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Ever since birth, folks have called me “inventive,” “imaginative” — “annoying.” (Your stereotypical hyper-active bouncing-off-the-walls-brain-asploding-with-too-many-ideas type.) I can’t help it. I come from an artsy-crafty sort of family. My depression-era parents placed a high value on creativity as a life skill — not just for the inherent sake of beauty, but as a survival technique during tough times.

A beloved treasure got broke? Bling it up to cover the flaw! Want some spendy gee-gaw you can’t afford? Make it yourself! In fact, I don’t remember any time in my life when I wasn’t being taught how to use my hands. We made Christmas presents and Valentine cards, school projects and 4-H competition entries, things to keep and things to sell. My mother’s greatest piles of clutter were always art supplies, and I inherited most of them when she died — it’s the one time I didn’t mind her insane hoarding tendencies!

Good Art Ain’t Pretty — But It Feeds The Soul

I love art — one of my greatest joys in life is landing in a new town, hitting the museums and gallery walks, and discovering an artist that I had never heard of before. As you can see, I have pretty broad tastes. The only thing I’m not a huge fan of is the kind of work that feels like you’re being jerked around by a pseudo-intellectual poser. You know what mean — the white canvas with a white square in one corner, symbolizing the state of nothingness in which we all exist. Or the pile of torn cardboard and crushed aluminum cans sitting in the middle of an otherwise empty room, meant to represent the impermanence of being. Whatever.

To me, art should be about emotion. I need a visceral reaction to a painting or sculpture — that feeling in my chest or stomach or head that says, “Oh yeah!” Without that connection, I may be able to appreciate a piece intellectually, but I will never love it. Of course, deciding what touches your soul is an intimate process — no one can make you enjoy art that just doesn’t speak to you. But that’s what I love most about art — there is no right or wrong.

I Create Because The Voices Tell Me To

For me, art swings on a pendulum between the head and heart — in the words of Paul Klee, one eye sees, the other feels. art is distilled from experience A certain portion of art-making comes from the unconscious the innocence of eye, to always see as if for the first time, fresh; otherwise, it is just mass producing art. To keep the innocence of the child, in wonder at the universe unknown to us, helps an artist be real, genuine. the innocence of eye, to always see as if for the first time, fresh; otherwise, it is just mass producing art. To keep the innocence of the child, in wonder at the universe unknown to us, helps an artist be real, genuine. To create today is to create dangerously. camus Imagine a life without art. A colorless, soundless, shapeless, tasteless abyss of what we would call “living”. But that, in fact, is not living. It is suffering. A life without art is in reality not a life at all. We all need art in our lives, and we’d be lying by denying it.

My Artist’s Statement

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. Pablo Picasso
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. Edgar Degas
I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art. Ernst Fischer
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. Friedrich Nietzsche
Art is the daughter of freedom. Friedrich Schiller
A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind. Eugene Ionesco
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision. James McNeill Whistler
The artist’s job is to be a witness to his time in history. Robert Rauschenberg