Unseeing
words are just messier paint
On Printmaking
When I first studied abroad in England I got thrown into the Printmaking department and I will confess (since it’s years later) that I didn’t actually know what that meant. I had, of course, heard of etchings and lithographs when I studied art history, and done a lino...
Maintaining Inspiration
Many people think that being an artist means that you are creative 24/7; that amazing ideas blossom every morning and always turn into brilliant works of art. That artist’s live in a constant state of inspiration that effortlessly spills out into masterpieces...While...
On the souls dire need for abstraction
Cat bagel. Potato army. We live in a world where I can literally say any two absurd words together and instantly be bombarded with images of those words. Anything I can think up. It is fascinating, fun, and profoundly tragic. As an artist and a person I think about...
Summer in the studio
Summer vacation has always been tricky as an artist. My son is home all day, looking for something to do. The garden occupies absorbent amounts of time, going quickly goes from meek and mild to tawdry and unruly overnight. I throw myself into weeding and cultivating...
When there are no words
Art as language When I first started this blog back in the olden days of January, I was a little nervous. Nervous that I would run out of steam, that I would lack things to talk about, or the worst fear of all – that no one would read or care what I wrote. But I had a...
How to Start a Painting
One of the first questions I get asked when people find out my vocation is some variation of “How do you start a painting? Do you know what you’re going to paint when you start?” Which is an odd question if you think about it. Of course I do. And of course I don’t....
Surrounding Ourselves
In my last post I confessed to my fascination with chairs. Writing that post got me thinking about what I surround myself with and why; which in turn got me thinking about what other people surround themselves with and why. And all this thinking led me to a perfectly...
Pull up a chair
I recently renovated the attic of my 1885 house into my studio. I evicted the bat squatters, took the entire floor with it’s sloped ceilings and odd angles, and molded it into a sprawling space for creating. An artist studio is a critical indulgence in this vocation –...
On Unseeing
I remember the first time I read John Berger's Ways of Seeing. I was just starting University and I found an old yellowed copy at the used bookstore nearby. For anyone who doesn't know, Berger's work rose out of a British television series in the 70's of the...
Fall Fun
Hey RVA, there's lots of great ways to see some of my new work this fall. Current Art Fair, VA's Contemporary Art Fair was this past weekend but no worries if you missed it. Art Style Design Richmond is coming up Nov 9&10 at the Highpoint. And ThinkSmall 10 is the...