Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Business Card!


My business card!! I just ordered them. They should be in by the middle of March!

Revised Artist Statement

My expressive paintings reflect the way I live my everyday life. I use bright colors that link to my very lively personality. I use a lot of texture and a thick application of paint that relates to my messy habits. Most of my paintings are images that have been abstracted in one way or another. I enjoy experimenting with the surface of the canvas and breaking boundaries. I'm not afraid to dive in and get covered in paint if that means I have created a visually interesting painting. My paintings rainge in size from as small as eight by ten inches to as large as four feet by five feet. I usually start loose and build up the painting by applying and scraping many layers of paint with a palette knife and discovering the balance between the two as I go. My current series explores the mediums of creating art itself; still lives of art supplies that have been used to create art and bear the dirty marks to prove it. I was inspired to create this body of work from my passion to teach children. Working with children, teaching them and learning from them is an experience that has greatly affected my style and the way that I approach each painting. I pull techniques that are typical of how a child paints or creates and incorporate them in my own work. With each painting that I create I discover something about myself as an artist and as an art educator.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Artist Statements

Artist Statement 1

I am a messy artist. My paintings reflect the way I live my everyday life. I use bright colors that link to my very lively personality. I use a lot of texture and a thick application of paint that relates to my messy habits. Most of my paintings are of images that have been abstracted in one way or another. I love to play with the surface of the canvas and break boundaries and I'm not afraid to dive in and get covered in paint if that means I have created a successful painting. I usually start loose and build up the painting applying many layers of paint and scraping paint and discovering the balance between the two as I go. With each painting that I create I learn something bout myself as an artist and as an educator.




Artist Statement 2

My work is mostly about abstraction; taking an image, pulling it apart, finding its edges, breaking lines, exhaggerting color and experimenting with texture. I mainly work with pallete knife and oils on canvas. My current series is about art itself. Nine still lives of art supplies that have been used by artists and bear the 'dirty' mark of being handled. The compositions are dominated by color and texture.
I am inspired by conversation. I get many of my ideas from simply talking to all kinds of people and picking their brain. I am also inspired by other artists and their work. I have no shame in “copying” a fellow artist, in fact I consider it a compliment.
My work is very sparatic, I like to work on many different projects at once so I dont get to stressed out or bored with a particular painting. I have not always been a palette knife artist and I most likely will not always be one. I started out painting very flat images with a brush and have been developing new techniques over the course of about eight years. With each painting I create I learn more about myself as an artist and educator.




Artist Statement 3

I like to be messy in the way that I approach a painting. My inspiration comes from bright colors, abstraction and texture. I am also inspired by music and conversation. I always have music playing in my studio while I work because I find myself applying paint to the tempo of the song and it keeps me going and keeps me inspired.
My process starts with a loose wash in acrylic that gets my creative juices flowing. Once I have a solid composition I go in with the palette knife and build up the painting in oils with color and texture. Most of my paintings are recognizable images that have been only slightly abstracted by deliberate strokes of color with the palette knife. Others are abstracted landscapes that focus on color relationships and breaking the edges between land, sea and sky. Some of my work is chaotic and busy and can be related to the work of Larry Poons or Stephen Duren.
I truly enjoy painting and learn something about myself and how I fit in the world around me with every new painting I do. As an art educator, each painting is a learning process that greatly effects who I am as a teacher and all around person.

Friday, February 18, 2011






these are photographs of my paintings at their latest states.
i have gotten a lot of work done the past few weeks!!
feedback is greatly appreciated!

Friday, February 11, 2011


this is an in progress stage of what i am working on this morning. i'm hoping to finish it by 4pm.
i'd love to get some feedback. i am going to be getting more of that lime green in the upper right hand corner, and more dark purple near the bottom.
what do you think?
i'll post a new picture when its done!!!

Thursday, February 10, 2011


As a person who has a passion for art but perhaps an even larger passion for teaching, most of the first chapter of How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist was an interesting read. I find it is extremely important though. I find myself wondering if I could do it. I wonder if I could support myself and my family as an artist. And to be quite honest, I have my doubts. I love painting and creating and I love that whole experience, but if I had to do that in order to survive I would be afraid my passion for it would fade as the struggles became more and more daunting. I dont think I could support myself and my family doing something that was so unstable. This book is supposed to show you how to make it more stable but im not sure I am built for that. And maybe that is the wrong thing to say, because here I am in the forth year at an Art School, about to graduate with my BFA, and im having doubts that this is something I could do, but in all reality I have never dreamed of being a "professional artist". I have dreamed of teaching. But I also know that I change my mind more than I change my underwear and so who knows what my dreams are going to be in the future. So I am taking this information in and keeping it in mind for the future, and applying what I can to my dream and passion for teaching.