Trisha Thompson Adams:
Adams is an artist I have taken much inspiration from, when it comes to this project. Her work cries out, full of life but yet so full of death. She has focused on the harmony of humans and animals embodied by nature. Many of her works intwine flora with anatomy. All her oil paintings aren't viewed like a typical anatomical or medical piece. Much like mine, as my piece's will not be anatomical correct, to add a softer feel to my work, to show it's not all about death. Adams has commented on her work before, by saying it's not just about life or death but has elements of rebirth.
Annette Messager:
I am looking at Annette's sparrow work, where she dressed dozens of taxidermies sparrows in tiny knitted garments, this work can make you feel unsettled as it can come across as a scientific piece or a treasured pet. There are obvious Surrealist elements of this work yet a child-like playfulness, is what draws me in, as I hope to achieve this in my own work. I do believe the handmade clothing is the most touching part of the piece, I haven't decided, yet if this is something I could take inspiration from and create some thing that would make my skeletons less dark and more cheerful.
Ji Yong Ho:
Ho is known as a sculptor, using only dirt, clay and tyre parts. With these limited mediums he has made many larger than life sculptures, of animal mutants. He uses sculpture as he believes it has so much more power than an ordinary drawing, the sculptures are dynamic. These pieces of artwork speak to me, as these animals may not be real or look more like a beast but what I'm going to produce works in that manner also. I only want to create something that the viewers will recognise not something that is exact, that way there is more humour in my piece of work.
Claire Morgan:
Claire Morgan's art of fragile hangings try grasping the complexity of life itself, exploring animals life forms up until it's inevitable death. Her work seems to share both beauty and horror, making the balance of both is an amazing skill to have when creating art that's inspired by such a hard hitting subject. Many people wouldn't think twice to make a dead animal pop with colour. I also got really inspired by her drawing work, the bursts of colour smeared with darkness makes the feeling life and death come off the page to bite you. I love the style and subject of her work, Morgan seems to give it a nice loving touch.
Anya Gallaccio:
Anya Gallaccio has a way of working her viewers into her art, she uses organic materials, things like flowers, ice, sugar and chocolate. These materials aren't long lasting, meaning the artwork usually lives through her viewers, and their memories of experiencing them. This also means that Anya had no control over her installations, they changed in ways that she wouldn't have predicted. The flower installations are the ones I feel most connected to and have taken inspiration from, as I wanted to use real flowers within my project to symbolise life, then death within nature, and the animals.
Paul Jackson:
Jackson has been inspired by surrealism, his art is a remix of death and life within animals. His art shows a detailed animal form and their skull being torn from itself. Jackson's subject is just like mine, just depicted in another way. I take inspiration from his art, the theory behind it, not the method. I don't want as much realism within my art like his, yet I appreciate the detail of the skulls and how atomically correct they are.
Polly Morgan:
Polly is an artist that uses taxidermy to create artworks. Yet unlike most taxidermists she doesn't create the animal to look alive, she uses poses that emphasis death within the animal. I believe the way she uses taxidermy to make her animals look dead, is much like the way I am using my sculptures of animal skeletons to look alive, it creates a story for our art.
Tessa Farmer:
Tessa likes to use insect carcasses to create hanging installations that are like a fairytale scene, battles between the insects and winged skeleton creatures she makes. Her creativity is something I aspire to have. I love the death that springs from her scenes, they are as if death is dancing within her artwork.
Bibliography:
Grenier, C. (2000) Annette massager. France: Flammarion.
Wallis, C. (2013) Anya Gallaccio. London: Ridinghouse.
The Nature Of The Beast, Published for the exhibition.
(I didn't know how to cite this book so I just wrote the title)