Is there an artist who changed your life?

[JitterbugPerfume]

I think I can honestly say that Kurt Vonnegut and Bob Dylan had the power to change my life . Who could listen to "With God on your side" or read Slaughterhouse Five and not be forever changed?

[truebrit71]

1. Jean-Michel Jarre

..his music never, ever gets old..

[JitterbugPerfume]

7. Jean Michel Jarre

I looked for him on you tube and Oxygene is beautiful. Thanks

[truebrit71]

25. You bet...check out his other stuff too...he has done some huge outdoor concerts in the past..

..and is on a world tour that he says will include the US for the first time since his concert in Houston in the 1980's...

I have listened to his music for 30 years, but never seen him perform live...I hope to rectify that this year..

[JitterbugPerfume]

29. thanks

he is a real gift, and I will listen to more of his music

[Jmaxfie1]

139. Haven't hear of him, What is a good albulm to get to try him out? n/t

Basically what is the most accessible one to start out on?

[Jmaxfie1]

140. woops, posted in wrong place, self deleted n/t

[truebrit71]

160. His first one is the simplest one to start out with Oxygene. My personal faves are the recordings...

..of his concerts, 'Jean-Michel Jarre in Concert: Houston-Lyon' is excellent, although his later concert recordings including Hong Kong show how his sound has progressed over the years.

Start off with Oxygene and work forward from there..and you will hear as an artist progresses, learns and improves...

Enjoy!

[RoccoR5955]

2. Mostly bovine fecal artists, but I can name two

Pete Seeger, and Harlan Ellison

[Horse with no Name]

3. Justin Bieber.

:rofl:

[DJ13]

9. Justin Bieber.

:spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank:
:spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank:

[JitterbugPerfume]

12. he is life changing alright!!

[Drale]

4. J.R.R Tolkien has inspired me and countless others more than any other artist.

I really love the fact that he stuck to bascily one universe, expanding and shaping it into what we know as Middle Earth.

[roguevalley]

84. me too. also, s.e.hinton with her books.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Joseph Heller, Joan Baez, Leo Tolstoy, to name a few.

[The Straight Story]

6. Yeah, and she charged by the hour and I had to pay for the room

:rofl:

[JitterbugPerfume]

13. that will change your life alright

[Ken Burch]

96. Did this happen in "Late December, back in '63", by any chance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDxhugRKZ8g

[drokhole]

8. Robert Anton Wilson.

"Prometheus Rising," "Quantum Psychology," and his "Cosmic Trigger" series are vastly comprehensive, and lead to profound insight and introspection (it doesn't hurt that he's funny as hell, either).

Also, one book that kind of "wove" it all (i.e. life) together for me was "A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe" by Michael S Schneider:

http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Constructing-Universe-Mathematical/dp/0060926716

Great topic, love Vonnegut and Dylan, as well.

Edit: Would just like to add Joseph Campbell and Orson Welles to that list (which I could expand on almost infinitely, but I'll leave it at that...and Terence McKenna...okay, that's it).

[JitterbugPerfume]

15. our beloved Kef

introduced me to Robert Anton Wilson . He left a hole in DU that no one has been able to fill.

[Warren DeMontague]

30. Yep.

If you haven't checked out the DVD for "Maybe Logic", you should. Some parting wisdom from ol' Bob.

http://www.maybelogic.com/

[slackmaster]

10. M. C. Escher blew my mind

Several times.

[JitterbugPerfume]

16. mine too!

[FSogol]

11. Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, Groucho Marx, Frank Capra, Joey Ramone, Joe Strummer,

Bob and Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jim Carroll, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rene Daumal come to mind.

[KansDem]

14. Gerry Mulligan

His lyricism sparked me to seek mellifluous balance.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JUbwVz1TTJM/S7vNBt7qJGI/AAAAAAAADIs/vo47N525fHU/s1600/Gerry+Mulligan.jpg

[JitterbugPerfume]

22. Good choice

there is something compelling about the sound of a sax well played. Ir always reminds me of a thing you can not fully posses ---- it draws you in

[OwnedByFerrets]

17. Dali was a great influence on my work. Change my life, No.

[JitterbugPerfume]

23. I can't wait

to visit the new Dali museum in St Pete Fla . I visited the old one severzal times and it was an awesome experience.

