My Roots

Intuitively I enjoy painting in layers more than the step by step process. Ok, like painting, removing paint, adding texture, paint, remove,etc.  If I'm honest, canvas is not a favorite platform to create. All my paintings for my senior thesis were on panel boards with hand-built frames. Today somewhere at some point as I was daydreaming about painting the lights came on and it all made sense as to why I was dragging in completing my paintings. You do develop a style as an artist over time, a way you hold your brush, how you paint with it, when you stop and when you start. A certain way you make your lines, colors, and re-work it over and over again until it's perfect. You know what I mean? You get good at your craft and find what makes you LOVE it! The discovery I made as a young blossoming artist is that I love historical imagery, or making an image look worn. Maybe because my mom's strong influence of her love for antiques, consignment shops, and garage sales, I don't know. There's just a sigh of relief in my bones when I paint on wood, make texture, layer it again, strip it down, and gloss it over with something to make it shiny. All artists have their means of expression, I think this one is mine. A pastor once described my artwork as a picture of redemption. Taking the mundane and creating something beautiful, just like God does with us through Christ. The Lord peels back layers and creates new ones over and over again until He sees His glory,His beauty. His words have stuck with me over the years. Now I know that I can't just paint something on canvas, it has to be an old tossed out piece of wood or panel. It has to be nothing in order for it to become something, a work of art.