The artists who inspire me

This started as a general post about artists who I aspire to but I now see it as people who have helped me understand what I have wanted to become and the work that I produce. All of these artist are very different and individual but they all have one thing in common and that is their passion for producing amazing pieces of work. I hope you enjoy!

Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled, 1955.

I first came across the work of Rauschenberg when I was studying Design Crafts at college. I think the first thing that drew me toward his work was how tactile it was. It's funny to think that 4 years later I would write my dissertation about him and the way he questioned the ideas of printmaking. The thing is with Rauschenberg is he challenged the concept of 'why does printing have to be conducted on just an A4 sheet of paper?'and would mix sculpture, paint, collage and screen-printing together. I believe that these ideas from the 1950's changed how artists and art followers perceived contemporary art and is still being reflected in today's work. (You really can tell that I wrote 6000 words on this subject!)

Ellie Evans, Close up of Document holder.

I saw Evans' work at Orgin in 2008 (just before I started my final year at University). I love the concept behind the pockets and the attention to detail with the cross-stitch. They made me think about what I wanted out of my final year at university and it was so refreshing to see a young person do well in the business.

Linda Florence, Patterned Floor Tiles.

I really feel that Florence is my generations Rauscheberg (or at least the generation who studies printing or contemporary craft!). Why I hear you ask? Well apart from the fact that it seemed that everyone from my course was writing about her in their dissertation but there is something about her work that gets my pulse racing. It also helps that she's a very down-to-earth individual who doesn't gloat about what she has achieved (I was really lucky to sit on a lecture she gave at New Designers). I think, for me, it's the tactile element again and the fact that she encourages her audience to interact with the work and allow it change through day-to-day wear.

Jeanette Appleton, Land Line:Double Edge Encounters, 2003.

Appleton's work reflects on my love for felt making. It something I pick back up from time to time and I would love to continue to use the medium in the future. Appleton came to my university in the first year and I was so impressed with how passionate and exciting she was. I can still remember phoning home after the workshop to tell my mum that she had filled me with passion to enjoy what I do and produce.

Susie MacMurray, Echo, St. Mary's York, 2006

Now for something completely different! MacMurray is a fine artist who works with textiles to produces installations. She came to our university to give a lecture about her work after producing an installation in the university's gallery. It's very sad to say that I nearly didn't go because I wanted to work on my dissertation and studio work but I am so happy that I did as I was really surprised but her. To me fine art (at this point I want say not all fine art) was about doing very little and calling it art as it express some silly dark feeling that the artist had hidden away for years. I can be very naive and rather stupid sometimes. MacMurray couldn't be any further away from this fact as the work she produced had a lot of interesting ideas behind them and you could tell that she was a work-aholic.

Susie MacMurray, Echo, Close up, 2006