What's the Meaning of This?
The big question, what is behind the art?
I like to think of my art as a portal into another reality. A snap shot in time where the viewer has to pick up the story line and find the end. If you were to open one door and step through, you would step into a new world with all the same parts, just put together differently. Everything is a little brighter, the music sounds a little more joyful, the flowers are more beautiful, the weather is perfect and the bunnies rule.
About the Artist
Professionally, I am an architect. I used my artistic skills and creativity while attaining my degree, but while pursuing other interests and other things throughout my life, art has been a constant. I have never, not created art.
I currently live in Illinois in a suburb of Chicago, but I was raised in northern Wisconsin. I only mention where I grew up because the landscape had a profound influence on my sense of beauty. As a kid, I spent a lot of time outdoors playing in the woods, picking wild flowers and riding my bike out in the countryside. My mind still goes back to the fields and woods of Wisconsin when I think about what is beautiful in this world.
I have been asked about how I developed my drawing style and how I arrived at my subject matter. When I write it down using terminology like "develop" and "subject matter", it starts to sound planned and scientific, a bit stuffy. The truth is, it's not stuffy at all. I am a self taught artist and my art is the natural result of years of drawing and discovering new methods and materials to express myself.
Early on, I designed stained glass windows. Designing for glass begins with a line drawing so that a pattern can be created. Because the properties of glass are limiting and the soldered joints used to hold the glass together are large, the patterns need to be simple. While I started drawing more, my line drawings became more complex and I made an easy transition away from glass.
I have always enjoyed drawing and for the last three years I have really focused on my current style of line drawing of trees and flowers. I describe this as my weird tree phase, but I don't think its a phase at all. My style of drawing is the culmination of my love of pattern, love of color and love of our natural surroundings. The process of drawing is a methodical calm, an intense relaxation where I can escape into trailing patterns, joyful colors and a little bit of humor. My most favorite drawings are large and intricately detailed so that the viewer can return multiple times and find something new.
How It's Made
A material change
So I've been told there is confusion about how my art is made. Not confusion about the fact that I take a pen, create a line drawing and then color it with colored pencils. That part is pretty simple and not confusing. The confusing part is that I draw on masonite boards. Why, you ask? To paraphrase Spongebob SquarePants, "because paper is for squares".
Okay - so in artists' circles, I might get smacked for saying that, but to each their own. Go ahead and use all the paper you want, I'm sticking with masonite. I discovered masonite as a material to draw on by happenstance. I was invited to create art blocks on masonite for an art vending machine.
If you don't know what masonite is, it is the material used for clip boards, also known as hard board. It is produced with wood fibers (sawdust) that is pressed together with glue and made into boards. The challenge was how do I get my images on the boards. My best option seemed that I should try to turn the masonite into a paper-like substitute. So I did a test, and primed some masonite boards and began to draw on them and it worked out pretty good.
It worked so well, I just kept working with masonite as a substrate, making larger and more complex drawings. My big motivation at that point was to be able to avoid having to frame all my work. If I could draw on boards and finish the edges all I would need is a wire on the back to hang works. Boom, no glass, no frame, no backing to worry about and yes, save tons of money.
That being said, coloring was a whole new adventure. To color on primed boards is a slow, tedious process that requires a couple of steps. The pigmentation registers differently on the primed surface than it does on paper so I spent a lot of time experimenting with colors. Not only that, the pigment also requires being worked into the surface of the primer and then the excess material removed, leaving a final image with a clean, smooth finish.
The final result is a slightly glossy finish. Some of the texture from sanding the boards does register through on the final product, but I found that it gives the pieces an added dimension, much like the brush strokes of a painting. I have started framing my pieces in floater frames like oil paintings. They do not require glass and the finished edges are visible, so each piece feels like a really special art creation. When you hang one in your house you will look like a savvy art collector with great taste, which of course you are.
In fact, the beautiful, final product is why I have decided to keep working with masonite. It is a slower drawing process and I have to go to the store, buy boards, primer and sand paper. Then I have to wait for good weather so that I can prime the boards outside in my yard on a tarp. I don't make a habit of praying, but when I paint boards, I pray the wind doesn't blow twigs and leaves on them and that bugs don't crawl across the wet surface. Every board needs a minimum of 2 coats of primer. As a result of all this, I have stacks of boards in my studio, a cabinet full of primer and sand paper. I live with the secret fear that in the middle of the winter when the weather is cold, I might run out of prepared boards. And still, I prefer primed masonite to paper.
