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.