-Idol Worship-

        "Mastercopy of a section from William-Adolphe Bouguereau's "Idylle Enfantine (A Childhood Idyll 1900)"   

        Like everyone else, I have artistic preferences and I look forward to certain artists when I go museum hopping.  Although, my vision is incredibly warped by my own knowledge of technique and paint layering. And I'm willing to bet that my artistic preferences are heavily influenced by being colorblind.  In my world, there is a heavy emphasis on value.  I look around me and can determine acute values, but when it comes to color, sometimes I have no clue what to think.  My palette is my way of figuring out what color something is.  I match the value and analyze colors as best as I can.   So then this analysis also influences who I like in terms of painters.  And at the top of the list is William -Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905).  I have been fortunate enough to study him in depth at many academic locations, and it all reinforces my artistic "crush" that I have on him.
       Do I want to be Bouguereau?  Of course not, I want to interpret my own vision and try as hard as I can to surpass him.  But I want to be a supreme technician like him and learn as much as I can from him.  I idolize his work, color harmony and surface because they result of pure love and careful attention.  He really wanted the viewer to analyze his paintings.  There are no mistakes in his work, which teaches me lessons every time I study one of his pieces.  If he put a leaf in a certain position, it was for a reason.  This has made me very critical of my own work and how much preparation is needed to create a well crafted painting.  
        In the end, nothing dissuades me from trying to learn as much as I can to influence my own work.  I encourage everyone to have a hero and to stalwartly defend them.  I will continue to study all time periods of art in order to effectively communicate why I love what I love and why I hate what I hate.  
        

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