Create or Die

Not unlike the necessity of adapting to change or otherwise perish, artistic creation is essential to my survival. The vital freedom to tear through reality and create a world of my own. A world of open expression, without self judgement or critic. A safe place to play and connect. I share that world here.

I can become quite restless creatively. I like to find new and exciting ways to challenge myself in attempting to manifest an idea. The outcome of the piece, whether aesthetically pleasing or not, is always a success as growth occurs with each project. Creating opportunities to focus on self care, lessons learned through experimenting with new techniques and materials, a voice when there is none, or time to simply have fun.

Upcycling jewelry is one of my favorite things to do. I really enjoy creating fun and interesting pieces from discarded accessories gathered from various sources. I love the challenge of building something with limited resources. The discarded pieces are all broken down to be rematched and reconstructed into something truly unique. The process can be time consuming, however, I enjoy every minute of it.

My loyalty to Prismacolor pencils runs deep. I’ve used this one brand my entire art life and have no intention of changing. Many, many hours are spent achieving the air brushed look. The pencils and I have a beautiful, decades long successful blending relationship.

Painting is a more personal and therapeutic channel of self expression. In painting, I’m able to reach the soul. Be it mine or the soul of another. Abstract can be very personally revealing to an onlooker. I find it fascinating that something specific to each person is evoked when viewing an abstract piece. A shape, a memory, a feeling, or an experience. And with that evocation, something personal is revealed based on what the onlooker saw or felt from viewing the painting. Abstract is its own psychosocial experiment. Additionally, each orientation tells a completely different story with a completely differrent vibe. its very fun. I find painting to be a wonderful escape and a soothing form of self care. It allows me the freedom to be as mentally present or as distant as I need to be in order to create some internal peace. It’s not for everyone, its for me. But if another soul beyond my own is reached through the work, one can’t ask for much more than that.

My work as been shown at Prima Dora Georgetown Tx, Christi’s Gallery Wimberley Tx, and the So Close/ So Far Exhibition with Round Rock Arts.in Round Rock Tx.

Do what makes you happy, everyone else is.