Frequently Asked Questions
Brief responses to questions I've almost been asked
What inspires your work?
I think we can all agree that I'm not blazing any profound trancendental trails here. I like to create. I enjoy inventing impossible worlds and pondering questions like, "How does a girl with a fin operate a manual gearbox?" It's also possible that drawing and painting keeps me sane.
Okay, semi sane.
Okay, it helps me pretend to be sane.
As for the deeper truths within the ineffable mystery of the human condition as it relates to social pressures in an ever changing mechanized and interconnected world, I will leave that to critics and historians.
What are your influences?
Where do I begin?
I watched a lot of 1966 Batman and Star Trek as a kid, which may explain my tendency toward vivid colors and simple shapes, particularly in my oil and acrylic work.
My parents had early Mustangs (long gone now) and a Scout with a Ford 302 and sliding glass windows, Grandpa had a ‘55 Chevy pickup, and great grandpa had a ‘50 Chevy pickup and a ‘66 Coronet. Various uncles had Travelalls, Comets, a 1969 Ford pickup, a ‘53 Dodge truck and on and on. I never stood a chance.
I love old cars and trucks. They’re so much cooler than anything made today. Take the 1957 Dodge Sweptide. It’s a pickup with fins! Fins!! How awesome is that? How about the Ford Econoline pickup? It’s just so wonderfully weird. They took a van, and chopped it up. Boom! Pickup. And, as a bonus, the crumple zone is your face.
I read a lot of science fiction and comic books. Perhaps the comics are not a surprise. Robert Heinlein and Terry Pratchett are favorites. Mercedes Lackey’s SERRAted Edge novels are a lot of fun, as are the works of John DeChancie.
Then there’s art itself. I like paintings where you can see the brushstrokes. Not crude haphazard brushstrokes, mind you. Brushstrokes with a purpose. Brushstrokes that work together to convey… something. I like realism too, don't get me wrong, but if I had my druthers, I'd fill the house with Impressionism.
My favorite artists are, in no particular order -
Frank Frazetta, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Leonardo Da Vinci (c,mon, he invented the helicopter police chase!) John Singer Sargent, Julie Bell, Adam Hughes, Dan Brereton, Edgar Degas, Keith Weesner, J.C. Leyendecker, and many, many more.
Where did you get your start?
Most of my very early work wound up in school notebooks, competing violently with the vital lessons of various classes. I always had modeling clay on hand at home, and created and destroyed entire civilizations on a daily basis.
Do you take commission work?
Unfortunately, my current schedule does not permit me to accept commissions at this time. It’s all I can do to scrape up enough time to work on my own ideas. And I must work on my own ideas. If they’re allowed to accumulate, they’ll quickly overwhelm my meager brain cells and take over, and Imagination will have a walking avatar on Earth, twisting reality and bending physics. Catastrophe!
Where else can I find your art?
I have my work up for sale on ebay and Daily Paintworks. If you're interested in work-in-progress shots and pictures of my dog, you can find me on the usual social media hangouts listed on the left of the page.
Blondes, Brunettes, or Redheads?
Yes.
Why is the sky blue?
Blue is a good color. It goes well with trees and grass.