Blog
This art journey has taken me all over the place – in big and small ways. But at every pass, it has taught me something. Since I was little, I was constantly immersed in some sort of arts class or passion and was always given the freedom to sink deeply into my imagination. When I was seventeen, I got my first paid art job. Since drawing was a prime interest of mine, I interviewed to draw caricatures at King’s Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati, OH. I was anxious to get a “real” art job. It paid well and seemed easy enough. [...]
One day in the distance, I'll look back on my life, remembering the many things that have transpired - the good, the bad, the silly and insane. I'll mentally rifle through a sticky patch of 2020 memories, recounting the tough and troublesome COVID times. Yet, I'm pretty sure that awkward pause will warm into a smile. I'll laugh in disbelief and say...."oh yeah, and remember that time I actually taught high school? In a mask??" [...]
Being able to indulge in the basics is a significant part of my work. I've enjoyed letting go of unnecessary expectations, unchecked boxes, and noisy opinions in order to step away from frenetic life and dream a little. Yes, I am a dreamer, a super gargantuan dreamer. I don't regret my tendencies despite what fast-paced culture prefers. Our world is better because of dreamers and I can only hope that by me just being me, I can add to the fascinating patchwork of our planet. For me, in this physical realm, people and nature hold the most diverse truths of presence, [...]
This year, I have had the pleasure of teaching abstract art to adults (in 6 week sessions) - from all different backgrounds, levels of study, and reasons for taking art. What a grand journey for all of us. It is a joy to intersect with a legion of people who are eager to play with paint and embark on a soulful journey to find their own voice through artistic process. My approach is not formulaic but rather intuitive, helping each artist rise to a higher place of artistry or simply to begin. Art is often a forgotten part of an adult's life. [...]
“Art is a place for children to trust their ideas, themselves, and to explore what is possible,” says Maryann F. Kohl. Sydney Gurewitz Clemens states that, “Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else.” [...]
“Why do you paint?" The question was posed. I thought about it. My answer was this – “I paint for me. I paint for them. I paint for you.” My deeper explanation follows…. For Me - Painting is my balance. It offers me space to be, to learn and to ravenously explore. It is my ground to honestly align with the breath of life and to travel to the absolute ends of my imagination with possibility. It’s not about perfecting anything but rather about the process of putting on and taking off layers and layers of paint, adding texture, scraping, scumbling, and manipulating the surface of the [...]
Recently, I enjoyed a meaningful conversation with a friend. We were talking about art, artists, art history, masters, how the mind of an artist works and how the portrayal of an artist’s inner world can influence a thoughtful viewer. He shared that when he views artwork, he always looks for the light. He appreciates it whether it shows up as warm cascading sunlight in a realistic piece or simply as a sense of luminosity in non-representational or abstract work. The impact that suggested light can have on a viewer fascinates him. He believes that the light signifies a deeper hope and a [...]
There is a noted quote by Edgar Degas, “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” I can attest to that truth! Before you really know how to do anything, you have no reference point. Everything you do can be approached with wild abandon and experimentation. It is liberating. However, the more you learn about any subject, painting included, the more that knowledge can seem to chip away at sheer, playful delight. You suddenly have standards that build walls in your brain, criteria and judgment that seem to come from none other than the land [...]
Every artist pulls inspiration from a variety of sources…. I was raised with the constant influence of music in my life. My parents were accomplished musicians who made and taught music for a living. My father spent his career in the Cincinnati Symphony. My mother was a classroom music teacher and they both gave countless private lessons out of our home. I grew up on an auditory language. Listening was key. Music didn’t entice me to play it in a traditional way. It touched me a bit differently. To me, all the symphony concerts and musical events we attended were shows of streaming color. [...]
Every artist has struggled, grappled and wrestled with inspiration. We have all tried to tame, master, understand and nurture it in various ways. With innocent fervor we have meticulously tried to organize, educate, discipline, groom and study it, as well as practice, indulge in, abstain from, stare down and meet inspiration’s challenge head on. Whew! It’s the allure of the synchronized samba between artist and inspiration that seems to keep the relationship flowing. Yet, in always flirting with the contrast between open expansion and conquered definition, we seem to also seek an ordinary comfort zone. In the beginning moments of a painting, [...]
