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.