Welcome to AllArtWorks Featured Artist Series!
1. What other profession is similar to being an artist and why?
I feel all professions can benefit from being artistic. Creative problem solving demands a review of options, alternatives and thinking out of the box. These are key components I use when creating art and also with the “big picture” problem solving. Many current products such as Velcro (created from the prickly weeds sticking to clothing) were created with artistic, creative thinking.
2. What’s the nicest thing you can remember someone said about your work, or an individual piece?
I always respond to feedback that is intellectual and analytical in nature. I routinely receive comments that suggest my pieces are unique, highly creative and beautiful in color. I love that some try to see images within my abstracts. It makes me “think” how did those images appear and the possible Freudian, subliminal thought process that took place while creating the piece.
3. What’s one thing you’d like everyone to know about you as an artist?
My pieces cannot be copied or reproduced given the creative flow of the medium. They are a “one of a kind." Anyone who buys my art is stimulated by the uniqueness and attracted to the luminescence, texture and color of Encaustic wax.
4. What was the last piece of art that you saw that blew you away?
Mark Bradford recently sold an art piece/mural for ten million dollars. I saw one of his earlier large-scale abstract paintings at the Museum for Contemporary Art in Chicago about 8 years ago. I was mesmerized at the scale and genius level abstract that examined the class, race and gender based economies that structure urban society in the US. “The Devil is Beating His Wife” is one of my favorite pieces.
5. What’s something you haven’t done but you want to do in art/painting?
I love doing large scale art yet this is difficult with the complexities with the Encaustic wax technique. I just finished a 3’x4’ piece that is considered fairly unique for encaustic. I plan to experiment and increase the size to a minimum of 8’x10’.
I really do not prefer either. Both are masterful and traditionally excellent. My favorite artists are Miro, Helen Frankenthaler, Pollock , Picasso, Jasper Johns, Joan Mitchell, and Paula Roland.
*The reason we ask about Delacroix and Ingres is because they were contemporaries with wildly different styles!
