John Lennon

So of course everyone knows John Lennon. He's one of my favorite famous figures of all time, an essay I wrote about him in high school for a scholarship helped me get through my first year of school and all, but I never really sat down and looked at his art much. My mom has mentioned to me that my quick gestural works remind her of John Lennon. Really looking at his work, I can see it. 

here

My mom also mentioned how much my current stuff reminds her of Sgt. Pepper

Chaim Soutine

Speaking of distorted figures. A professor once suggested Chaim Soutine to me, because he though I painted figures like him. I checked his stuff out one day, really liked it, than totally forgot his name. I am really not all that interested in how centralized his figures our in the frame, but I of course love his figures, and the strange way he paints them. I really hated how controlled I had to be with life drawing, and wished I could have just drawn like this.

Daniel Richter

In my work I'm trying to get the figure down in one stroke, but I'm also just making faces out of whatever my hand initially marks to create distortion. There's a sense of first impression in the way he renders people, that creates this feeling of energy, of which I'm really into. There is also this anonymous feeling in each figure, something that I am trying to create in my own work. He's also creating a sense of crowd or population, that especially with the last piece I show of his, removes all sense of individual. The figures are of almost one identity, an element that I'm exploring in my works. He also makes me wonder how my pieces would be with more color

Mark Toby

I'm intrigued by the layers that Mark Toby creates. In my current studio work, I'm trying to figure out how to successfully pull off creating layers and layers. This is especially true in my larger pieces. Toby uses the layers to create intriguing depths that I would love to pull off.

"You're not ready for geometric shapes"

Horia has spoken.

Maybe it was better before my 10 minute destruction session, but I like it better now.

George Grosz

This guy's got doodiling down to an art, well I guess that's sort of a stupid statement to make.
Here's a quote that really sums up his work. His style and his content really intrigues me. I think, that my current series is something along the lines of George Grosz mixed with Brice Marden, or at least that's what i'm really striving for.
deeply disillusioned man, he saw humanity as essentially bestial and the city of Berlin as a sink of depravity and deprivation, its streets crowded with unprincipled profiteers, prostitutes, war-crippled dregs and a variety of perverts. A communist, his feeling of social outrage stimulated him to produce the most biting drawings and paintings. -Trewin Copplestone

Art and handwriting LEÓN FERRARI

So I realize my scribbles look a lot like writing, and that has lead to my transition and interest into more calligraphy like works.
Leon Ferrari creates wonderful abstract pieces that distort words and images that look like words into beautiful compositions. His works are politically charged, and deal with the subjects of power and religion, but I can't read french, so that isn't quite as important to me.