Thursday, February 28, 2013

Meet Artist Geneva Davis Season, Spring Obsession Open Division Artist

Geneva Davis Season  

Over thirty years ago Geneva's creative art journey began.  Studying a variety of techniques and mediums has let to a body of work of great diversity. Her work may be characterized as realism to impressionism, but as variety of subject matter a distinctive style has evolved which can vary depending on the subject matter and medium.

The variety of subjects has included animals, birds, rich and lively florals and gardens that evoke color and mood. These might be considered to be signature work whether in oils, watercolors of most recently pastels.
Others might consider the sentimental renderings of children to romantic figures the most moving to the imagination.  In any case the journey continues and might include almost any subject but be assured it will have warmth and emotion as a constant. Geneva's paintings are in many private collections.

Her paintings may be viewed at Pinecrest Gallery in Pinecrest, CA. All that Matters Gallery in Twain Harte, CA.  Town Hall Gallery in Copperolis, CA. and  Ventana Gallery in Sonora, CA.


Geneva's home studio is open to visitor's by app. 209-533-2014

Meet Artist Cate Culver, Ironstone Spring Obsession Open Division accepted Artist

About Cate Culver   

My first memory of doing art was as a young child.  We lived in Vallejo, CA where I was born on November 10, 1945 at the end of WWII.  My father Edson was an early riser up to grade papers and plan his teaching schedule. Soon I was up an about at 5 am too. To keep me from distrubing my mother Ruth and big sister Connie he'd have me draw pictures.  I've been drawing ever since.

By age three we had moved to Sacramento where my father joined the teaching staff at Sacramento State College in the Education Department. At age 14, I sold my first painting for $3.00, a watercolor of a fish. AS a teenager I excelled at my school art classes.  Upon graduation from High School in 1963, I was awarded a $100 scholarship as the Most Promising Artist. In 1967 I graduated from Sacramento State College as an Art Major. I loved my college classes and learned to throw pots, paint watercolors, do print making and cast silver jewelry. I was a History minor and enjoyed that also.

Most of my career was in advertising as a Graphic Artist for Pay Less Drug stores at their corporate headquarters in Oakland. Then Raley's Superstores at their corporate headquarters in West Sacramento.

Then after 25 years I burnt out. Just could not take anymore hours in front of the computer and the stress of deadlines.  I didn't feel like an artist anymore.  I longed to paint and draw again. I was 46 years old and newly married. my husband Jerry and I left our big city jobs and moved to the foothills of California in the Gold Country.  We found low key jobs and put down roots. I worked for a small advertising agency as a Graphic Artist and then moved on to work for the Calaveras County Historical Society as their Historian. I retired in 2007.

I bought new art supplies and began to teach myself to paint again. In 1999 the money came forth for me to build an art studio. It is 16 x 24 and adjacent to our house. At last I'm and artist again!

Meet Artist Connie Carson - Romano, Ironstone Spring Obsession Open division accepted artist


Connie Carson - Romano

Art is an expression of the way the artist views the world in which he lives. Through my paintings I try to communicate the emotions that made the subject something I wanted to share with others whether it be joy, serenity, or the excitement of the beauty of nature. I know I have succeeded at my Art when someone looks at one of my paintings or drawings and says "That makes me feel ...."

I cannot remember a time in my life when I was not drawing or painting. Acrylic paint is my favored medium.  I love the way it works and forms on the canvas. The colors that are present in nature are phenomenal and I love trying to create the same shades.  Being raised in New Mexico I found myself immersed from an early age in the amazing palate of nature and the challenge of trying to recreate that on canvas.  Now as a resident of Northern California I am awed at the diversity of landscapes we live in.

While my paintings for their colors are my favored expression of the world I have also spent time drawing in black and white. In the 1990's I was published for 6 years as the creator of the cartoon strip "Cody Coyote". Cody was a wonderful combination of my drawings and verbal expression of the humorous side of life. Cody was well loved by the readers of the paper in the mountain community in New Mexico where he was published. It was wonderful to walk into someone's house and see their favorite Cody strip hanging on the refrigerator and know that my art added a smile to their day.

   Two Artists looking at the same object of same landscape will create completely different expressions of what they see.  I find it is amazing and exciting that so many different interpretations of the world around us are available through the eyes of Artists. It is my pleasure that I am able to add my own personal expressions to this collection.

