Welcome to AllArtWorks Featured Artist Series!
1. What other profession is similar to being an artist and why?
I am also a pastor. This is similar to being a visual artist and I often weave the two together. Both call for getting people’s attention, holding their interest, presenting something beautiful and making space for transformation through connecting one’s individual story to a larger meta-narrative.
2. What’s the nicest thing you can remember someone said about your work, or an individual piece?
A few years ago I had a solo art show for church and community where I talked about my work and invited people to participate in a variety of ways. One gentleman who was on the grant committee that supported the project said, “Very fruitful.” That meant a lot to me.
3. What’s one thing you’d like everyone to know about you as an artist?
I lived in Mexico for a year and a half while in elementary school, and collected folk art objects made of materials such as glass and paper mache. I set up little play worlds with these tiny people, animals, mushrooms, etc., and this stimulated my imagination and artistic sensibilities. I seek to point to a divine world touching our own. One of my inspirations is the work of Marc Chagall in which “all the air has wings.” Also, I enjoy writing and talking about art and theology. (Ok, so that is three things about myself!)
4. What was the last piece of art that you saw that blew you away?
I haven’t been to an art museum for a while, however, I have a Van Gogh wall calendar and love the painting for May 2021 entitled "Small Pear Tree in Blossom" (1888.) The pear tree offers an unassuming beauty for all who have eyes to see.
5. What’s something you haven’t done but you want to do in art/painting?
I have never done an installation before and am currently working on one that incorporates oil paintings, banners and poetry.
I prefer Delacroix as it seems darker and richer and less posed and formal.
*The reason we ask about Delacroix and Ingres is because they were contemporaries with wildly different styles!
