I have been mostly self taught as an artist, yet I have also gained a great deal of experience through apprenticing with other artists. When I speak of being self taught however, it must be also be mentioned that part of being self taught has been studying the work of so many artists throughout the ages who's work has moved me in one way or another.
As a child I was always drawing. I read and studied the work of the ancients and the old masters, and the more modern masters, including many of the great illustrators. I read and studied the art work of my favorite comic book/graphic novel artists as well.
I would pore over these pictures going back to them again and again getting lost in them! These artists in all their varied times of living and fields of work, all taught me a great deal.
In my career I have had a much varied experience working as an artist.
I have exhibited paintings in local galleries such as The Silver Crane, and Draper Galleries. However I am not currently represented by a gallery. For the last several years most of my work has been in mural painting and working for several local theatre venues designing and painting backdrops. I have also done additional scenic design and painting other than backdrops. I have also performed some work in film.
For the moment, I am currently working on two projects. One is a triptych of pencil and watercolor. Each panel is approximately six foot tall by two and a half feet wide.I have felt myself evolving as an artist during the period of doing very little gallery style work, and now I am working on building a new fresh body of work, that I have not yet shown here.This triptych is part of this new body of work which I am very excited about. The other current project is a nursery in a new local church in which I am painting murals on all four walls of the room.
Mural painting for me is one of the greatest things I have ever done as an artist. I consider murals to be Fine Art on a grand scale and I approach my work as an muralist as such.
Murals take on a life of their own, and bring something to a space that nothing else can. It is new every time you see it and it draws you into it's story and you are gladly lost within it. |
