Tendons in the Wrist

For me, the connection I make with models is most important in my work. How I portray the figures in my paintings is decided by the model and who they are to me. A model may even occasionally represent someone from my past. Kim is good at bringing girls from childhood to mind. These cousins, family friends, and ladies that sparked ideas in my life are now a part of my art story. Jordan inviting me into her life through her stories sparked my imagination. I combine my life with her life to create works of art. Kids wading in creeks are a combination of her stories and what I remember from my visits to my relative farms. 

All my models have begun posing first for nudes. My passion with drawing the nude began at an early age. My passion for developing my drawing into a fine art form is what draws me to the person inside the model I am drawing. I have great respect for all my models. That respect grows with each session. Respect develops the lines and smudges I use to develop my drawing.

Nudes are more than breasts, hips and a cute buttock. Nudes are tendons in the wrist and behind the knees, veins crossing the pelvis, knee caps, crooked noses, breasts that have grown the health of a child. Models and art have changed the vision before me each time I work with the nude. My hand is sensitive to my thoughts - to what I learn from each model. The nude is a magical relationship between model and artist. We learn how to draw from teachers and books,  but we bring passion and respect when we see ourselves.

A New Way of Communicating

Art is a wordless language of mind and soul. We learn while teaching during the creative process. Artists open themselves entirely to the human experience, tears are treasured with smiles as we express ourselves to ourselves. Mixing just the right color in tune with our feelings comes as we grow as artists. Each painting expands our understanding of ourselves. Each carries our hope to bring some understanding to others.

A simple painting of a lone peach can cause one to pause and ease the pain they may be carrying, or simply remind them of that first peach mom cut up for them as a kid. Then again, it could be just the right painting to add a bit of color to a room. Even then it is brightening someone's life.

Fifty-thousand years ago a group of people sat around a fire eating dinner while others chipped a away at pieces of flint making arrows and spear heads. One rose up and began drawing a horse on the wall of their cave. He or she was expressing their thoughts with a new way of communicating. Art was born. 

Today, all artists carry on with what that first artist gifted us with. Our inspiration comes from everywhere, both from inside and from the world we live in. We tell people of the white roses growing in our garden in one painting. In another we create a canvas of total chaos to express our inner thoughts. Though we create with one thought, we have to realize others will place their ideas and values on our works too. Ideas and values that are totally strange to all we believe in. Still we have a victory in that we caused others to think, to consider possibilities they may not have thought of.

I've had people see totally different stories in my work that I could not see while working on the piece nor at the end of a piece. If artists are lucky they will learn how they brighten someone's life, open a mind to new ideas or a new way of living. The importance of art grows within me each day.