red dot is a big feature in her work. I'm not sure what it is intended to be, but for me it is something representing the sun. It may be something else, but it is in almost every one of her paintings. There is almost always a string tying something up as well. It may symbolize how the Chinese are very wrapped up in their own culture.

E.H Shepherd

Today I am focusing on E.H. Shepherd. Many people will recognize his name, but not fully remember who he is. He is the man who illustrated Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne. His illustrations are very expensive collectors pieces now, and the original pooh oil painting sold for $285,000 in late 2000. As much as everyone loved his Winnie the Pooh illustrations, that bear seems to overshadow most of Shepherd's work.

Though Pooh bear overshadows his other work, I feel like Pooh exemplifies his work to a tee. Shepherd did a lot of pen and ink drawings. Most of his Winnie the Pooh pieces were pen and ink. I feel that without Shepherd's illustrations of Pooh, the bear wouldn't have been so popular and probably wouldn't be such an icon as he is today.

E.H. Shepherd wrote and illustrated his Autobiography, which I have yet had a chance to read. 

He did more than illustrate Winnie the Pooh, he fathered two children whom also became illustrators. He was one of Punch magazine's leading cartoonists for nearly 30 years. It is said that Pooh was his biggest regret because drawing Pooh resulted in the bulk of his work through life.

Boise History Museum

The Boise Historical museum hasn't changed since I was about 8 years old. That was the first time I had ever visited it, so it probably hasn't changed for a much longer time than 12 years. They move the exhibits around sometimes, but the overall content of the museum is quite dull. They have a gorgeous bar in there from an actual saloon, but the two headed calf has been moved recently from its spot in the other room into the bar area. It is stuff like this that makes me crazy when it comes to museums. Having random things in random spots. They also have this case that is full of stuff that has "recently been donated" over by the indian and cowboy saddles. It seems like the current curator of the museum hasn't thought of placement of things very carefully. They have a room about 75% of the way empty, which also REALLY bugs me.

Cabela's

I had never been to Cabela's before I started this project. I never made time to go in there, since I figured it was just like sportsman's warehouse and D&B. I figured that once you've seen one, you've seen them all. Cabela's actually has a few really cool exhibits inside of it like the mountain in the middle with different American wildlife, an the African display in the back left corner of the store. Those two were both amazing, especially the African one, but the part that really was cool was the gun display. There is an animatronic man in the arcade area who was actually based off a real man who hunted pretty much everything in the world. The guns are neatly displayed in the arcade behind glass, each with their story beside them. It is really classy. You can tell that they always are cleaning in there, or that the cases are airtight. I am really impressed by this.