[OwnedByFerrets]

151. Yes, it really was. I was like a young child on christmas morning while there.

I didnt know they were building a new one. I will have to put it on my bucket list.

[GodlessBiker]

18. Matisse and Stravinsky.

[Shandris]

19. I'm sure there are many...but I tend to have blank spots in names until...

...their contribution is immediately important. But two that come to mind (probably because of the current situations) are White Lion and Mike and the Mechanics.

Also, the great George Carlin and Stephen King.

[NNN0LHI]

20. Yes. Listening to four of them right now. Here listen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0UcQDUR-fU&feature=related

[JitterbugPerfume]

26. such a tragic life for Mama Cass.

her voice was just beautiful. I remember I cried when I read of her death.

[NNN0LHI]

38. She was the brains of the operation too

She was in the process of negotiating television and recording contracts on her own. She was going places. Tragic.

Don

[TuxedoKat]

21. Herman Melville

After reading Moby Dick, I knew how to really read for meaning, at least for me. It was a Helen Keller, recognizing water as a word kind of moment.

[Codeine]

24. Morrissey. nt

[madamesilverspurs]

27. There are many!

But the first of them -- I never knew his name. Saw him work when I was ten and was utterly intrigued. He was a glassblower, and my fascination remained until I was in a time and place to learn the art. I learned to think forward and backward and inside-out, planning for the play of light through the finished piece. It shaped my life for thirty years, until health problems required that I retire from it. And a couple of months ago, my Christmas present from my nephew was a tour of the Museum of Glass in Tacoma WA. Wow.


-

[blaze]

117. I think I love your nephew!!

What a sweet gift!

[upi402]

28. Khalil Gibran, Isaac Asimov

Stevy Ray Vaughn, Billy Cobham

But poets and painters, not so much.

[JitterbugPerfume]

34. Stevie Ray Vaughn

absolutely blew my mind . How sad that we lost him to soon.

[JitterbugPerfume]

36. Stevie Ray Vaughn

absolutely blew my mind.

twice it looks like LOL

[blaze]

118. Sand and Foam!

I've had this book on my shelf for years!

Just pulled it out and took a random quote:

"The difference between the richest man and the poorest is but a day of hunger and an hour of thirst."

For a twelve year old, this book was an eye opener.

[TBF]

31. Margaret Atwood and Emma Goldman would be the top two. nt

[JitterbugPerfume]

37. Margaret Atwood is a force of nature!

[TBF]

43. A really amazing woman - the Handmaid's Tale is one of the best books I've ever read. nt

[AmandaMae]

123. Margaret Atwood is great

I recently read the Handmaid's Tale and The Year of the Flood and loved them

[guitar man]

32. The Band

"Music From Big Pink" and "The Band". As a teenager learning to play guitar, those two albums stood me on my head, spun me around and forced me to think about music in ways I'd never imagined.:)

[callous taoboy]

170. Excellent.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Jerry Garcia. Robert Anton Wilson. Michael Stipe. Salvador Dali. Ken Kesey. Hunter S. Thompson.

To name just a few.

[Earth_First]

54. +1 n/t

[MurrayDelph]

35. With great power comes great responsibility

Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster

along with Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, and Max and Dave Fleischer

(edit: forgot the animators the first time).

[HughBeaumont]

39. There are several that come to mind.

Leonardo, Escher, Mike Oldfield, Husker Du, Run-DMC, Isaac Hayes, etc.

But I'd have to say that the one who really opened up my third eye and rethink the way art can be depicted was Jan Van Eyck -




The dimensions, colors, shadows and light, facial expressions and ornate detail were so far ahead of his time, you swear it's almost photographic in capture.

" An indication that Van Eyck's art and person were held in extraordinarily high regard is a document from 1435 in which the Duke scolded his treasurers for not paying the painter his salary, arguing that Van Eyck would leave and that he would nowhere be able to find his equal in his "art and science."

