Throughout his career in art and design, Gary Einloth has received tons of motivation and influence from a variety of well known artists.

These inspirational artists include Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Vincent Van Gogh. Below, Gary Einloth describes the career of Van Gogh and how he has been a great inspiration for him for many years.

The Artistic Inspiration that was Vincent Van Gogh

The world of art and culture has had many inspiring figures of skill, mastery, and creation. Many famous painters and workers of design that brought new dimensions to humanity’s perception of what art truly is, as well as what it could be. But is there a master whose work brought an entirely new level of artistic value and creation to the culture of our world? Could anyone be so gifted in the arts to hold a claim like that? Gary Einloth argues yes. There have been many, but among them is a name that stands out above the rest: Vincent Van Gogh.

What is not arguable about Vincent Van Gogh is that he is one of the most influential artistic figures in Western art, and for good reason. Throughout his artistic career, Van Gogh created more than three thousand works of art, more than most of us could ever hope to achieve. Yet his early works were hardly a stroke of artistic genius that would shake the world. Indeed, his early works were mostly still life paintings, and depictions of peasant laborers that brought nothing to the table in terms of artistic creativity.

It was not until his later years that he began to paint the masterpieces that become the groundwork for modern art as we know it. It was those later years in which he created work known for its bold and symbolic colors, but more importantly, its impulsive, dramatic, and extremely expressive brushwork. That was the beginning of modern art. The beginning of a new idea in art that allows Vincent Van Gogh to claim the mantle of inspirational figure. Gary Einloth was instantly amazed by his creative uses of color and intricate design and began to use these concepts in his own work with PiJ PoJ Design.

That wasn’t all he contributed to the visual arts, though. While he did not do it alone, the concept of attributing emotions to color was largely popularized by Van Gogh. These days, we look at our paintings and choose our colors in a way that compliments the emotions we want to evoke. Perhaps we use bright yellow to symbolize cheer, or electric orange for energy and enthusiasm. Perhaps we turn to dark blues and subdued purples for the sadder emotions in life, the darker ones we do not like to dwell on. This entire notion of color and emotion being attributes to one another was largely the work of Van Gogh, proving just how inspirational as an artist he really was.

Unfortunately, his success and contribution to art as a whole was never recognized in life. Van Gogh only ever sold one painting of the thousands he created, and he was believed a madman for the majority of his life. While such a fate for such an influential figure is truly lamentable, we can at least appreciate his contributions to the art we know and love today. Without Van Gogh, modern art as we know it would not exist, or it would at least not have existed quite so early, and for that Gary Einloth and other artists can posthumously thank Van Gogh for all he did as an inspiration to art around the world.

To learn more about Gary Einloth and his career in art and design, check out his profile on Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/gary-einloth.