My Artist Pantheon

A few years ago when I was a student at San Jose State, I had an amazing class in Paris with my teacher, John Clapp. The class was focused on creativity and visual problem solving while being completely immersed in a foreign culture- talk about mental overload. Before we even left for this month long trip, we had several pre-meetings to start thinking about a few things: ourselves as artists, why we create, and what we are personally drawn to, visually. John brought up this idea of a Pantheon for artists. The word Pantheon, comes from Greek meaning roughly, "to every God". In Rome or Greece, this was a building that was dedicated to all the different revered Gods, and the Pantheon in Paris is similar; it honors important historical figures and even holds many of their remains such as Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur, and many others. For an aspiring artist, there is a long reaching network of other artists who have left their mark for you to find and get inspired by. There are some artists or masters that have made artwork that not only is good, but its aesthetic or feel speaks to you specifically. John said that if you find all those artists whose work doesn't just look good, but makes you want to work and be creative on your own, you'll find connections and threads between them. That thread- the things that all those artists and their work have in common, will reveal the kind of artist YOU want to be. For a young or new artist that can be a great source of inspiration to draw from as well as a target to reach for.

At the time of the class I thought about my own Pantheon and wrote some names down, but now after graduation, I really wanted to get back to that and spend a little time jumping into it. So, for my first post on this sketch blog, I'm putting up my current Artist Pantheon. I've collaged work from 12 different artists who I admire and whose work gets me jones-ing to get to work, myself. Can you identify the ones I've put up?