I went to see the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit at the Legion of Honor. It was called Art Comes From Art. I had seen a few of his cake paintings at the de Young before. Those thick, happy slices with their shadows just right, and I remember being struck by his playfulness and ease.

I also knew his dramatic San Francisco street scenes. But that was about it. I didn’t know much else going in. What I did know was that something in his work speaks to where I want to go in my own art.

What surprised me most? How much Thiebaud copied, borrowed, reinterpreted. He was a real art historian. He knew who came before him and wasn’t shy about drawing from them. That changed how I think about originality. It gives me permission, not just to explore, but to copy. I have a whole library of artists that inspire me. I’ve always researched them, but now after seeing this exhibit I feel even more free to lean in and learn by doing.

One of the biggest takeaways? His work isn’t realism as many people think. It’s abstracted. That was validating for me. I’ve been exploring figurative abstraction myself, wanting to move away from strict representation, and this gave me a clear signal: keep going.

He also talked about empathy transfer. The idea that your feeling as the artist can be transferred to the viewer through the work. That’s something I hadn’t really thought about before.

Two paintings especially stuck with me: Office and Shopping Mall which echoes Mondrian’s grid-like abstractions, and Window Views, part of his city series that references Pierre Bonnard. I loved how he synthesized figurative and abstract approaches together.

I’m still taking it all in. I bought the catalog. It’s full of side-by-side comparisons, Thiebaud’s work next to the artists that inspired him. I’m slowly reading the essays. Letting them sink in. But it’s already inspired me to revisit my own list: Peter Max. David Beck. Anna Banana. Joan Miró. Es Devlin. Theodore Geissel. Magritte. Maurice Noble.

Going to this exhibit was invigorating.