ABOUT the ARTIST
I am a visual artist who uses a variety of wet and dry art media, separately or together (mixed media), to make realistic and/or narrative art about people, creatures, places, and things while, simultaneously, creating abstract art inspired by road maps.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT ART…
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I am fascinated by artists’ ability to:
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realistically document past and present people, creatures, places, and things in life
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take apart, or abstract, reality
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creatively express ideas, emotions, and experiences in unique ways
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demonstrate how people are alike and different
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communicate personal and global stories, attitudes, and beliefs
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design and decorate the world
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BECOMING AN ARTIST…
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For me, making art began as a fun and therapeutic way to deal with some of the pain, stress, and anxiety I have after living with chronic illnesses from early childhood through today.
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After graduating from the University of North Texas (UNT), in 2001, with a BFA in Drawing and Painting and Visual Art Studies, I taught both technical and creative problem-solving skills to high school level art students in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for 12 years.
MY ART…
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I love the entire creative process. I enjoy using my creativity and different tools and media to express my life and imagination (and other people’s, too):
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I prefer to create realistic, narrative portraits, but I also find inspiration in my daily life, nature, words, history, religion, music, dreams, symbols, objects, and, most recently, abstract art and maps.
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I keep sketchbooks and journals (and I have an idea board and a collection of Post-It notes) where I enjoy brainstorming ideas or writing down images I see in my head (usually when I am waking up or falling asleep) for possible artworks.
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I use my notes to make sketches to plan: how my subject matter will fit into a scene, size relationships, how much detail I will include, and an overall color palette.
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I like researching how people, places, and things should look in my art—my camera, the internet, and books are close friends to me at this time.
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My favorite media to use (either separately or together) as an artist are: oil and soft pastels, colored pencils, graphite pencils, acrylic paint, and watercolor paint. I also enjoy ceramics and printmaking. I plan to learn encaustic art in the future—I suspect I will love it as a medium.
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The focus of my early artwork in college was primarily larger, realistic, acrylic or mixed media portraits with simplified backgrounds on a variety of surfaces—canvas, wood, or unusual fabrics.
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Years of teaching secondary art gave me the opportunity to explore and experiment with different subjects and media techniques—in addition to portraiture—I might, otherwise, not have pursued.
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Since 2015, I choose to, also, make abstract art inspired by line arrangements on maps—particularly Texas maps. I was influenced to use this subject matter by a collage I saw in a book and a dream I had a few nights later. (My artworks look nothing like the collage—but the spark was there, nonetheless.)