[JitterbugPerfume]

40. Douglas Adams

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ,and Alan Ginsbergs' Howl. Jack Kerouacs' On the Road

[ProfessionalLeftist]

41. Yes. But I'll keep it to myself. n/t

[fatbuckel]

42. Frank Zappa

[Initech]

48. Ditto, Broadway The Hard Way was a life-changing album.

It really opened my eyes as to how badly we're getting screwed by the Xtian right it's not even funny.

[TroglodyteScholar]

128. Re-seconded. Also Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Richard D. James (Aphex Twin)...

...and a couple of more obscure electronic musicians Ilkae, o9, Lackluster (a bit less obscure)....

[Contrary1]

44. Can't let this thread pass by without mention of Rod McKuen.

Much of his poetry can still bring a tear to my eye after over four decades.

[tridim]

45. Jimi Hendrix.

[JitterbugPerfume]

50. once you hear The Star Spangled Banner

played by Hendrix , you can never be the same again.

[Warren DeMontague]

61. I think that should be the official version.

Seri-fucking-ously.

[tridim]

68. That and..

Hear My Train Comin' from the Blues Album..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y2_aDVWfJc

Keep in mind, this is a live song with no overdubs.

The solos do funny things to my brain. Anyone who tells me Jimi is overrated is forced to listen to this song.

[EFerrari]

46. Joan Didion and RC Gorman.

In short I tried to think. I failed. My attention veered inexorably back to the specific, to the tangible, to what was generally considered, by everyone I knew then and for that matter have known since, the peripheral. I would try to contemplate the Hegelian dialectic and would find myself concentrating instead on a flowering pear tree outside my window and the particular way the petals fell on my floor. I would try to read linguistic theory and would find myself wondering instead if the lights were on in the bevatron up the hill. When I say that I was wondering if the lights were on in the bevatron you might immediately suspect, if you deal in ideas at all, that I was registering the bevatron as a political symbol, thinking in shorthand about the military-industrial complex and its role in the university community, but you would be wrong. I was only wondering if the lights were on in the bevatron, and how they looked. A physical fact.

-- Why I write, (1976)




Spider Woman

[JitterbugPerfume]

105. Spider Woman is

beautiful

[EFerrari]

106. That figure helped me see everything that came before

and everything that comes after. It also got me down on the kitchen floor doing contortions trying to figure out how to draw bodies. lol

[GoCubsGo]

116. I really like RC Gorman's works, too.

My favorite work of his is "Night Stories".




I'm most partial to his most recent works, with all of the bold colors. I'm sorry he's gone.

[EFerrari]

172. That's amazing.

I still like all those huge women with huge hands and feet. When I first saw Gorman, it was on a bargain table at Costco and he literally stopped me in my tracks. I eventually wound up with the Bay Area figuralists, by way of Veloy Vigil, then Diebenkorn,


Berkeley


which isn't the direction Gorman went in but I still love those women, they all look like planets to me.


Seated woman

[old mark]

47. K&R- Les Paul. My uncle and grandfather had some of his records

and I first heard his music when I was about 5 years old. I have loved electric guitar music of all kinds ever since, and played guitar for almost 50 years (I expect I will get better soon, when I get enough practice.)
I have played professionally starting at age 15 for almost 25 years, and still have thoughts of doing it again sometime. Les played every week at the Irridium Club in NYC till a few weeks before his death at age 94, in August of 2009.
He was a great musician and songwriter and held many patents on inventions that are now commonplace in music and sound recording.
Many people say he was an inventive genius.
He dropped out of high school to play guitar using the name Red Hot Red.

mark

[JitterbugPerfume]

56. Hi Mark!

I remember seeing Les Paul and Mary Ford on TV , it must have been in the 1950s or 60s. I think the people who call him a genius are absolutely right.It seems like I can close my eyes and hear those sounds again.

I'm getting old

[old mark]

73. Maybe this show?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iGXP_UBog4


They had a 15 minute TV show in the late 1950's. Les is pretty good, even with that string around his finger...

Not old, just experienced.

mark

[JitterbugPerfume]

104. yes! that is it !

thanks for the memory.:yourock:

[CTyankee]

72. I remember hearing "Dear one, the world is waiting for the sunrise" when I was a kid.

I kinda liked it...

