Molded.

Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California 1972-76
Christo & Jeanne-Claude
source: http://christojeanneclaude.net/rf.html

I couldn't really think of a better word than "molded" - in this case where I am asked to discover the artist an movements that have shaped my ideas, concepts and beliefs throughout these four (almost five) years at UTSC. Intrinsically, I know that the reason why I proposed to do this project is only so that I could re-discover how "I" came to be me, and how my views in the arts have shaped who I am as an artist today. I never really had a chance to look back at what I've done, and to see that indeed I have changed from a shy high school girl who knew nothing about art- to a young woman who has been shaped by the vivid truth about the arts that I have never seen in my five years of highschool- some shocking and others being just offensive, and of course who could forget the gruesome ones. I still remember the first day I walked into "Why is it Art?"- it was some first year art history course that we all had to take for Arts Management.

It was on that first day that I discovered that...
Everything we learned in highschool was (@*$(#)%R*#(.

Duchamp's "Urinal"- shocked me.

BUT... Through tough criticisms....

Hard times in Painting and Drawing classes...

I've learned to accept and see the beauty and ideas behind those aggressive works of art being given to us, that indeed - as gross as self-mutilation was- it was to prove and mark important points in race and culture within that society...

I'm having one of "those" moments now... epiphanies? hahaahah. Maybe it's just getting late and I'm tired... Who knows.

I learned ... And most importantly was inspired by the dozens of artists that have shaped and molded my "school of thinking" (such a cliche... Excuse me...) in such a discrete manner that I was too blind to see it until today.

So many artists.... Although I don't know what has caused them to become "inspired"- it is a fact that all artists from different period have influenced each other. Artists are inspired by the environment that they reside in... We learn from previous periods, some artists even purposely mock other artists.