Elizabeth Peyton

Elizabeth Peyton was born in 1965 in Connecticut. She began drawing at an early age. She studied art in the 80's and then rose in fame in the mid-90's. She is a portrait artist. She dabbles in many mediums and like to experiment with processes and papers. Often, her small-scale portraits are in oil and have glazes and washes applied to them. She has worked in most types of prints. She currently lives and works in New York City. She likes to paint friends, lovers, and celebrities. Her popularity has grown steadily in the last 20 years and her paintings can sell well above .5 million dollars at auction. Her portraits aren't photorealistic likenesses, but because of the features and mannerisms that she chooses to emphasize, they are extremely successful in being a likeness of someone.

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Henry Darger

Henry Darger just may be the most interesting and disturbing story about an undiscovered artist. He lived from 1892-1973 mostly in Chicago, IL. His posthumously discovered artwork consisted of painting, drawing, and collage. I can't imagine what this man had going on in his head, the children in his drawings come from such a sad and lonely place. They make me feel uncomfortable. The images are so alike in many ways, but still they each seem to be a real child. I wonder if he based them on real children that he met in life or if he based them on himself. I guess it could be both. His mom died of a fever when he was only a few years old and them his father died when he was 13. He was put in an institution when he was about 7 years old and he was labeled as a disturbed child ("his heart isn't in the right place") because he hurt himself. He was punished harshly in the institution and he was bullied by the other students, it was a very sad and cruel place for him. He...

Kathe Kollwitz

Kathe Kollwitz, although born in the 1800's was a very progressive German artist. She worked in many mediums including painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Her work is heartrending. She was creating work that was well before it's time. She began to study art at a young age because her father recognized her abilities. She wasn't able to go to the better art schools because girls weren't allowed in them at the time. She attended an art school for women in Berlin. She began working in the arts - more in the commercial aspects- when she was just 12 years old. She was engaged by the time she was 17. Her husband was a doctor and he helped care for the poor. I think because they lived so near his practice and saw so much of the deprivation and sickness, that that was a huge influence on her troubling and tragic artwork. She was a socialist and very much felt the disparate nature of the class system that was creating such extreme poverty. the violence and tragedy that surrou...

Grandpa Chan

Grandpa Chan (Lee Chan-jae, 76) is a Korean water color artist whose practice includes making water colors of the world around him in order to communicate with his grandchildren who live half a world away. He learned Instagram just so he could draw for them. On his account "Drawings for my grandchildren" he posts his images on Instagram along with a story or memory to go along with them. Although he has begun to use his fame to sell prints of his work- all the money he earns goes to a project called The Unloneliness Project, and initiative from The Foundation for Art & Healing , and to his grandkids' college funds. When I first started following him on Instagram, he lived in Brazil, but he has since moved back to Korea. His images are moving. Sometimes they tell stories about what is happening in his life at the moment, sometimes the stories are more about what is going on in the world - especially when large world events happen (good or bad). He is poignant and...

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