[old mark]

74. Please see "Maybe this show?" above...you might like it again....nt

[CTyankee]

78. Thanks, that was a walk down memory lane!

How High the Moon was another one I used to hear. Funny how I can remember those chords he played all these years later...

[old mark]

92. I find a lot of clips of Les on Youtube-he had a heart attack years ago, and

was depressed...his doctor suggested he start playing live again, and he did-for many years, till a few weeks before his death at 94. There are a lot of rockers who played onstage with him and treasured it and he seemed to be well liked by everyone who knew him.

mark

[CTyankee]

115. Well, he made the right decision. Bless his heart for doing that...

at his age it really kept him going...it's great and he had great guitar talent, IMO.

[kpete]

49. Wassily Kandinsky

"Each period of a civilization creates an art that is specific in it and which we will never see reborn. To try and revive the principles of art of past centuries can lead only to the production of stillborn works."

[Jmaxfie1]

136. I love his stuff!!! n/t

[GoCubsGo]

51. No.

There are a lot of artists whose works I have enjoyed, but as for any of them changing my life in any way, nope.

[CTyankee]

52. Emily Dickinson has and does change my life as I often revisit her works.

Visual artists continually change my life.

My trip to northern Spain to visit museums there was a life changer for me. From the Prado to the Reina Sofia (Guernica is there) to Bilbao (the Guggenheim and the whole sity really) to Barcelona (Gaudi, Picasso and Robert Capa's photography of the Spanish Civil War), it was some trip...amazing..

[JitterbugPerfume]

58. I have museum envy!

[CTyankee]

70. Don't. I can be relentless in museums. The Prado damn near wore me out.

I think they say it's the largest museum in the world (altho the Louvre looks bigger to me). Velasquez, El Greco and Goya...an astonishing array.

The 5th floor of MoMA in NYC is the same for me: Picasso, Bracque, Matisse, Miro...amazing brilliance!

[LanternWaste]

53. Douglas Adams, C.S. Lewis, J.M. Straczynski, and Charles Schultz.

Douglas Adams, C.S. Lewis, J.M. Straczynski, and Charles Schultz.

(No particular order...)

[Earth_First]

55. The Grateful Dead, Hunter S. Thompson, Phish, Vonnegut...

et. al

[Robb]

57. Bob Ross. nt

[JitterbugPerfume]

64. Is Robb really

a dingbat?

[dreamnightwind]

59. Jerry Garcia

Many others, too, none come close to Garcia though, real change I will always believe in.

[gatorboy]

60. Norman Rockwell, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Lovecraft, Walter Simonson

And old school R.E.M.

[Ezlivin]

62. Harper Lee

"To Kill a Mockingbird" allowed me to "escape" from my racist upbringing by showing me the humanity in others.

I adopted Atticus Finch as my father and earnestly wished that my real father could have had the compassion and empathy Atticus embodied.

[GeorgeGist]

63. Jacques Cousteau, Carl Sagan, Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein.

If not for them, I might have become a bum hedge fund manager.

[RandomKoolzip]

65. The Minutemen, but especially D. Boon.

[blm]

76. mr blm agrees with you

.

[progressoid]

66. Rothko

[CTyankee]

71. Say more about Rothko. I have read about him but I fail to get to his brilliance.

I know Simon Schama devoted a large chapter of his book "The Power of Art" to Rothko...I should go back and watch that segment of the PBS show on that.

He was so tormented and killed himself so brutally...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

79. I don't get Rothko either.

All I could think of after I went to the Rothko chapel and saw all those depressing purple paintings was, "No wonder the guy killed himself!"

Depressing place, although many folks swear it's uplifting and positive. :shrug:

[CTyankee]

87. I really want to understand him, tho.

I have the deepest respect for artists. I think they see and express what I cannot always see and could never express the way they do. They are a path to conscious living, IMO.

If you are interested there is an essay called "Cezanne's Doubt" (trying to remember the author... which I found on Google). It is about how Cezanne was similarly tormented in his life. Really interesting and revealing...

