Welcome to AllArtWorks Featured Artist Series!
1. What other profession is similar to being an artist and why?
I would say an inventor, the old-fashioned kind. Inventors and artists both look at things in a different way than most people. They notice how things work. They capture that energy and re-fashion it into something with added value. Even when they don’t change the world, inventors and artists still are able to make a positive difference in the experience of individuals and communities. Not a bad goal!
2. What’s the nicest thing you can remember someone said about your work, or an individual piece?
When a fan remarked that I succeed in capturing emotions in my paintings, I was thrilled. She saw more in my art than paint on paper, which is my hope for anyone who spends some time with one of my paintings.
3. What’s one thing you’d like everyone to know about you as an artist?
I was never encouraged to be an artist. My father wanted me to be a bookkeeper. Not until I started painting seriously in my 40s did my father express approval. He told me I was good and that I should keep it up. I have kept it up, and now I’m proud to say I am an artist.
4. What was the last piece of art that you saw that blew you away?
Stephen Zhang’s work amazes me. The layers, the colors, the compositional freedom!
5. What’s something you haven’t done but you want to do in art/painting?
I’d like to successfully paint on a larger, looser scale. Sometimes I get hung up in the details.
I prefer Delacroix. I admire his bold use of color and how he focuses attention through imaginative details of light, form, and texture.
*The reason we ask about Delacroix and Ingres is because they were contemporaries with wildly different styles!
