When I think about my art and about being an artist I have a difficult time writing up a statement of any sort. To summarize why I make art and how I make art is important. I have never had formal art training beyond high school so my depth of knowledge about art history is limited. What I have learned about making art has evolved throughout the last 15 years of my life, into what you see now. By choice I have struggled with the creative process, from the medium to the subject matter, to the concept. For many years I fought to merge collage and painting. I believe the only reason I can make art is because I have kept trying, experimenting and never losing sight of my responsibility to share. I used to think that making art was completely about process, after practicing my own process, I became aware of the fact that I did not have a "thing". For the last two years I have been working on a large "Forest" Tree Series. I think what you see in my art is my personal interpretation of all kinds of things but specifically I am influenced by color. The kind of color reminiscent of childhood, the color in graffiti, the color of light, the color of urban stuff, the color of monochrome. There is nothing symbolic in my work. You will not find political or religious messages seeping in through the cracks of my art and if you do it was unintentional on my part. What is intentional is line quality, everything I do is free hand, no tracing or projection. Also just as intentional are the seemingly visible mistakes. Creating a series of trees for my "Forest" Series has been my focus. My techniques have remained the same with the exception of incorporating wood grain contact paper into my collage. I appreciate the cross section of the wood grain instead of painting or collaging that part of the tree. It is a contrast between real and abstract graffiti inspired line quality. Bright colors versus the brown shades of wood trees simply represents life, a forest of trees growing, rising up as a family of trees, strong and full of hope. Some of my favorite artists are Blaine Fontaine, Sam Flores, Aaron Kraten, Julie West, Kathie Olivas, and Aaron Jasinki. My favorite art magazine is Beautiful/Decay. I currently live in downtown Chattanooga and work for Collier Construction Company. I make art all year long specifically for a biannual show with a group of women for the Clothesline Art Show. I am also fortunate to have my work hanging at Fitness Together on Gunbarrel Road. Look for my work at the upcoming Art.a.ma.jig, a auction raising money for the arts community and education in Chattanooga.
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