[progressoid]

149. That's kind of difficult.

I think Simon and others can give you a better academic description about him and his art.

It's hard to describe how something so apparently simple could be so complex and engaging. For me, the first time I saw one of his large works in person, it was an intense (spiritual?) experience. It was the first time I had such an experience with a painting. Maybe it was just was just the right painting at the right time but I haven't had an experience like that since.

[CTyankee]

161. Which one? Is it at MoMA?

[progressoid]

164. Chicago Art Institute

They have a few in their collection but this one was part of a traveling exhibit a loooong time ago. I can't really say which one it was :eyes: other than it was next to a Louise Nevelson.

[CTyankee]

165. I sometimes wish I could just fly to Chicago to see the art there!

I might get there some day when I am travelling to Door County WI.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

67. Ted McGinley!

[tweeternik]

69. Can still remember hearing Dylan

for the first time ... about 45 years ago! Probably a combination of the times and Dylan's incredible ability to say what a lot of people were feeling during those times. A truly transformational artist!

[WCGreen]

75. Her name was Belle....

I close my eyes and, even after 40 years, a lifetime really, I can still see her, smell her, taste her as she lay next to me while the sheer netting that kept out the bugs but let the languid air surround us with the nectar of that Nashville afternoon...

She was an artist of some local renown, capturing the delicate shades of a hot summer days, the starkness of that harsh snow storm that whooshed in from the west and shook everyone and his brother all to pieces because of the rarity of such an event and the bursting yellows and vibrant greens that made the spring come alive...

She took time from her painting to initiate me into the ways of love...

I was young, she was, well, experienced...

I'll never forget those words she whispered in my ear as my aching heart pounded faster that ever...

WCGreen, you inspire me...

And then I woke up...

Seriously, it would have to be the Beatles, it has to be the Beatles and Jack Kirby because he made the comic books come alive for me.

[closeupready]

77. No, but there are artists who have improved my quality of life, through their works.

Not being pedantic, but honestly, I think I'm a bit of a philistine like that, lol. :D

Terry Pratchett, Rembrandt and Goya, Man Ray, Ernst Haas, even Madonna (less for her music and more for her lifestyle). I'll add others as they come to me.

[AsahinaKimi]

80. Michael Crichton got me to read more!

I loved his books!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

81. Jacqueline du Pre.

I was lucky enough to see her during her tragically brief concert career.

This is the Intermezzo from Goyescas, performed by Jackie at age 17:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbs2H_PvGpE


She was the most vibrant string soloist of the twentieth century.

The movie Hilary and Jackie is a well-done interpretation of her life and her rivalry with her sister.

[Ken Burch]

82. Musically, Phil Ochs and Billy Bragg.

Artistically, Diego Rivera



And Carlos Cortez(a woodcut artist and lifelong member of the IWW)

[JitterbugPerfume]

97. Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo

were bigger than life

[Ken Burch]

99. That's very, very true

[angel823]

83. oh yeah

Tom Robbins, Frida Kahlo, The Flaming Lips

[blogslut]

85. My Uncle

He was a sculptor. Everything he touched, he turned into art.

[hunter]

86. My mom & dad are artists.

I was born into a maelstrom of art. There may have been a time I could pick out individual artists within the currents and whitewater of my life, ah, but I was so much older then... I'm younger than that now.

Bob Ross is Picasso, Pierce Brosnan struggling with ABBA is Dylan.

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide No escape from reality...

;)

[tishaLA]

88. Henry James, Herman Melville, and Chuck D

Odd trio, I know. But true.

[abq e streeter]

89. 4 that immediately come to mind: Dylan, The Clash, Springsteen, The Doors

Many who inspired me, but truly changing my life....might have to include Sam Cooke, James Brown, and Eric Burdon too.

[BobbyBoring]

90. The Beatles

Made the first major change. Vonnegut,Bosch,Dali, and Picasso made me see how powerful the mind really is~

[Mojeoux]

144. Oh Yeah, yeah, yeah! John, Paul, George and Ringo

And all science fiction, and Rivera's murals.

