Let me start off by saying that College, or any level of School lower than College is not Real Life. Real life consists of paying off a random assortment of bills, working an 8 hour day and coming home to work some more on your life. In college I enjoyed my time away from Real Life by exercising, reading, playing games, and visiting friends. Now I tend to my pets, find housework and yard work that has to be done, because I've put it off long enough already, realize I have to get up early because tomorrow's a work day and go to bed. That leaves little time for much else, let alone sitting down to work on art, or sketch out ideas for games or even play very many games.
On occasion I find a quiet moment to devote to working ideas and feelings and frustrations into a piece of art, and that is sometimes schedules into my evenings between checking my rabbits and changing a light bulb. In short, Real Life, though necessary at some point, sucks away free time like a vacuum abhors light. And this is the reason why I have no image to accompany this article which is ultimately about the cultural influence of different cultures form your own on your artwork.
The idea that cultural influence would be a good project for artexercise comes from the time when impressionism was becoming a big thing. When decadent art and Art Nouveau were coming around, and the imposition of Japanese culture entered into the scene in the form of packaging paper. As the facts of the case blur into obscurity as I try to remember the words of my professors and the text from my textbooks, European countries began to receive imports from Japan of various items. Keeping those items safe on the voyage was packing paper which happened to be scraps of paper from Japanese artists who produced a large amount of art.
As European artists started to catch wind of this fantastic addition into their art world they became influenced by the linework and ideas that were already present in the Japanese art. And the idea of cultural influence entered my mind. Thought I like the traditional Japanese art very much I started to look through different books to be influenced by different sources. Something that has always fascinated me is the artwork of the South and Central American cultures, like the Aztecs, Incas and Olmecs. To me there is a very distinct style and outlook on life presented in their squished square drawings and sculpture.
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