What makes me different as an artist?

 

I do not accept commissions and I have no formal art training or education in art.

So why do I create art! I create art because I have to just like I have to breathe. I have to inhale and then I have to exhale. It is the same thing creating art. 

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I first experienced the power of art over me when I was maybe six years old and at a very long wedding with my parents. My mother gave me a coloring book and some crayons to try and keep me quiet which it did, but while she was not paying attention to what I was doing, I was watching the beautiful reflected colorful shadows from the sun that projected these glorious colors onto the marble floor. I decided I wanted to somehow create something just as beautiful!  I took my crayons...slipped out of the pew and sat down on the floor and started tracing all the colors that were displayed by the window and the exact pattern of the window and I was unlocked because I had my 24 color box of Crayola’s. When my mother noticed what I had done, she of course, was horrified, but that’s how it began. 

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 I then realized as I got older that when I saw something beautiful, I did not want to purchase it  from the artist or given it even as a gift, I wanted to re-create my own version of the beauty I saw  where ever it was, whether it was in nature, a store, or in a museum.

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The other thing that makes me different as an artist is that I do not have one area of focus wthat i focus on as an artist. For example, if someone is a painter, they are completely a painter. If someone is a sculptor, they are completely a sculptor, but that is not how it is for me.

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I create work in paper, but not because I’m painting on it. First of all I make a lot of my own paper to use in my artwork and much of it has a type of fiber content I’m looking for for certain projects. If it involves animals, I will often use something called Mulberry paper within the composition of the type of paper I’m using and sometimes silk fibers. Other times if I’m creating something more fierce in appearance or that requiers more structure, I will have a higher content of cotton and linen within the paper.

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I also create work and metal. I use various metals, but I also use metal wire to create my compositions and I will often times mix glass within the metal sculptures I make.

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the third area I go to; is stained glass itself, where I create stained glass windows, and stained glass sculptures. My stained glass artwork is not the standard either. For example I will mix; lead, zinc, and Tiffany techniques using copper within the same piece and even adding something so anti-heretical to stain glass work such as Japanese seed beads or Czech glass beads.

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The other Difference

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Without formal artistic education or mentorship from professionals or “masters”,  I am not bound by rules, techniques, methods or accepted artistic theories. I have developed my own methods and styles over time, free from the inhibitions often instilled through traditional art training. I use techniques that come naturally and that I have curated overtime. these inspirations are intuitive. 

 

To me, art is simple: if you see something and like it, then it is art. There is no right or wrong—just personal connection and appreciation