Vitruvian Man Riff
Detail
Detail
Detail
This picture of Vitruvian Man Riff, is a digital image, I also have created a similar wall art picture, formed by printing out collage sections of the digital subject and collaging them on to board with a background of acrylic painting.
The face was inspired by Johnny Depp. I have shamelessly appropriated from Leonard da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, and adorned (or defaced, take your pick) the beautiful body with images from my original digitally painted image gallery. Da Vinci was inspired by De Archtectura, Book III, by the architect Vitruvius, which illustrates ideal body proportions.
I have mashed up a selection of my images (which were, mostly, reimagined from previous images by other artists) that interest me onto the perfectly proportioned body.
Post internet artists are mining classical art images and transforming, reimagining, them in creative ways. There is a banquet of inspiration in internet pictures. When artists transform previous images it is similar to Janis Joplin performing a riff on Kris Kristofferson's song Bobby McGee.
There is a long history of visual artists borrowing from history. (Nothing is created in a vacuum,) For example Gustave Courbet riffed on the Jean Ingres picture The Source. Ingres referenced an earlier picture The Aphrodite of Cnidus. Numerous artists, including myself, have reimagined The Source since Ingres.
According to Wikipedia Di Vinci's drawing illustrates perfect human proportions, these proportions correlate with classic geometry and architecture. In modern times the drawing has been appropriated frequently, has been used in logos and advertising, so, it is a familiar icon.
I am signing off now. Live long and prosper.