I was such a GEEK for the Beatles,I would skip school and take the bus to the store with the biggest Beatles Display in Detroit, records, mags, dolls, wigs, etc.

Then I would just hang out there and ......represent!

"No John's the married one." "Yes this is the first album, but this was the first hit single." "Ringo's the drummer." and so on.


For me, when the Beatles hit, I was a changed child.

[RagAss]

91. There is a brilliant man who changed my life.....

Wei Wu Wei - born Terence Gray

http://www.weiwuwei.8k.com/

[Snoutport]

93. A Cry For Help!

I registered as a member today just so I could respond to this post!

As I stood in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam looking at the painting of the crows over the wheat field (van gogh's last painting before he killed himself) I was overwhelmed by what an obvious cry for help it was. The peaceful sky turned into shards of light and dark, the twisted wheat like knives...and the dark black slashes that were the crows.

It moved me to see his emotions from that moment frozen on the canvas. His cry for help there for us to look at and try to understand. Years later when I became a teacher I remembered how art could be an expression of emotion and a way to get it out and off your chest. I give my students lots of opportunities now to express themselves through art.

Oddly enough though...my favorite painting in that museum is upstairs... a tiny little painting of a pot of chives. It was so sunny and bright and it gave me some peace to know that sometimes the artist was full of light and was expressing that as well.

cheers jitterbugPerfume...you just turned me into a speaking member of the democratic underground!

[JitterbugPerfume]

98. welcome!

A Starry Night is my screen saver. I hope to see much more of you.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

100. Welcome to DU, Snoutport!

And what a beautiful first post you have written...

I hope you'll post regularly and become familiar with our big, noisy, contentious family...

I've been here 6 years and there are many who are close friends of mine because of my being here.

I hope the same will be true for you!

:hi:

[JitterbugPerfume]

102. Hi Peggy!

as our resident poet ,who inspired you?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

103. My dear JitterbugPerfume...

It's a mystery...

;)

[handmade34]

156. Van Gogh opened my eyes (and heart)

to many things...

it was an art teacher when I was very, very young that made us listen to Camille Saint-Saens, Danse Macabre,that really introduced the beauty of music to me... your students are blessed

[begin_within]

94. Beethoven, the Beatles, Jack Kerouac, Walt Disney, Ken Kesey, Charo

Just kidding about Charo!

[JitterbugPerfume]

101. she was something else, wasn't she

:rofl:

[begin_within]

119. Coochie coochie!

She's still around: http://www.charo.com/index2.html

[JitterbugPerfume]

120. is her coochie coochie broken?

:shrug:

[Blue-Jay]

95. Mark Twain & Issac Asimov

and yeah, Vonnegut too.

[BOG PERSON]

107. since i am a tremendous douchebag

i am going to go ahead and say the work of BERTOLT BRECHT was a singular influence on my life. which i spend by either posting here or masturbating to pornography.

[BOG PERSON]

109. also: NIETZSCHE + ORWELL

[Manifestor_of_Light]

173. Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht - Mackie Messer, Bryn Terfel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GtPFGEV2FY

[blondeatlast]

108. Harper Lee and Paul Revere (of Paul Revere and the Raiders).

I was a very, very wee one but I absolutely LOVED "Kicks" and "Good Thing" when I heard them on my much older teen sister's radio. Made me love rock 'n roll and the prenatal stirrings of punk as a tykester.

I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" ate age 11 and the world was never the same afterwards.

[martymar64]

110. Vincent Van Gogh

[WinkyDink]

111. Whoever wrote the "A Child's History of the World" version that I read in 1957.

[WinkyDink]

112. Tid-bit: I knew the friend of KV who is in the novel.

[JitterbugPerfume]

121. that is really cool!

[WinkyDink]

146. Actually, three houses away. Apparently, KV used to visit, but quite unknown to the neighbors!

[elias49]

113. Carlos Castaneda nt

[BOG PERSON]

114. WAGNER

}( :evilgrin: :party:

[JitterbugPerfume]

124. Parsifal

is a favorite . I love watching it around Easter.I recorded it long ago from PBS.

