Inspirational Artists – New and Old

This is the first of hopefully many posts like this that I will be writing. I come across interesting (and sometimes, not so interesting) websites, artists, designs, etc. I am going to start sharing some of the better things that I come across. So, if you like it and want to see more like it, leave me a comment!

Featured Artists:
Kevin Cyr • Martin Lewis • Cleon Peterson • Ben Quilty • Henry Darger

Kevin Cyr

In a culture in which people are easily lured by the appeal of status-enhancing symbols, I find beauty in derelict cars and unkempt landscapes. I have always been interested in painting vehicles and scenes that have defined the evolution of the American landscape…” – Kevin Cyr http://www.kevincyr.net

Visit Kevin Cyr’s Website to see more

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Martin Lewis

Martin Lewis was born on June 7, 1881 in Castlemaine, Australia. He was the second of eight children and he had a passion for drawing. At the age of fifteen he left home and traveled in New South Wales and New Zealand, working as a posthole digger and a merchant seaman before settling into a Bohemian community outside of Sidney. Two of his drawings were published in a radical Sydney newspaper, the Bulletin. He also studied with Julian Ashton at the Art Society’s School in Sydney. Ashton, a famous painter, was also one the first Australian artists to take up printmaking. Lewis visited his family in Castlemaine for the last time in 1900 and then left for the United States. His first known job after arriving in the United States was painting stage decorations for the McKinley Presidential Campaign of 1900. Little is known of his early years in this country; however, by 1909 he was living and working in New York City. With the exception of a few years, he spent the rest of his life in and around the city.” - Courtesy of The Old Print Shop http://www.oldprintshop.com/

Visit The Old Print Shop to see more

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Cleon Peterson

I dropped out of high school on the second day. I got my GED that freshman year and decided to study art in college. I did that for a year in Seattle, then got a scholarship and transferred to a school in New York (studied painting at Pratt). So I was living in New York and I got all strung-out. That’s where things started getting crazy; things were crazy before that but they really got crazy over there. I quit Pratt about a year after I started and the drugs ended up taking up the rest of the decade…” – Interview from Anthem Magazine

Contact information at Cleon Peterson’s Website

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Ben Quilty

See more at Ben Quilty’s Website

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Henry Darger

In 1930 he moved into a second-floor room on 851 W. Webster Avenue, where he lived a remarkably solitary life until his death in 1973. In that time he attended Catholic Mass almost daily and worked as a janitor but had very little human interaction. He did not listen to the radio or watch TV. Instead, he immersed himself in his self-created ‘Realms of the Unreal.’

Obsessively and compulsively he wrote, drew, painted and collected clippings from papers, books and magazines that were to be incorporated in his absurd creations. He barely slept and when he did it was at his desk. His bed was covered with his work. His small space was stacked floor to ceiling with the collections and creations of this absolutely engrossed hermit…” – Chicago Stage review – http://www.chicagostagereview.com/?p=2245

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