Blog

If you are a follower of my paintings, you know that my artwork touches on the social issues of our day.

One of those issues that come out in my artwork is our environment.

 Our social issues and our weather patterns have been so erratic that life just feels like I am on a constantly moving roller coaster. From day-to-day, I get up in the morning not knowing what chaos will prevail that day. But I am sure it will be something that I will have to control my reactions to until the next event happens.

 As an artist, painting calms my world.

It allows me to fully engage within myself so that I don't make contact with the space outside of my painting area. My easel, my table of mediums, my brushes and anything else in that space I have carved out for myself that helps me create what I am feeling at the moment. That is my sacred space and I need to be alone while occupying it. There are many artists who listen to music or the radio or talk to others while creating or teaching their art.

 I am not one of them.

The amount of focusing and the multi-tasking that it takes for me to create my paintings is all I can handle at the time. Those other things distract me from the conversation I am having with my inner voice that leads me to the completion of my painting.

 Multi-tasking you ask?

I don't plan out my paintings beforehand other than choosing my color palette. So while I am creating a painting my mind is always asking me many questions. And believe me, it is a chatterbox!

 For example: what mixed media and texture could I put in this spot to make it stand out, should I place a large splotch of color here, what shapes and symbols can I add that make sense to my message, and what is it that I am trying to say through this painting because I really don't know what my message is until I am in the throes of the paint, am I finished or should I let it sit and talk to me tomorrow.

 Most times I let the painting sit for a day or two.

Then it speaks to me again and I change a little here. Then I let it sit again for a day or two and go back to look at it. I ask myself, "Is there anything I can add or take away to make the message more visible?"  Sometimes I work through this process for a couple of weeks.

 Then, one day, I go into my studio and I say... "Wow, this painting is finished and it has my visual voice.

 How I define my own visual voice?

Well, through my abstract paintings, I find a resolution to the issue that is plaguing me. That is why most people say upon viewing my paintings that they are visually stimulating in a happy way.  Resolving my inner voice makes me happy and that is reflected in my painting.

 There rests the duality of my paintings...a painting that visually stimulates good feelings for you / a painting about a serious issue that can stimulate a positive dialogue if you want it to with yourself or others.

 You don't have to like the dialogue about an issue to love the painting.

If it stimulates a good feeling when viewing it, that is all that matters to me as an artist. The dialogue that you might have as a result of it is just a side benefit to that which stimulates me to create it.

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