 

Meet Artist Aubrey Straub, Ironstone Vineyard's Spring Obsession Open Division Artist



Aubrey Straub


For 11 years, I was classically trained on the piano. In the 12th year, I switched over to jazz, the land of creative exploration...... But the 17 year old ego is a fragile one, and I couldn’t stand the eyes that stared at me while I fumbled through my 30 second solos. Never shy, but always a fierce perfectionist, the thought of being observed and judged while I hit the notes within the E flat scale instead of G minor was mortifying. At the ripe old age of 18 I quit the piano and moved on with “adulthood.”

Many moons later, I began to observe that my life was filled with the technicalities of life; working, paying bills, driving to the grocery store. I was missing something. Where was the creative exploration? Where was the use of tangible to express the intangible? In what ways was I pushing forward with a new skill that was simply enjoyable and not for career gain? How was I forcing my brain to think in the abstract, not just to type out business plans, but to simply express myself? How was I expressing the raw, primal emotions that were important to me, the ones I felt were important in life?

Two summers ago I fell into some painting classes. The details of how I found myself in the quaint, color explosion of a studio are irrelevant now. I have fallen so hopelessly in love with paint, I cannot believe there was a time it was not in my life. Both my grandmothers painted, yet it had never occurred to me that a paintbrush in my hands might be the most natural thing in the world. Not only had I found my expression through art, but my ego was finally capable of handling the mistakes that foster growth.

Painting is not an action for me, or an activity. Painting is a state. I often do not remember the thoughts I had in the midst of painting a certain piece. I do not remember certain strokes that were made. Strokes that I notice after the finish is on, strokes that I wonder might have been put there by some elf in the middle of the night. It is time in which my over-active mind ceases to race, and plan, and multi-task. The moments I spend with my brush are a solace, a sanctuary, a quiet place in which my mind is still, and something else takes over and calmly pushes emotions from somewhere within me onto the canvas.


Aubrey Straub lives in Folsom, CA with her husband, Sonny and their three kids, ages 7, 9, and 11. 

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

This Weekend Already?! JOIN US!


Meet the artists this weekend! Come to Ironstone's 16th Annual Spring Obsession Art Show Opening this weekend, Saturday & Sunday, March 2 & 3 starting at 10:00 am. 
Joining us this weekend are:
2013 Spring Obsession Artists Art-in-Action
in Alhambra Music Room
Saturday & Sunday

Connie Carson-Romano
Carol Clark
Jerry DeGarza
Randy Klassen
W. Vaughn Lew
Connie McLennan
Ruth Morrow
Phil Murillo
Bobbie Powell
Katerina Rutherford

2013 Spring Obsession Artists that will be painting on site
Saturday
Linda Beach
Stephanie Benedict
Judy Knott
Sunday
Robyn Leimer

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Meet Artist Carol DAvid, Spring Obsession Open Division Artist

Carol David

Carol David is a California impressionist whose work is manifested solely, and splendidly, in pastels.

Her love of art and nature began while she was still a child tagging after her father, a US Davis entomology professor who documented his work in pen and ink. Her father recognized her potential as she entered high school and encouraged her to do what many wanting to be commercial artists did at the time; take a correspondence course.

Carol's love of art only grew and correspondence courses led to being her high school newspaper's art editor and then graduation from San Jose State University with a BA in Commercial Art and Art Education, to which she added a teaching credential and certification in Special Education.

Carol added a beautiful family in to the mix and art quickly had to fall a bit lower on the priority list, but Carol's passion remained and she has found her way back to a full schedule of working her craft.
Carol finds great inspiration in workshops and connection with other artists and some of her most compelling work has resulted from that.

Over the past years, it became clear that pastels were her meduim of choice. Carol's work has since been seen in exhibits across California and she as received signifant recognition and awards for her work. Her most recent award was at the Tahoe show "Truckee Exposed" where she received first prize for hier "Lupines" piece.  She was also honored by the Stanislaus Arts Council with their 2010 Excellence in Arts Award for Visual Arts.

Carol's work is also commissioned on a regular basis.  Subjects range from sentimental collage football scenes to sweeping landcapes to people injoying a sunny day to equine beauties.

Carol believes pastels are her tools to interpret. expose and share a beautiful world. And most days, that's just what you'll find her doing.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Meet Artist Bruce Hancock, Spring Obsession Open Division Artist






Bruce B. Hancock
California Painter
Sacramento, California


Nearing the age of sixty, Bruce B. Hancock began a new phase of his life.  After more than 40 years in design and construction management in both the public and private sectors, Bruce returned to a childhood pastime of drawing and painting.  Setting aside his coat and tie and picking up a smock and brush, he began to paint again. 

