My 6 Favorite Artists — TRISHA LEIGH

I select my favorite artists based on who they are and what they say, followed in importance by the physical work that they produce.

I love a great, beautiful, striking work, but I am obsessed with a great, beautiful, striking work that has a great, humbling and profound message. An interesting and new perspective.

Some people are formalists. In full candor, those people tend to be too rigid for my liking.

It's the reaction that occurs between message and method that creates true art.

Then again, while the message is important, so is the piece's ability to stand on its own. So it's both, really.

I agree with Pablo and Marina, it is important for art to simply be art: be beautiful, be striking, be whatever the viewer needs it to be, but I also believe at the same time that the story of a piece makes a difference, too. The story of the piece, for me, is a part of the piece. It's a component, even though it isn't a brushstroke or wash.

“It’s the reaction that occurs between message and method that creates true art.”

The story is a brushstroke for the mind. The brushstroke is a story for the soul.

A piece must be magnificent to the person who is not thinking and to the one who is. If one can achieve this, it can create a form of art that appeals to both the left and right brains. It can create a potent and intoxicating reaction in the viewer where they are both in awe and learning, two of my favorite states.

“The story of the piece, for me, is a part of the piece. It’s a component, even though it isn’t a brushstroke or wash.”

So, after speaking my piece, I hope that you'll go and read quotes and interviews of the artists in the following list. Because even if they don't advertise the stories behind their pieces, the stories are vital, their messages are important and their impact on me has been great.

I give to you... My 6 Favorite Artists and the messages behind my favorite piece of their's or their quotes:

LIVING ARTISTS

1. Anselm Keifer "Occupations" (a piece about the grave dangers of censorship)

2. Marina Abramovic "The Lovers" (a piece on true love's inevitability and impermanence)

DEAD ARTISTS

3. Andy Warhol "Marilyn Diptych" (a piece on the dehumanizing nature of fame and celebrity)

4. Salvador Dali - quotes

5. Pablo Picasso - quotes

6. Vincent van Gogh "The Starry Night" (an artist who embodies the medicinal effect of art to mental illness)

Your homework: Go read quotes, research and watch/read interviews of all six of these individuals and drink in the genius! Bottoms up!

TRISHA WILES