[Jmaxfie1]

137. I know, he brings you into a whole diffrent world.

[ThirdEye]

122. Bill Hicks and George Carlin

and numerous musicians of the Pink Floyd, Sick of it All and Tool variety.

They had a huge impact during my punk years. They demonstrated by example. They helped me realize that being a geek is the best way to live life. It's just a matter of finding out what kind geek you want to be. :D

[JitterbugPerfume]

126. I checked out Bill Hicks after his death

he was pretty cool . I wonder what he would be saying now.

[cbdo2007]

125. Bob Dylan

He's completely underestimated, even here at DU.

I didn't discover Bob until I was about 26 years old and I felt like everything I knew about music previously to that was all wasted time.

[JitterbugPerfume]

127. I agree

I think (hope) that someday his poetry will be more appreciated

[DutchLiberal]

148. Same here.

"I didn't discover Bob until I was about 26 years old and I felt like everything I knew about music previously to that was all wasted time."

I was 24, although I was familiar with his hits (Like A Rolling Stone, Lay Lady Lay, Hurricane), but I feel the exact same way.

[calimary]

129. Michael Gossard

My son.

He started out as a baby. Soon began manifesting a rather extraordinary voice, and first grabbed a guitar when he was three. Now he's an up-n-coming rock star who just won the 18th Billboard Song Contest award for the Alternative Rock category (for the following song:)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkN_WKgTMyc&feature=related

He changed my life quite literally.

I started out as his then-working news anchor/reporter mom. Gave up the career to do mom'ing full time when his sister was about five and he was two. Wound up being his band manager.

www.acidicband.com




I've been influenced by lots of artists:

John Lennon - just because.
Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, and the rest of the "Murderers' Row" of the Renaissance. No explanation needed.
Jackson Pollack - wow, somebody was a hit doing the kind of process painting I love! Art as ridiculously guilty pleasure.
Hilary Knight - cartoonist-illustrator - all the "Eloise" books. Learned TONS about drawing by studying his style.
Leigh Adams - past president of the California Gourd Society and glass artist extraordinaire! She's led me toward dichroic glass, gourd arts, polymer clay, mosaic, and all kinds of stuff! http://LAGlassArt.com
M.C. Escher - just because.

I know there are others that escape my brain at the moment, but those are the ones that come to mind straight off the bat.

[BlueIris]

130. Tori Amos, Jean Hegland, Sharon Olds, Marie Howe and Margaret Atwood.

Though I'd use "saved" instead of "changed" there.

[WiffenPoof]

131. Ian Anderson n/t

[snooper2]

132. 2-Pac

enough said...

[BOG PERSON]

134. 2-pac was alright

in his last days, he was sober, reading Mao and talking about uniting the Black nation. it's a shame we'll never know what could have developed from that.

[csziggy]

133. Isaac Asimov with his incurable addiction to writing and insatiable search for knowledge

I started out reading his science fiction then I read every non-fiction book our little public library had. He personified the ability of a person to learn something about any subject - and write about it.

Many here are probably not familiar with his non-fiction work because much of it is now badly out of date, but he did in print for science what Carl Saga did on TV. They both informed the public and made it enjoyable.

[coalition_unwilling]

135. Shameless self-promotion, but my wife is a visual artist and she

has changed my life (mostly for the better :)

You can see some of her work at http://www.almasartasylum.com.

She has taught me to look at the world through an artist's eyes and see the world around me in a different way than I would have without her.

[BOHICA12]

138. Daniel V Gallery - Capt'n Fatso

[Jmaxfie1]

141. Slayer! as far as music goes.

I remember the first time I heard them, I was like, I didn't know music could sound like that!

[Jmaxfie1]

142. Love, both!

As far as books, it wasn't a single author, but a book on existentialism that had excerpts from a bunch of people.

[FourScore]

143. My sister. n/t

[WillyT]

145. Yes... But I Cannot Say His Name...

A little help here!?!?!

:shrug:

[DutchLiberal]

147. Bob Dylan.

Only a year or two ago that I really delved into his work and I believe it has influenced me in a way no other artist ever has.

[flvegan]

150. Y'all are gonna laugh.

Beastie Boys, or more specifically, Adam MCA Yauch.