From the shores of the Pacific coast to the open spaces of the Central Valley and up the foothill slopes of the Gold Country, Bruce paints California.  He is also drawn to the ancient lands and cultures of the great American Southwest.  “The vast spaces of the Western landscape overwhelm and inspire me.  Capturing the majesty, the history and the people of the West will keep me busy for the rest of my life.” 

Bruce paints in both oil and acrylic, but oil remains his favorite medium.  Whether it is landscape, still life or portrait painting, his work is distinguished by strong brushwork and bold color.   An active member of the Sacramento Plein Air Painters, Bruce finds the moments of creating art outdoors to be among the most rewarding aspects of painting.  The immediacy of the plein air experience draws him back again and again.  “Nature is a humbling and endlessly demanding teacher,” he says, “But If you are patient and attentive you will learn lessons that cannot be taught anywhere else.”    

Coming late in life to the easel has presented challenges and opportunities in abundance.   After the initial excitement of returning to painting again, he began to understand how much he had to learn.  To grow as an artist, he regularly studies through workshops and studio sessions with gifted painters he admires.  “There is so much to learn and to experience and to try.  I have to admit that I feel the pressure of time, but I understand that the artist’s journey never ends, no matter when in life it started.  How blessed I am to have each of these days at the easel. “  

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Meet Artist Ruth Andre, Ironstone Vineyards 16th Annual Spring Obsession OPEN Division artist



Ruth Andre - Spring Obsessions 2013

Contemporary Landscapes and Abstract Oils - Palette Knife Paintings

My paintings have transformed themselves from representational to abstract works in the past  year. The new work has been an awakening, revealing the inner spirit of my heart. The paint moved from the palette knife to canvas releasing the paint to tell its own story. My hand held the energy from within as the mixing of paint colors ignited and nature's beauty emerged. 

I studied art and design at California State Long Beach as well as printmaking at Otis/Parsons Art Institute. My interest in art led me to a career representing artists and photographers located in Los Angles, San Francisco and New York. Then in 1992 I took my first painting workshop with Maurice Larioux in Santa Fe, NM and I was hooked on painting. I continued studying on my own and taking workshops with known artists to learn the art of painting. I have been involved with art most of my life. Printmaking, fiber-sculpture and graphic design are all part of who I am with painting being my true love. I look to my previous careers as very important since they were a molding of different mediums that formed what I do today.


Meet Artist Robyn Lyee Leimer, Spring Obsession Open Division Artist



Robyn Lyee Leimer
Artist Bio

Robyn Lyee was born at Hill Air Force base outside of Ogden Utah. She spent many summer vacations with her grandparents at their home in Ogden. She has many precious memories of time spent with her grandparents on their front porch, looking out at the
mountains in the distance, enjoying the beauty and splendor of nature. Robyn has always been enthralled by nature. Nature's delicate perfect lines and symmetry of shapes, as well as the bold bright variations of colors continually capture her eye.

After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Art's degree from San Jose State University she is pursuing her passion on a daily basis focusing primarily on plein air painting. She is continually promoting plein air in her community and in her life's pursuits. After
graduation Robyn joined up with the Peninsula Outdoor Painting group (POPs) when she can, but enjoys plein air painting in the East Bay as well. She was instrumental in creating and organizing plein air paint out events with the Fremont Art Association as well as
organizing a weekly plein air group for the East Bay called Fremont Art Association Plein Air / East Bay Outdoor Painters (FAAPA/EBOP) which gets together to paint/sketch on Wednesday mornings. 

Robyn is also a member of the California Art Club: actively participating in the various exhibits, artist painting events and painting retreats that the club sponsors. Robyn enjoys the spontaneity of plein air painting. Starting out with nothing; being able to absorb it all from sight to sound. Capturing the essence from temperature, atmosphere and feelings evoked around her while finding the truth in nature that is constantly changing. Robyn says, "Plein air painting is a pursuit that continues to challenge me and I
love it. It is JUST PLEIN FUN!" 

