Artist Statement
It’s all a puzzle. Paintings do not arrive in my brain fully formed. They usually start out as something that makes me laugh or creates a deep emotion. I am easily humored and easily taken over by emotion!
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For example, recently I wanted a nice vacation. Couldn't take one, so I decided to draw one. I started with a photo of a nice beach and then started to build something fun, complete with a lot of birds, people in various states of vacation life. Layer upon layer, till I had something that made me smile.
I know nothing about the Bayou, but the idea felt funny. So, I found a photo of a swamp with a cabin and started to play around. I painted a bird that made me smile, and an alligator, a guy playing the banjo… and layer after layer the puzzle began to piece itself together into a world of deep detail and whimsey.
I like not knowing where each little bit of digital paint takes me. I like being boxed in by something I just painted, wrestling with it, and solving an art challenge. Because I like to paint digitally, I can use literally hundreds of layers, hundreds of little baby art choices, to create my painting. It’s like a one-million-piece jigsaw.
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As the painting proceeds, certain emotional standards kick in: Do I get a deep feeling when I look at this piece? Does the painting say something profound about being a human being? When I look at it, does a certain artistic completeness and profound satisfaction take me over?
People tell me, when they see my paintings, they are drawn into a whole new world full of dreamy whimsy and never-ending delightful detail. One man who bought one of my paintings told me that when he looks at my painting in his living room he gets giddy.
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