In the past few years, my work has not been focused in any one direction. In fact, I have been all over the place in terms of concept, subject matter, and medium. I have enjoyed the opportunity to explore all my different ideas at the same time, try experimental techniques, and learn from both successes and failures.
My work spans from traditional oil painting and pastel drawings, to mixed media and experimental techniques. I tend to work on two separate bodies of work at the same time. Different materials evoke different conceptual ideas in my work. Some of my past work deals with bold color, playful content, and a layering of Art Nouveau inspired images with Art Deco inspired geometric shapes. A second body of work is heavier in content. I primarily start with a technique called rust-transfer. This work deals with the ideas of decay, fossils, and biological evolution. Most recently, I united these two bodies of work by including playful humor and bold colors within a mixed media conceptual piece. I used facts about animals as my subject matter. This series can be viewed in the Gallery titled It's a Fact Series.
In 2017 I finished my self-published children's picture book Finders Keepers. All of the illustrations were completed as chalk pastel drawings and can be viewed in the Gallery titled Finders Keepers. I hope to find a publisher interested in picking up my book, but that to is a process. Both a hard and soft cover of Finders Keepers can be found at blurb.com.
Link to hard cover: http://www.blurb.com/b/8071703-finders-keepers
Link to soft cover: http://www.blurb.com/b/8162391-finders-keepers
What's on my easel right now?
I just finished a series of oil paintings with collaged paper. The subject matter is sleeping babies. I completed twenty-one paintings in this series. As you can image, my own children are the inspiration for this series, but I have reached out to many of my friends to include a variety of different genders and ethnicity to this body of work. The series can be viewed in the Gallery titled Sleeping Babies.
I am planning a new series that incorporates female figures, plants, and either an animal or insect. I am really enjoying the use of collaged paper and oil paint on panel, so I will continue to explore and advance my technique in this next body of work. For now I am collecting reference images and planning my compositions.