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These are the major artists and artifacts that influenced this work:
No art comes from a vacuum. Everyone draws on the work and inspiration that has come before to create his or her own stamp. I believe it is important for artists to discuss where their art comes from. At the same time, I believe that as an individual I can create a unique combination of these influences and infuse it with my own particular vision.
I have had a fascination with columns and poles for many years. I designed a garden with long stone pieces that I placed at intervals around the flower bed of my back yard in Durham, North Carolina. Columns are both rooted in the earth, strong and sturdy, and reaching to the sky.
Columns have been used for thousands of years for both practical and spiritual purposes. Greek columns supported the roof but also created a sense of majesty and awe; the most famous example is the Parthenon in Athens. The great hall at Karnak in ancient Egypt had numerous columns covered in hieroglyphics. These are still the largest columns ever made (3.5 meters) to this day. My close friend, Bruce Chapin, made a detailed model of this hall for a school project in 7th grade. It has always stuck in my mind.
Stonehenge is another ancient ceremonial site composed of large upright stone slabs. I visited the site in England in the late 1960s. In Stanely Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" from the novel by Arthur C. Clarke, the monolith is the pivotal discovery both for the primitive humans and the astronauts on the moon.
If I had to pick one artist with the greatest single influence on this work, I would pick Brancusi. I have always appreciated Brancusi's visionary idea of an endless column, an almost conceptual sculpture before the idea of "conceptual" was in use. I saw his preserved studio in Paris. Brancusi's soaring simple forms, often drawn from peasant art, are very powerful.
The organic flowing forms on these digital columns come from various influences as well. The designs and calligraphy type images on my columns are from natural and manmade forms that were photographed, enlarged, and then abstracted. I did not paint or apply a digital brush anywhere nor did I work on any one section. I applied computer processes to the entire image as a whole. I used traditional photographic techniques (in software form) since I have a photographic background.
Another major influence is the superb painter Wols who is not well known in the USA. Here are quotes from two of his poems: