She re-creates the work of famous artists like Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard and lesser known artists, using whatever clothing and fabric she has around her house. Then she hides herself and her dog, Finn, in each piece.
Once you see it, it’s hard to resist combing through her feed to investigate each of her photos like you’re Sherlock Holmes on a high-stakes I Spy mission. And why shouldn’t you? It’s fun!
Which is exactly what Reinhardt hopes people take away from her art.
“By almost making a parody of these artworks — in a loving way, of course, but I’m putting Finn in them and using socks and silly things that people recognize — I’ve noticed it makes the art really accessible to people who may not feel like they know a lot about art,” she says. “And that prompted me to always include a little blurb, if I can, about the artist who created the original work. People have responded really well to that and love reading about the artists.”
One of the most common comments from viewers is that her work reminds them of the 1990s children’s TV program Art Attack.
Although Reinhardt is glad her work evokes happy childhood memories for people, she isn’t familiar with the show — or maybe she just doesn’t remember it because she doesn’t remember her childhood.
She was a senior in high school when she hit her head on a doorknob, resulting in severe retrograde amnesia and the loss of the first 18 years of her memory, which she has never regained. She has only memories of the 10 years since then.
It’s a whole story in itself, and you should definitely watch her videos about it on TikTok. Her accident had a huge impact on her decision to get her BFA in Painting and Fine Arts from the University of Iowa. The fact that she’s a fourth-generation artist meant she had a lot of family support.
After taking lots of classes and trying different ways to rediscover who she was and what she liked, she found she had a knack for painting and a love of art history.
However, she didn’t start re-creating famous artwork until the beginning of the pandemic, largely thanks to Finn. Yes, the dog.
In 2020, during the early part of lockdown, Reinhardt was laid off, so she spent her days doing what she does best — painting. But Finn, a high-energy and highly driven Australian Shepherd, really struggled with all the indoor time.
“He wouldn’t leave me alone, so I thought, ‘OK I’ll come up with something he can safely do with me,’” she says.
Around the same time, the Getty Museum in California posted a challenge to keep the public engaged in art during the pandemic. With Reinhardt’s excellent art direction skills and Finn’s excellent direction-taking skills, they took the first steps on their journey of re-creating famous artwork, although at the time it looked a bit different.
“It wasn’t on the ground. It was all me and Finn sitting and posing and re-creating pictures that way,” she says. “We did that kind of work for almost two years.
@elizareinhardt HERES MY WORK FROM TODAY 🫶 finn is hidden very well can u spot him This work is based off of: Portrait of Camille Roulin, 1888, by Van Gogh #artistsoftiktok #art #painting #fyp #newgirl #paintersoftiktok ♬ Would That I (True that I saw her hair like the branch of a tree) - Hozier
“When I first started, [Finn] was really adamant about doing it every day. He’s a working breed, so this is his job and he loves it. He’ll do anything I ask and he gets so proud of himself when he’s done.”
At the end of 2021, they moved to a house in Denton where Reinhardt had the space to spread out and create art on the floor.
“A lot of people think I plop him in at the last minute just to include him, but I pick the artwork based on Finn’s shape,” she says. “I can always see where I’ll fit in, but he has a very specific shape, so there has to be something where I can see he fits in.”
She’s been doing it long enough now that she’s developed a sharp eye for looking at pictures and seeing exactly where Finn will fit and which clothes she’ll probably use to re-create it.
For about a year Reinhardt took pictures by taping her phone to the ceiling to get a bird’s-eye view of her work. She posted photos on Instagram with a credit and small blurb and gained nearly 15k followers, including several museums that regularly like to share her work on their own feeds.
Then over the summer she started videoing her process and posting time-lapses to TikTok, and in a short time her work has gained some impressive traction. One of her videos has more than 3 million views and almost a half-million likes. Some of the others have reached more than 200,000.
She’s also achieved something many TikTokers don’t: a positive response.
“There’s been absolutely no criticism — shockingly,” she says. “I keep waiting, but the fact that people are watching the whole thing and then will take the time to message me to say such nice things to somebody they don’t know, is so kind. I get that more on TikTok than anything else, and that surprised me.”
Not that Reinhardt is afraid of negative comments.
“I went through art school with male painters, so my skin is tough as nails,” she says jokingly. But she’s happy to see the positive reception because it means that people are connecting with her work.
“I don’t want my work to ever feel stiff or pointy, so the fact that people think it’s friendly and warm is the best compliment,” Reinhardt says.
