a little something about me....
...A FEW PERSONAL STATS....
(I am not one to really talk about myself much, so please forgive the sparse info..)
I grew up in Clinton, Mississippi, with my mother, stepfather, and two younger siblings. I started in the art field at a very young age, with private art lessons. I found that art opened up a whole new world for me, and gave me a vehicle with which to communicate, and to possibly teach others. In 1995, I packed up my car, and headed west...to Colorado, where I now reside. Oh, and some of you have been curious about my age....well, I'm 25...
...EDUCATION....
Clinton High School...Clinton, Mississippi...(1990-1992)
Belhaven College....Jackson, Mississippi..Fine Art Major with concentration in Drawing (1992-1994)
...ABOUT MY ART....
Again, I don't talk about my art much, only because I want you, the viewer, to experience it for yourself..without my ideas or intentions interfering with what you may take away from the art..
But...here are some little tidbits for ya....
My art is sensual, sometimes confrontational...it asks that you look within yourself or maybe the world around you and to think.....it asks questions of you...
I am fascinated by people..and all of the masks that we wear..how we are different people at different times, in different circumstances....
Have you ever watched someone..when they are not aware that you are doing so...and what they do..how they act......the marked change in people when they leave the office, and pick up their tennis raquet, or listen to their favorite music...that one moment when we all become who we are at our cores..that is my art..
Our connection to the divine.....
I strive to reach to the heart of people...who we really are..our innermost desires..our fears....the little secrets that make us all human....
...INFLUENCES...
I have many different influences..including artists, writers, and musicians...One of my biggest influences is American painter Andrew Wyeth...if you have ever seen any of his work in person..and really studied it...it can change your life..his work constantly awes me...I hope that one day I may be able to accomplish just a fraction of the power and grace in his work...
Another influence of mine is photographer Jock Sturges..the sensuality and innocence captured in his photographs evokes such emotion as I have rarely encountered. Again...if you have ever stood face to face with one of his photographs..I doubt you could walk away unaffected. He seems to reach into the very souls of his models..and open them like a book.....
The photographer Mandy Vahabzadeh...her book "Soul Unsold" may be hard to come by..but is definitely worth the search...a stunning look into the many faces of India....
Other influences include Van Gogh...his autobiography cannot be missed by anyone remotely interested in the arts...
I cannot help but mention Joseph Campbell...I don't even have the words......
Composer John Barry...that man has undoubtedly got a connection to the powers unseen......
Blues music...opera...it all has a big impact on me and my work in some form or another......
And last but certainly not least, my drawing, photography, painting..etc..mentor from my days at Belhaven College, and to this day...Professor Jon Whittington....number one...his artwork...so soft, yet intense and striking, volumes spoken with every stroke of a pencil, ....number two...he taught me not only technique, but more importantly how to really ponder my intentions with art..how to bring certain parts of me to the surface....to dance with butterflies......
"I am simply conscious of the forces I am using and I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture." -Henri Matisse