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Artist's Statement
When I was a kid, I saw an ad in the back of a comic book saying I could “Be an Artist” and earn up to $80 a week as an illustrator! (Yeah, it was a long time ago.) All I had to do was draw the fetching young lady depicted in the ad and win a scholarship to art school. Well, I didn’t win the scholarship, but I did gain a lifelong appreciation of art and artists. Not long after that, my family took a vacation to New Mexico and I was introduced the the wonderful art of Santa Fe. I was blown away by the work of the artists I saw there, especially my favorite artist John Nieto. My mother, herself an accomplished painter, noticed my interest in art and encouraged me to pursue it. Over the years, I began creating Southwest influenced paintings, with some success, but I was seeking a personal style. I then discovered the Expressionists. I loved the boldness of the colors, the simplicity of the composition, and the slightly skewed interpretation of the world. After studying this style, I discovered that several of the artists that originally inspired me (see John Nieto, above) were also influenced by Expressionism. I had come full circle. Now my work is less dependent on the style I admired in my younger days and I’m focused on moving forward to tell my own tale. The story I want to tell contains vignettes from my personal journey; starting with my Texan heritage, enlivened with a rock-n-roll counter-culture sensibility, and leavened with an evolving social awareness. I hope to communicate visually what doesn’t easily communicate verbally. As Georgia O’keefe said,”I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way... things I had no words for.” Subscribe to my eMail list and receive occasional missives about what I'm up to... |