Helen Frankenthaler

I encountered Frankenthaler during watching Painter's Painting documentary posted on Mediamatrix. What attracted me to her painting, was not only that she used different forms of material and context for her paintings including oils and charcoals which would not typically be used together, but also that she had her own distinct style within abstract expressionism. She was able to gather inspiration from the likes of Jackson Pollock, whose paintings were borderline erratic, and make the abstract a bit softer and thus more approachable to a wider audience. Additionally, I though that it was interesting that she preferred to do her work alone and rarely used assistants. Whenever I do any art, I want to perform it in some kind of context, whether with the window open, outside, or with music or TV in the background. However, I also prefer to do things alone. I believe that art has the potential to be great when combined efforts and creative abilities are in place, but sometimes that creative energy can be hard to develop when there is another person involved in virtually every part of the creative process.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/arts/helen-frankenthaler-abstract-painter-dies-at-83.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFjX2Nbf-HM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Frankenthaler