Meet Artist Judy Boles, Ironstone Spring Obsession OPEN Division Artist



Judy Boles Art  

While taking family roadtrips as a girl, my father taught me to see the beauty in any landscape: orchards, corn fields, lakes, mountains, sea coasts ...and even barren desserts. Painting and drawing became my favorite childhood pass time. After getting a teaching credential from Chico State University, I taught high school English and Art in
northern California. However, my art soon had to take a back seat
to raising children and a career in the corporate world. Since
retiring in 2006, I am now able to pursue my passion for art once
again.

My art is a sort of visual diary of places or scenes that have moved
me. The observation required to render a scene on paper or canvas
makes me feel closer to the scene and to nature in general. While
living many years in Petaluma, CA, I was drawn to coastal hills, the
shoreline, and the wonderful vistas of the wine country. In 2011, my husband and I moved to Arnold, CA, in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

We now live in the natural beauty of a national forest. My new
inspirations: mountain streams, alpine lakes, redwood trees and
the constantly changing seasons.

Visit my web gallery at: rojubo.com/jbolesart
Or email me at: rojubo@rojubo.com




Meet Artist Christine Muratore, Ironstone's Spring Obsession OPEN Division Artist


Christine Muratore   
Artist Statement:
Instead of investing in the limitations of creating art from hindsight, we should initiate the path of art with foresight.

The dynamic synergy of structural and organic relationship is evident in our environment. Color, light and texture merging at different moments in time visually transform objects in our environment. Though the objects remain constant, these joined influences change how they are seen.

This coexistence is visible in natural cycles or exposure through time and function.

Working with aspects of architectural restoration has given tangible reference to this relationship.

Individual thoughts, emotions and responses are products of underlying experience. One's perspective has a structural base formed by this history while remaining organic.

As new experiences unfold, people reconstruct that framework, expanding, discarding, or renewing perceptions from current influences upon that support. Learning to play an instrument can initially be a painful experience, once mastered, it's a source of joy.

Inspired by the structural and organic relationship, my compositions explore images, color and textures to create a visual history of experience, while alluding to the ongoing transformation of self. The intention is to capture the ambiguity of perception. 

Short description of Work: Paintings using oil, acrylics, complementing medium and materials where texture is essential to the compositional statement.  An emphasis on the organic and structural relationship through form, color and texture.  


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Meet Artist Bobbie Powell, Ironstone Spring Obsession OPEN Division artist



Bobbie Powell, Artist

Roseville CA 
bobbiepowell@surewest.net
www.rosevillearts.org
www.dailyartbeast.com

Bobbie is all about bright colors and heavy textures. She
creates using oils, acrylics, inks, watercolor, collage, etc.
doing landscapes, still life, narrative figurative, abstracts
and commissions upon request.
She is a self taught award winning artist, and attends art
instruction seminars and workshops with some of the best
contemporary artist-instructors in Placer and Sacramento
Counties. She has also been instructed and critiqued by
the nationally famous artists of Intensive Studies
Seminars in Taos, New Mexico.
Bobbie is represented by Patris’ Art Gallery and Studio in
Oak Park, California.
She has a small working studio in Roseville and can be
contacted via email. Her work is shown in the Directory of
Artists at the Roseville Arts website listed above, on
Facebook and she shares her thoughts and art process on
her blog, The Daily Art Beast.


Meet Artist Stephanie Benedict, Ironstone's Spring Obsession Open Division


Stephanie Benedict

sbenedictstudio.com
sbenedictblog.com
stephanieb@sbenedictstudio.com


Stephanie Benedict paints landscapes in oil,
acrylic, and gouache. She came to painting one
evening in the middle of her life, while wandering
through an art supply store. She was looking at
racks of stretched canvas—small ones, big ones,
square and long ones—all empty, white, and
standing in rows against the wall. Suddenly,
Stephanie started seeing paintings on them:
cityscapes, mountains, views through windows. She decided that night to
study painting, and she’s never looked back.
Stephanie earned a BA with honors from the University of California, Santa
Cruz, in History/Theatre Arts. Since that night at the art supply store, she’s
studied painting and drawing with Kathleen Dunphy, Scott Christensen, Terry
Miura, Susan Sarback, and Dan Samborski.
Stephanie is a native Californian, born in Burbank and raised in Sacramento.
After sampling life in Eugene and Boston, Stephanie returned to California.
She now resides in near Sacramento.
You can find Stephanie’s work at High Hand Gallery in Loomis, California,
and on her website, sbenedictstudio.com. She writes about painting, nature,
and painting nature on her blog, sbenedictblog.com.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Meet Artist Vickie Chew, Spring Obsession Open Division Artist