In the 90's as they seemed to grow up, Yauch started injecting some of his newfound buddhism into their music and the other guys seemed to absorb it as well. Really opened my mind up. Made me start thinking more, reading more, embracing the philosophy of it (if you will). Like a 90 degree turn in my life.

And now I'm the annoying little shit you all know and love/hate today.

[OwnedByFerrets]

153. Nice post.

[Throd]

152. Goya

[Melissa G]

154. Georgia O'Keefe

Generally, I prefer sculpture, but the first time I saw an O'Keefe painting was at an art museum in Houston. It was very lucky that there was a bench in the middle of the room a foot from me. The experience of the painting knocked the breath out of me and almost knocked me off my feet. I managed to land on the bench and literally could not move for several minutes. It changed my experience of both life and art.

I also like reading mystical poets. http://www.poetseers.org/lin/alphabetical_index_of_poets/
My father read me poetry as a child as far back as I can remember. I found Lao Tsu and dived into a steady diet of mystics from my preteen years into the present. The last 5 years have had a heavy influx of Sikh scripture which has a lot of mystic prose.

I'm addicted to reading anyway. DU and 3-4 books a week. ;)

edit to add I also found the context of the relationships/art that O'Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz had as well as Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett had pretty formative to my life experience since my life has me married to an artist, living in an artistic context. Their ways of being, interaction and expressions always inspired me.

[Lyric]

155. It's gonna sound stupid, but Pat Conroy was one for me.

I know he's not considered "real" literature by many people, and my fellow English majors will probably laugh at me for it. But when I was 14, lonely, and dealing with some very adult, stressful, tragic problems, "The Prince of Tides" was EXACTLY what I needed to read. Savannah Wingo taught me that poetry can save your life when you think you're losing yourself forever. I fell in love with Conroy's image-heavy prose, and although the poems he wrote in Savannah's voice seem sophomoric and trite to me now, back then it didn't matter what the quality of her poetry was. What mattered was that she wrote through the crazy, and that helped her LIVE through the crazy.

I did the same. And I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't read that book.

[Mopar151]

157. Can't count 'em all - but there are thousands (apologizing for omissions)

Authours not mentioned here yet: Spider Robinson, Robert Heinlien, Lois McMaster Bujold, Ian Fleming, Dick Berggren, Joyce Standridge


Car builders/ "metalmen": Ron Fournier, and his mentor, "Lugie" Lesofski, Maynard Troyer, John Butera, Frank Barthell, Gene Winfield, Jesse James, Frank Kurtis

Mechanics, racers, crafters : Dad & my uncles, Mom, Ernie Bodreau, Bill Rutan, Richie Evans

Musicians: Lynrd Skynrd, Neil Young, The Who, The Clash, Johnny Cash, The Band, The Guess Who. The Guthries, The Weavers


Thousands more, in all categories... When you live a life of creative ideas and thought, it's like being immersed in a stream of soulfulness.....

[uppityperson]

158. Mom. She wasn't famous, but she was an artist.

[Bluebear]

159. Joni Mitchell

[randr]

162. Way back when--Dylan landed on the top 10 with Positively 4th Street

The local AM radio station had a contest to see who could be the first to write down all the words and send them in. I actually think they intended it as a way to mock Dylan's iconic musical style. The result was that a number of teens, I being one of them, were changed forever once we listened to what Bob was saying.
To this day I consider Dylan one of the most important influences in my life and he continues to be so.

[Obamanaut]

163. no nt

[mod mom]

166. Mark Lombardi!

[stlsaxman]

167. Engelbert Humperdink... just his name changed my life.

as a child i had no idea who he was or what he did but- goddammit- i knew i wanted to be just like....
























his name!

[Imagevision]

168. Kiddin? -> E-L-V-I-S P-R-E-S-L-E-Y

[callous taoboy]

169. Beatles, then later it was Steely Dan

Beatles had a significant impact on me during my childhood. They still move me in ways I can't explain. Steely Dan shaped my world-view in adolescence.

[Imagevision]

171. John Lennon; "before Elvis there was no music"