The idea for this project started out as a way for me to study art and be involved with art history in some way. I thought about it for awhile and then the idea to recreate paintings came to me. It was a way to get back involved with analyzing art and would allow me to pay some kind of tribute to the artists that I so much idolized. When I was starting out on this project I wanted to just recreate the paintings as best as I could. I wasn't interested in adding my own touch on the works or putting myself into their shoes. As the research went along I realized that artist put a lot of though and process through their paintings. It wasn't as simple as picking up a brush and receiving a commission. Instead they poured their souls and being into the work and made it come alive to them. I attempted to do the same. As I took more and more pictures it stopped being about recreating the paintings, but rather using the originals as inspiration and then creating the photograph as how I interpreted the painting. I began to see myself as the artist, rather than mindlessly recreating what other great artists had already achieved.