Artist Statement
My pictures are not mental pictures, but rather based on emotions. I don’t “think” to much about a painting. My art comes from a place that is more obscure. It just happens. My subjects come from old photos I find or that have been given to me. My inspiration comes from the unmanifested. I have simple ideas of communication. I create the painting, some have stories of my thoughts, some don’t. Many just imply an idea. The fun is the observer. What did they see? What did they bring to the picture? And what will they take away? Did they find it beautiful or scary? Why is that? And would it be there without them? That is why I create art.
I don’t always paint children but I find them timeless. Even though they may have lived one hundred years ago, they have a feeling of now. Is it because they haven’t yet created mental positions? Is this why an emotion comes through them more easily then an adult. The eyes are my favorite thing to paint. I paint them looking at you so you have to engage them. The first thing we look at are eyes wether it be another person or an animal. I guess it’s how we size things up. I know when a piece is finished, when I feel the subject could talk to me.
My technique is based on the Renaissance masters. The chiaroscuro, shading of light and dark, is done in black and white, called the dead layer. The colors are then glazed in multiple layers on top of this black and white painting. The light enters the painting through the multiple layers creating a deep sense of depth and shimmering colors. The result is unlike any other technique and has to be seen in person to fully appreciate the illusion.
I have two current themes or series that are on going. One is the children paintings about simple behaviors or characteristics of people. There are things that are innate in our beings. Emotions, actions, reactions, and mind stuff. In this series, I put childlike symbolic drawings in the background, to further a theme, story or idea. All children everywhere engage in drawing. We are born with it, it is not taught. No matter what part of the world a child lives, they will all draw the same symbolic pictures. A child in a tribe in Africa will scribble a sun in the sand, a child in Detroit draws a sun on a paper with crayon, even and adult may doodle on the phone book. They will all be the same sun.
It is an innate characteristic.
My other series is not too different then the first. It is a “Human Nature” series. This series is more about humans connecting and separating themselves from nature. We are nature. We don’t always see it that way. The Ego likes to keep it that way. In this series the subjects become the nature, or are taken over by it.
My pictures are not mental pictures, but rather based on emotions. I don’t “think” to much about a painting. My art comes from a place that is more obscure. It just happens. My subjects come from old photos I find or that have been given to me. My inspiration comes from the unmanifested. I have simple ideas of communication. I create the painting, some have stories of my thoughts, some don’t. Many just imply an idea. The fun is the observer. What did they see? What did they bring to the picture? And what will they take away? Did they find it beautiful or scary? Why is that? And would it be there without them? That is why I create art.
I don’t always paint children but I find them timeless. Even though they may have lived one hundred years ago, they have a feeling of now. Is it because they haven’t yet created mental positions? Is this why an emotion comes through them more easily then an adult. The eyes are my favorite thing to paint. I paint them looking at you so you have to engage them. The first thing we look at are eyes wether it be another person or an animal. I guess it’s how we size things up. I know when a piece is finished, when I feel the subject could talk to me.
My technique is based on the Renaissance masters. The chiaroscuro, shading of light and dark, is done in black and white, called the dead layer. The colors are then glazed in multiple layers on top of this black and white painting. The light enters the painting through the multiple layers creating a deep sense of depth and shimmering colors. The result is unlike any other technique and has to be seen in person to fully appreciate the illusion.
I have two current themes or series that are on going. One is the children paintings about simple behaviors or characteristics of people. There are things that are innate in our beings. Emotions, actions, reactions, and mind stuff. In this series, I put childlike symbolic drawings in the background, to further a theme, story or idea. All children everywhere engage in drawing. We are born with it, it is not taught. No matter what part of the world a child lives, they will all draw the same symbolic pictures. A child in a tribe in Africa will scribble a sun in the sand, a child in Detroit draws a sun on a paper with crayon, even and adult may doodle on the phone book. They will all be the same sun.
It is an innate characteristic.
My other series is not too different then the first. It is a “Human Nature” series. This series is more about humans connecting and separating themselves from nature. We are nature. We don’t always see it that way. The Ego likes to keep it that way. In this series the subjects become the nature, or are taken over by it.
