Seeing Art in Art

"Just Shopping" Raul Esparza, Mixed Media on Bristol 9x12, 2009

"The Supermarket Lady" Duane Hanson, Sculpture, 1969

I was at the library recently to study more about artists'
techniques used in the early 19th century art and the beginning of the 20th century art.
To improve my technique but mostly to get inspiration.
But there was one particular sculpture that got my attention.
It was Duane Hanson's "The Supermarket Lady,"
it reminded me a lot of pop art because that's what I spent
most of my time in. But it just shows how simple it is but how it can say so much.
I wanted to create something similar but not the same as the sculpture.
Capture what the sculpture is trying to say but translate it
on paper using markers, crayons and color pencils.
So simple yet difficult to create.
I noticed that the sculptures' cart had groceries with their labels intact.
What if to this lady they didn't have labels? What if she's been going to
this market her whole life since her mother first took her.
And that these brand name foods over the years have become nothing but boxes of color.
It has become more than a routine that she could go in blindfolded
and still pick the same groceries.
It is a tragedy to see her like this because she has become
predictable and life is just another word.
There is no meaning, no excitement, no love.
That's how I see it and the artwork above is my translation.

To tell you the truth I never was into sculptures,
I found them quite boring but I've been really into them as of late.
But to say which sculpture got me liking this medium, I cannot say.
It definitely has my attention, that hopefully soon I can start creating
art by using my hands not by pencil, pen or brush. Like I say it's
important for an artist to expand their talent and get out their comfort zone.
To truly appreciate art at it's finest.