I love creating faces and compositions in a style I loosely call abstract cubism – not fully abstract and not fully cubist but a combination of the two. When I create faces, I am creating my own little world of people and I love getting lost in it. How do I want to align all parts of the face? Do I want to leave off any parts of the face? I recently started paintings florals and landscapes again after many years of not doing it. The challenge – and it is fun – is to paint a landscape or floral in my style while maintaining an interesting composition for the viewer.
I don’t have, and will never have, a BFA and an MFA in painting but have been studying for over 20 years. I won’t be a full time painter until I retire because I work full time to support myself. I love painting at home because I am surrounded by my work all the time and I like have my paintings close by when I am trying to figure out a problem with composition or color. I don’t think my constraints make me less of an artist – they make me more devoted to painting my vision. I have always been fascinated by business. Running my art business and learning all that I need to in order to be successful is very satisfying. It is exciting to be a one woman operation and I refuse to give it up.
So, I always remind myself to keep creating, keep growing, keep studying other artists, and keep learning from them. Most of all, I remind myself to never lose hope in me and what I can do.