My Background

Art isn't what I do, it's who I am. When I look at the world, everything is art to me. I see a blank canvas and my mind takes a snapshot of a story in my head that only I know, and then I paint that snapshot to create something new. Anything can become a canvas, walls, chairs, buildings, people, anything I can get my hands on. 

For the most part, I am self taught. My Grandmother was a painter among other things, she started me painting when I was 5 years old. I evolved throughout the years and took Graphic Design in college.

I don't stick to a specific theme, I paint what is beautiful, and beauty can be found in anything. I've always found people to be a fascinating subject.  Over the last 4 decades my work has evolved leaps and bounds, and it's still evolving now.

When it come's to creating something new, it might be something I dreamt of, it might be something I saw, it might be the image my mind creates from a story I've been told. The wheels and cogs start spinning and then I find what will be my canvas.

I don't necessarily have a preferred medium, different pieces call for different mediums, it could be oil, acrylic, water color, ink, sometimes I use 3D objects in the mix, I am not constrained by only using paint. 

My process is serendipitous. An idea will hit me that creates an urgency and excitement to transform my idea into something visual to share. I become hyper-focused and the rest of my thoughts and the world around me disappear. In that time and space, the only thing that exists is what I'm creating.

I seem to trip over inspiration. I get inspired by many things, moods, music, people, or experiences. It happens when I least expect it.

I suppose like many artists, the greatest inspiration is to create my own world, to live in a space inside my mind and try to somehow visually create that world so I can share it with others so they can visit the same world.

 When I was 5 years old, I was at my Grandmother's farm, she had chores to do, animals to tend to, and to keep me occupied, so I would stay out of trouble and she could get her work done, she gave me a box of water colors and sent me out to the yard to paint a walnut tree, not a picture of a tree, but the tree itself. Challenge accepted! I chose the tree that I face planted into before I learned to use the brakes on my bicycle. I was standing there staring up at the tree, and I was convinced that with my little box of water colors, I was going to cover the entire tree, every inch every leaf with vibrant colors. As I started to paint the bark, it soaked up the water color, so I would paint the same spot over and over, trying to create my vision. Needless to say, several hours passed, and I only managed to get a 6 inch by 6 inch square painted. My Grandmother was a genius, her plan worked! And that is where it all began. She still inspires me to this day.