The Art of Russell Pierce

My mom was a pretty decent self-taught artist and she always encouraged my exploration with art. I would draw constantly and got to be pretty good by the time I was around 10. I could do fairly realistic drawings of cars with detailed shading as well as other things pre-pubescent boys were into. Being a fan of comics, I would use them as reference to hone my life drawing skills.

 

Then one day I saw the art of Roy Lichtenstein in an art book. A light went off in my head. This guy was taking something from pop culture, recreating it large on a canvas with big dots and all, hanging it on a wall and calling it art. The best part was people were paying a lot of money for it. My understanding of “Art” changed at that moment. Thus followed an exploration of modern artists. People like Claes Oldenburg who made an oversized soft drum set and all kinds of other gigantic everyday items. Check this link for more information on the pop art movement; http://www.theartstory.org/movement-pop-art.htm