Vickie Chew Art



Vickie Chew is a local resident of Calaveras County. She attended Calaveras High School and never left the area as so many young locals do to earn a living and begin a career. Working in the local law enforcement community she began to study art in the mid 1990’s, as she found art to be great way to relax and escape the challenges of work. Vickie attended some local classes and workshops and took some college art courses while working on her BA in Business Administration degree. She is mostly self taught and pursues the challenges of Plein Air Painting. Her painting Airola Ranch Oak at the Kautz Ironstone Spring Obsession Show was originally painted as a small plein air study at the Airola Ranch off of Dogtown Road, outside of Angels Camp. She liked the scene so much that she painted the large painting shown here specifically for the Spring Obsession Show.

Meet Artist Carol Clark, Spring Obsession OPEN Division Artist


Artist:  Carol L. Clark


O-099 Valley Spring Fog and Sun  oil  24x30m  $400


Carol’s favorite medium is oil paint.  She loves their rich range from bright crisp to soft muted colors.  She also likes the richness that is achieved through glazing. Carol enjoys painting many subjects including local landscapes, historic buildings and homes, florals and still life.
  Carol is currently displaying this work at the Ironstone Vineyards Spring Obsession Show.  As a credentialed teacher she has taught art in California, Utah and Pennsylvania. Her formal Art education was at California State University at Long Beach.  While living in Pennsylvania, she sold work at the Fall Festival Art show in Pottstown and the Birdsboro Community Fine Art Show.  She lives in La Contenta, Valley Springs California. Her current work is sold as originals!   

O-098  Spring Flowers on an old Gate  Oil  12x16  $300

Meet Artist Karen Spotts, Spring Obsession Open Division Artist


KAREN SPOTTS




Born and raised outside of Phoenix, Karen graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelors degree in Art, and a secondary degree in Education.  She also earned a Masters degree in art education from Lesley University in Cambridge, Ma.  She has been teaching all media of high school art since the 1990s.

Karen has lived and worked in California, Illinois and Michigan.  She also spent five years in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during which time she traveled the world extensively.  She has raised three children.  Besides her passion for art, Karen collects and studies Native American arts and crafts and enjoys bicycling.

Pastels are Karen’s creative choice, although she has also perfected a printmaking process called Clayprints (pulling original, one of a kind monoprints from a painted, textured clay slab).  In addition to studio work, where she primarily paints from photographs she has taken on her travels, Karen enjoys Plein Air in such locations as Santa Fe and Taos.

Karen’s studio is in Evergreen, Colorado where she can be reached at:

303.803.4498

Meet Artist Ralph Strong, Spring Obsession Open Division Artist


Ralph Strong

Art Entry:  O-132  “Roman Market”  Open Division, Spring Obsession
Acrylic 12” x 16”

I was always interested in drawing, but eventually decided to follow an education toward engineering for reasons of practicality.  I had taken only two classes in art at Solano College in Suisun, California before beginning my career in engineering.  A good deal of mechanical drawing was required in both of my two engineering jobs.  For several years, I pretty much designed highway and water systems, including creating engineering maps with pen and ink.  Eventually, computer aided drafting (CAD) replaced the ink work and a dozen years later I retired.  This work experience, I think, had been chosen by myself to allow my early interest in drawing to continue in the engineering venue, and has given my retirement painting a certain technical accuracy approach, that now seems to me maybe a bit restrictive, and less fluid or expressive.  On the other hand, the tedious nature of my work experience gave insight in laying out a drawing or painting and more importantly, the patience to push through difficulty and complete it. 
After retirement, with the kids grown, my wife, Cathy, and I spent a lot of time at our summer place in Groveland California just west of Yosemite, where Cathy encouraged me to take some art lessons with Jim Leitzel, a local artist who happened to have a lifetime in art and instruction.  I found Jim and his style of teaching to be a true find, and with my newfound retirement time, I plan to continue and enjoy the experiences of painted art.

