Laura Gable

Birth

20″x24″, Oil

Laura Gable

Laura Gable creates absolutely gorgeous paintings using vibrant colors.  I visited her studio while in Kennewick, Washington a couple summers ago and fell in love with her paintings.  She uses scratch board, and book arts as well.  To learn more about Laura's work be sure to check out her website. 

Though my recent work is not this colorful, I would like to create some work inspired by nature and plan to use some similar color schemes (check out my art blog to track my new work).

Kevin Sloan

Last year I had the opportunity to meet Kevin Sloan while on a Student Art League trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Kevin gave us a tour of his studio, took the time to have lunch with us, and offered some wonderful advice for emerging and student artists.  Read more about the advice he shared with.

Kevin's art uses animals in a vast array of environments to create "allegorical realism."  I love the vivid colors and detailed image.


One of the most significant aspects that I can take from Kevin's work is the development of a style or niche in his art.  I think that he has many subjects which he paints but there is always something that carries through.  There is certainly unity and variety in any given group of works.  I think what this could look like for me and my art is having work that all addresses real issues but the specific issues and maybe even mediums used to communicate can vary.  How my work fits together as a whole is something that I am really trying to work through and figure out...Check out my Art+ blog to read more about my work and follow me through this process of developing my work.

Pat Kikut

Patrick Kikut is a professor at the University of Wyoming.  Though I have not taken him for many classes (which I would still like to take his painting class) I have had the opportunity to get to know him through Student Art League (SAL).  As the SAL adviser, Pat has taken us to Santa Fe (which I just learned is the second largest art market in the nation) for a trip each year as well as Denver and helped with many other events.  Though I do love Pat's artwork, I think that his ambition and entrepreneurship as an artist may be what is the most inspiring to me. These are both skills that I think are often forgotten about but absolutely necessary for an artist to survive.

Pat has taken on many endeavors including starting a small gallery in his back yard while living in Santa Fe. The space was called "No Man's Land Gallery." The gallery featured artists from all over the country. Along with the gallery Pat set up a small stage and would have bands play and someone would be cooking on the bar-b.

The business and marketing aspects are a huge part of what I would love to take from what I have learned from Pat Kikut. I would really enjoy setting up an exhibition in a small gallery space like this.  (I will post some pictures of the space on my art blog) I would love to have a studio and gallery space for my artwork some day. In addition to a gallery/studio space I certainly want to teach art lessons from the space.  

Be sure to follow my personal art blog.

Adrian Molina

Although this blog began (and is primarily) to be a place for me to store my visual inspiration, I have decided to add one of my personal heroes when it comes to social justice type inspiration.  Adrian is a culturist and a conscious hip-hop artist.  I first met Adrian when he was a professor at the University of Wyoming.  Even though he has a law degree (which I don't think he would tell anyone), he was teaching a class titled "Hip-Hop and American Society" through the Chicano Studies program.  This class taught me about underground hip-hop and introduced the idea of art as activism.   His lyrics are powerful and intelligent.  He is not afraid to address serious issues and that is one of the most important qualities I can find in an artist which I would like to translate into my work.

The part about his degree in law was significant (and is inspiring) to me because he was a model of how someone can follow his dreams to remain an artist and make that path work because it is what he was designed to do.  Despite the fact that I am sure he had to deal with a plethora of friends and family telling him to take the path that they see as success, he chose what he knew he was created to do.  I know that I was designed to create art and share important social topics with others.  Thanks for being a model of this.

For more information on Molina's work check out his Facebook page, this interview, his current focus (the Occupy movement), one more occupy article he wrote.

Here is a clip of his most recent project ...This link will not be available to the public for a few more days...so enjoy!


To see some of my socially conscious art, check out art blog "Felicia Follum Art + Desingn" or Facebook page.

Jenny Venn

Jenny Venn is the graphic design instructor at the University of Wyoming.  I have taken 6 classes from her and her classes have really helped me to have a passion for for concept development and research.  One of the projects from her Graphic Design II class is a Social Justice poster series based on historical styles.  This project was one that really helped me know that I don't want to do traditional graphic design work but rather focus on social issues and use my graphic design skills in conjunction with my drawing and other work.  Some of my work inspired by her poster project.

The poster below is a design that Jenny did for the Shepard Symposium on Social Justice.  To see more of her work, check out her blog. 

Jenny's University of Wyoming Profile