For the final project our class assignment was to choose a piece from the Brooklyn Museum as an inspiration for our piece. John Koch’s painting, The Sculptor, along with research is what was my chosen inspiration. 
After research, I came to the conclusion that this piece raises ideas of what it means to be an artist. Koch’s piece, The Sculptor, was his resolution after a series of studies he had done inspired by the mythology of Prometheus. According to greek legend, Prometheus defied Zeus and stole fire from Mt. Olympus to give to humankind. The punishment for his disobedience was that he was chained to a rock where daily a bird of prey tore at his liver. Finally, Hercules rescued him. Koch said,” This picture really originated in an old desire on my part to base a work on mythology and its possible significance…I have sculpted…from time to time and have always looked for a reasonable chance to do sculpture to get away from the easel on occasion…The myth of Prometheus began to sit in my mind, stir my mind and the increasing association of Prometheus with culture, because Prometheus is credited with being the first sculptor having modeled man himself…having created Man supposedly in clay. Its very theme is about the creation of life and, for me, the creation of art.”(Brooklyn Museum of Art Archives, record of the Department of Painting and Sculpture:Exhibitions, Listening to Pictures, 1968).
Behind every piece of artwork is the creative process an artist undergoes. Thinking, sketching, even sculpting, or creating studies is all a part of the messy creative process. My final project is a piece that features my creative mess with my own charcoal drawings, but displayed behind a translucent veil that obscures it from viewers.
