My desire to be an artist..
Ever since I was a child my life has been entwined with anything involving creativity. I spent all my time studying the proportions of animals and exploring all the colors in everyday things. It is amazing how many colors are in the mane of a horse. These things were all encompassing growing up, and ultimately it was my goal to move what I saw to paper and canvas. This was frustrating at first, for my hands would not do what my mind told them, but with practice and art classes my body began cooperating. Throughout high school I took as many art classes as I could sign up for in hopes that I would learn how to give life to my paintings.
As an Artist....
Well it is a funny thing viewing life through the eyes of an artist. Things just look different to me. Moreover, these differences lead me down the road toward the field of Psychology. In college I delved into the psychological and philosophical views on life. These studies gave me confidence in my artistic perceptions and I found the stirring of life forming in my paintings. Spirit and soul began to show through when I painted and I began to simply disappear into my art, forgetting who and where I was at times. Well, these occurrences lead me to study psychology in much more depth and ultimately I focused my studies toward Art therapy. Upon completion of my Bachelor Degree I decided to proceed toward a Masters degree in counseling with hopes of helping others heal through the arts.
Throughout my education, I have painted numerous commissioned pet portraits. When first asked to do a commission of a pet, I realized that this would be a perfect way to blend painting and my love of animals. Unlike most pet portraits, I ventured into different ways of capturing a pet’s spirit by playing with light and color values, ultimately to help the eye transcend reality. It was a focus on the spiritual not the visual that has guided me throughout my artistic venture.
Exploring new art forms....
Within the past four years I have been introduced to the art of engraving and scrimshaw. I have found that this medium is amazing to work with, the ivory is so much more alive than canvas or paper. I feel very privileged to create a piece of art upon something that is art in and of itself. Especially when the ivory is inset into a beautiful hand crafted knife or gun. Engraving and bulino work is my next step to master; for to bring spirit to metal, like canvas, would bring me full circle as an artist.
“The role of the artist I now understood as that of revealing through the world-surfaces the implicit forms of the soul.”
Joseph Campbell quotes (American prolific Author, Editor, Philosopher and Teacher, 1904-1987)
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. ~William Faulkner
From the living fountain of instinct flows everything that is creative; hence the unconscious is not merely conditioned by history, but is the very source of the creative impulse. (Carl Jung)
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. ~Henry Ward Beecher
The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purpose within him. (Carl Jung)
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
Pablo Picasso quotes
Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. (Carl Jung)
Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. ~Stella Adler
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen. ~Leonardo da Vinci
To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist. ~Schumann
Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail. ~Theodore Dreiser, Life, Art, and America, 1917
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better. ~André Gide
Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping. ~Jean Cocteau
