The Pulse: go to the head of the class

IF I COULD TAKE A CLASS FROM ONE ARTIST FROM ANYTIME IN HISTORY, INCLUDING TODAY, IT WOULD BE...

Ooh! I'd definitely go back in time. Choosing one artist would be very hard though. Maybe Charles Mackintosh since he was an architect and an artist (like me) and I really like his style. Or maybe William Morris, because he had such a vision for the arts movement he was part of and I love his patterns and colors. Or Fornasetti would be fun. His use of black and white imagery would be right up my alley too.
Michelle Ward

Maggie Taylor. I would love to learn more digital skills
Patty Van Dorin

Picasso - spending my days with a paintbrush in one hand and making love to beautiful people - oh yeah!
Teresa

Charley Harper
Andrew Borloz

The French photographer Sarah Moon. Her work is absolutely gorgeous and I'm curious about her techniques for creating a final print.
Susanna Gordon

Richard Diebenkorn
Karen Jacobs

Vincent Van Gogh, although I don't know if he'd be a willing teacher. I'd be happy with observing him paint from across the room.
Barbara Kleinhans

Dorothea Lange, photographer
Ali Edwards

Mark Twain. I consider him a brilliant artist, but I'd rather have dinner with him and then sit around for a few hours chatting some more, while we drink brandy and he smokes those cigars. That would give me enough creative energy to last a lifetime!!!...class - schmass
Lisa Hoffman

Robert Rauschenberg
Linda Woods

Sorry, I can't just pick one, I'll have to make my own rules and choose two, Michael deMeng would be up there as would Keith Lo Bue
azirca

James Michael Starr
Judy Wilkenfeld

Cy Twombly. And that's probably because earlier today, while finishing a stay in Houston, I revisited one of my temples, the Cy Twombly Pavilion at the Menil Collection. The Menil itself is in my opinion, square-foot for square-foot one of the most inspiring art museums I've ever been in. I had a long conversation with one of the employees I know there, a docent who has worked there for nine years, much of it in the Twombly building. She has met Twombly and says he is a wonderful and gentle man. At his age, which I think is 78, he would have much to teach about making it as an artist in this era, and about giving proper credence to our inner voice. She told me the story of how his long-time dealer, Leo Castelli, cancelled a show of Twombly's in the late '50s that was to include some of those recently completed white paintings, telling the artist that he had no idea what he was doing. She said that decades later, after they'd been installed in that magnificent building in Houston, Castelli sat on a bench in the room with them and shook his head, though she didn't know if it was because he still felt the same about them, or if he realized he'd been wrong. Ask me the same question next week and it will surely be somebody else.
James Michael Starr

Michelle Ward; i love her deep vision.
Stephanie McAtee

Joseph Cornell. My only knowledge of Joseph Cornell had previously been through the many books published about him. It was not until I went with Lynne Perrella to see the Cornell exhibit at the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, that I was able to truly appreciate his genius. As good as some photography can be, there is no way to capture in print, the beauty and magic of seeing his work up close. Although he also worked with collage, it was his assemblage boxes that were the most captivating. In the dimly lit rooms of the museum, with lights focused on these masterfully crafted assemblage boxes, my initial thought was how visionary and fearless Cornell truly was. He created (what is now) timeless compositions, using unusually simple components such as paper, sand, twigs, mirrors, and old toys, in a style that was completely unique and foreign to the art community at that time. Beautifully sparse in its simplicity, his design concept was curiously engaging. As I observed the entire collection, I became profoundly aware of a tenderness in his art that I had not been able to see from looking at photographs in books. Each piece had a story to tell. One could easily imagine him carefully studying, and placing the perfect component that would complete a rare and individually targeted work of art. If I had a time machine, to be able to study with Joseph Cornell would be an indescribable pleasure!
Lisa Renner

Gil Elvgren
Jenny Archibald

Georgia O'Keefe. How wonderful would it be to go out on site with her in New Mexico.
Bridgette Guerzon Mills

Albrecht Durer
Gillian McMurray

Michelangelo...maybe a sketch class...and then I would go and watch him paint the Sistine Chapel for a few days.
Angela Cartwright

Gustav Klimt
Maralena Howard

If I could take a class from one artist from anytime in history, including today, it would be Mary Blair.
Sarah Fishburn

Mark Rothko
David Castle

If I could take a class from one artist from anytime in history, including today, it would be...ok not picasso, he didn't treat women well, not andy, just too weird, it's a toss up between van gogh and michelangelo, although i cried when i saw monet's waterlilies at MoMa, but I cried when I saw David in Florence...could we change the question to which 10 artists? If not, then I can't play, i guess ....waaaaa.
Trudi Sissons

Henrik Drescher
Teesha Moore

heh. I seem to be having a really hard time selecting "just one" but because I *will* be attending one of his classes and the entire reason I decided to make the trek cross-country, I'll say Michael deMeng. His assemblage works move from piecemeal objects to solidified unity and I want to absorb how he does that.
Jen Worden

today, it would be...Hugo Delevante
Marie Otero

there are soooooo many but Susan Lenart Kazmer just has the edge, followed by Van Gogh, Klimt, Kandinsky, the list goes on
Ro Bruhn

Egon Schiele
Jessica Gonacha

At this moment I would say, Mary Bogdan. Have you seen what she does with other artist’s thrown-away paintings?
Roben-Marie Smith

Louise Bourgeois
not mass produced

It is hard to narrow this one down but I would love to be in a huge studio next to Nathan Oliveira. His work is beautiful and his depth is so honest and true to me. His work makes my heart beat faster.
CW Slade

Irving Penn
Jen Renninger

Inez Storer and Marcia Meyers. Please don't make me pick just one!! (I'm a Pisces - we take two of everything!) I love everything about Inez's paintings and Marcia - well, I just want to know how in the world she gets those incredible fresco effects with polymer. Her paintings are mesmerizing.
Judy Wise

Wolf Kahn, his colors are amazing.
Roxanne Evans Stout

The Japanese photographer Masao Yamamoto for his incredible eye, his amazing photographs, and the techniques he uses to paint, alter, and distress them.
Seth

FOR LINKS TO THE SITES OF THE PARTICIPATING ARTISTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE.