For the second post relating to finding sources of inspiration I'm going to dedicate an entire entry to my home town of Victoria. Somewhat in the shadow of the big smoke of Vancouver, Vic City takes pride in our individuality. The following influences were mainly from being in high school in the 90's. Largely influenced by music, I migrated from grunge, to punk, to hip hop and eventually back again. My inspirations followed suit and were highlighted by elements of rebellion, angst and competitiveness. Lets take a look some influences that were introduced to me growing up in Victoria BC:
VICTORIA - born and raised
6. SALVADOR DALI: Dali wasn't introduced to me as the a painter famous for breaking new ground as a surrealist painter. He was introduced to me through his influence on the work of a specific graffiti artist in Victoria. The artist chose Dali's elephant images as inspiration of his first mural and it still stands as my favourite street art to date. Graffiti was growing in the 90's and slowly finding legitimacy. It was moving away from writing your name with a sharpie on a fence to large murals that relied on a meticulous use of the space provided. Hip Hop music had a close connection to graffiti and, therefore, a close connection to me.
7. BANKSY: Banksy was another street artist from the UK who my friends and I admired for his combination of humor and activism. In the back of my mind I guess I appreciated that the artist did so much with so little. Stories always popped up on the internet as to where his next piece was displayed and throughout it all he has kept his true identity hidden. The greatest inspiration I gained from Banksy's work is that he was able to make people think with his art and wasn't afraid to embrace sarcasm as a tool.
8. JORDAN AND NIKE: Growing up as a huge basketball fan in the 90's meant it was impossible not to follow the best basketball player on the planet, and possibly of all time; Michael Jordan. There is no doubt he was an artist on the hardwood, and this inspired me to be a better basketball player, but this wasn't the source of inspiration I am referring to here. Anything with the Jordan or Nike brand was a must have for a basketball player and a new shoe release every year helped kill my bank account. I would argue that no other shoe brand on the planet caries the same cultural impact as Air Jordans. The shoes would take design elements off everything from sports cars to african elephants and would never fail to bring something new to both sport and fashion. The branding of these products had me hooked and I can appreciate the inspiration he provide to basketball players everywhere and created a fashion niche that still thrives today.
9. DREW STRUZAN: I will have to admit that I didn't know this artist's name until a couple minutes before writing this post. Google helped me when I searched: "who designed the movie poster for Indiana Jones?". It turns out that Drew not only was responsible for the posters for the Indiana Jones movies but was also responsible for posters for films such as Back to the Future, Star Wars, The Goonies and Blade Runner. Along with a long list of other classics from the 80's and the 90's I realized that he had designed probably 90% of the posters I had on my wall as a kid. I found that his portrayal of action and adventure from a still image was remarkable.
10. TODD McFARLANE: Todd is one of the most decorated comic book artists of all time...and it helped that he is Canadian too. Growing ups as a comic book kid it was Todd's work that seemed to have the most grit and edge. It felt like my parents probably wouldn't have let me read the material if they knew what was past the cover. Plenty of blood and brutality made for some pretty amazing art pieces and always inspired me to try and duplicate his work.
Thats all for now...I will continue to update this blog with new inspiration as I come across them and try to separate each into its own post....thanks for reading.
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