Meet Artist Cathryn Stong, Spring Obsession Open Division Artist



Cathryn Ann Strong


0-127, Chinese Camp Barn, Watercolor, Open Division, 18 x 24
 0-130, Calveritas Wall, Watercolor, Open Division, 11 x 14


At age 12, my first oil painting class was with senior citizens at their local center, which offered the only available painting class my parents could find.   It was not until my last year of high school that I was able to take another formal art class,  While in college, I was fortunate enough to enroll in  various art classes and  a drawing class under Wayne Thiebaud while working toward my B.A. at U.C. Davis.   Since I was on an accelerated course for teaching, I did not pursue an art major, but considered a double major.  When I transferred to San Jose State University for a teaching credential, the school was overcrowded, and because I could not get the teaching courses, my postgraduate work was in creative writing and art.   It was at San Jose State that I fell in love with watercolor painting. 
After college I sold paintings and accepted commissions, but during my working career and raising my children, I stopped all serious painting, although I was able to take a few art workshops mainly at Yosemite Art Center or Arts Benicia.   
One day, as my husband and I have a home in Groveland, CA, I noticed a painting class at Mountain Sage under the instructor, Jim Leitzell.   I have been taking classes with Jim off and on for two years and credit him for bringing me back to the art world and realizing my passion of watercolor painting.   Under his guidance, I won second place, best in Show, at Columbia College in 2010.  I continue to take art workshops with various artists at Copperopolis Art Gallery, with Jim in Groveland, CA, and also at the Yosemite Art Center every chance I get.  
 My work will be shown at the Groveland Library with the Sierra Professional Artists, Saturdays, April through June.   I have been a member of Sierra Professional Arts since 2010, and Ironstone Spring Obsession 2013 is the first art show that I have entered.
Phone:  209-962-5603.  Cell: 707-373-1232

Meet Artist Dana Wayne Phillips, Spring Obsession OPEN Division Artist




Dana Phillips        

DanaPhillips-Art.com


O-147 Saturday in the Fountain by Dana Wayne Phillips oil  16x12 $495
Dana Phillips is a Sacramento area artist who does landscapes and figures in oils, dividing his time between plein air and studio work.  He is a studio member at Capital ArtWorks. 


Dana has been accepted in juried plein air events including the Los Gatos Plein Air Festival, the Frank Bette Plein Air Paintout, the San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival, and the Epperson Gallery’s Valonna.  He has been included in the juried Sacramento Fine Arts Center exhibitions and in the 2012 California State Fair Exhibition where he received an Award of Merit.  In his first plein air event, the 2010 Winters Paint the Town, Dana received an artist’s choice award.   Dana has paintings currently hanging in First U.S. Community Credit Union in Rocklin, California, and the Koloa Rum Company in Kauai, Hawaii.
O-148 Long Ride Home by Dana Wayne Phillips oil 12x16 $495


Dana has taken workshops and classes with area artists including Debbie Gualco, Don Hatfield, Terry Miura, Deladier Almieda, Philippe Gandiol and Fongwei Liu. 


Dana was born and raised in Texas.  He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and then the University of San Diego, receiving a degree of Juris Doctor.  He practiced law in southern California for ten years before moving to Sacramento to work for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, where he retired as General Counsel after 22 years.

Meet Artist Ines Leontiev-Hogan, Spring Obsession Open Division


Inés Leontiev-Hogan
ARTIST STATEMENT

            My work tends to be intuitive and to reflect what is going on in my life at the time. The female form often ends up featured in much of my work for the simple reason that it is both awe-inspiring and incredibly beautiful to me.

This year has been about experimenting with different techniques and mediums as well as about healing the spirit. I am currently working on a series of collagraphs, as well as a series of portraits of family and friends. My focus has been centered on various printmaking methods, to include woodcut, monotype, relief, etching, drypoint, collagraph, and Safety-Kut. I often incorporate printmaking as well as oil, acrylic, and tempera paints onto wood panels to create mixed media and collage work.

I prefer working with mediums and materials that lend themselves to the element of surprise as it forces me to surrender all controls and enjoy the process of discovery. I often incorporate found objects or recycled materials in my work as I enjoy the surprises that surface as a result.  As I add layer upon layer of paint, paper, prints, and found objects onto a wood panel I get rewarded with a variety of options that I can then work further into a cohesive whole.
        
    Everything in life affects what I create, whether it is my multiculturalism, my mood, friends, family, garden, travels, books I read, artists I study, music I listen to or movies I watch. I tend to do better when I work on several pieces simultaneously because it feeds my very short attention span and keeps my creative juices flowing.

            I do not tend to think about what the viewer will see in what I create because the process is intuitive and very personal to me. What I do hope is that the final images enable the viewer to reflect and contemplate on the value and beauty of art in a unique way.