The latest

PAINTING
I began taking art classes soon after high school but quickly learned it wasn’t my ideal for artistic progression. I played around with different mediums, techniques, styles but never felt a connection to what I was creating yet alone being graded on them.

I’ve always loved Van Gogh and was mesmerized by the texture and flow of his work. The texture of a painting is what captivates me. I stand and try to study the movement of the strokes and fight the temptation to run my fingers across the paint. One day after revisiting yet another painting I was creating, that I just couldn’t seem to complete, I started pushing the paint around the palette with my mixing knife. I noticed that the paint stood up when I pulled the knife away.  My mind sort of wandered and I imagined an entire canvas covered with paint just like that.

I grabbed a fresh canvas and just started pushing paint around almost like I was sculpting. I was fascinated by the idea that I couldn’t revisit the strokes or redo a particular element in the painting. I just had to place the paint on the canvas and trust it. In that moment, I realized the brush was my problem. With the brush, I second guessed each stroke. I revisited things over and over again until I didn’t feel anything when I looked at the painting.
When I finished my first knife painting I posted my new work for artistic review and felt I came full circle when I heard the work being compared to a modern day Van Gogh. It just clicked for me.  I lost track of time and I could feel the connection to what I was creating.

MUSIC
I love music.  I’m fascinated by the idea that you can hear a song from 20 years ago and it takes you back to exactly the moments you heard them.  You can recall details, sounds, smells… it’s amazing.  A few years ago I picked up a guitar and a couple easy chord books and taught myself how to play guitar.  It’s nothing too fancy but when I get my guitar out and play… I lose all track of time.  I jot down my experiences and emotions and started writing songs right away.  I knew it was something that came easier to me than some because I could just “hear” the next sound I wanted as I played.  I’m not some musical prodigy but thoroughly enjoy it to my core.

Many people feel special connections to certain songs.  Romantics couples have “their song”, runners have their playlist that pushes them to the next level, movies control the emotion of the story by the song and I never paint without music.  It molds and shapes my work as much as the knife and paint I apply.

The molding of two passions-

It's tough trying to divide your time between two things you love so much... well, that and golf oh and kids and managing a household and well... you get the point.  :)  


I don't paint unless I'm listening to music and I often wonder how what impact the music I'm listening to has on the pieces I'm working on.  I've thought about painting a 'song' and not telling people what the song is.  I thought about commissions from love birds that have "their song".  Or what about doing entire albums as a collection.  Since you really can interpret songs however you hear them, I already started to think about the paintings I've already done and how they correspond with.


Like the painting above.  It's called London Traffic but every time I look at it I think of a song called "London" by Brandon Heath.  Here are the lyrics:
My train pulled in to Waterloo
I found myself wishing you
Were here with me in London
Standing on the river Thames
Taking photographs of Parliament
And old Big Ben was ringing

You know it’s everything that I imagined it would be
I had no idea that it would feel this empty

Where are you tonight
While I stand here and cry
Watching double-decker buses pass me by
And to tell you the truth
It’s all that I can do
To keep from jumping a plane that’s headed home
To you

I took a stroll down Abbey Road
Tried to peak inside the studio’s
And somewhere along the way I bought you flowers
And a pocket map of the Underground
Cause You and I both know I get turned around
I’m so lost without you

Though it’s everything that I imagined it would be
I had no idea that it would feel this empty

Chorus

6 long nights and seven days I’ll cross the pond back to the states
I can’t wait

Where are you tonight while I stand here and cry
Watching all the black umbrellas pass me by
And to tell you the truth it’s all that I can do
To keep from jumping on a plane headed homeSo I’m jumping on a plane headed home to you


I'm anxious to choose songs that are inspiring to me and painting my interpretation of it. Some may be literal translations, some may be derived from one line or lyric, some may just my connection to the song (like hearing the song for the first time while on the boat in Lake Powell).