Who is your favorite fine artist and why?

Please limit your answer to the fine arts - painting, sculpture and photography. How did they inspire you?

Bernini is my favorite. His sculpture just knocks me out. It is so real and true to life. I would get in trouble in life drawing class because my drawings were not "painterly" enough. They were almost photographically real. Bernini inspired me to draw what I see, and draw it exactly.

Salvador Dali...I have always love the use of his imagination in all his art. I have about 8 of his paintings in my house

My favorite photographer is Rebekka Gu冒leifsd贸ttir. She is the best photographer I have ever seen. She inspires me to be a better photographer than I am right now. I try to go out and take pictures every day that it isn't raining. I dare you to prove there is someone better than her.

I really like a lady named Ela Bauer, she is a jeweler but her work is very sculptural in nature. I am a silversmith/jeweler but a lot of my work is sculptural, and I find the weight of the medium limiting. I really like this lady's work because it is still very much jewelry but has this foreign quality to it that I love. She focuses her work drawing from natural processes of growth and disintegration incorporating silver, copper mesh and silicone rubber with pigments. Her work is very colorful and playful, but yet some of the works look a plant/organism that may jump to life and grab you. I really like the use of the rubber, she incorporates foreign objects such as threads, beads, stones and even plastic children's toys into the rubber giving each item a new feel.




http://www.elabauer.com/

Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun. She defyed tradition and became the first women to exhibit in the Parisian Salon.

Rob Zombie, he's an amazing illustrator, I dedicate my art to him because he's like the rock n' roll Picasso, His art's colors and shapes steal my attention.

Pamela Jones, because she paints beautiful landscapes with feeling
http://pamelajonespaintings.co.uk