I remember always being fascinated with how things looked in space- the feeling of how objects were placed and the invisible pull between them. My sister, when she was mad at me, would go into my room and move around the items on my dresser or turn them backwards. Ugggh! It was like someone messing with my head. So, I think that is when composition began to become important to me, although I couldn’t have verbalized it then.
In college I wanted to be an illustrator. There were these huge, heavy illustration manuals called the “American Showcase” that had the “best” illustration artwork of the year in them. I pored over these books! Man, I wanted to be in one! Visual stories told in such a unique way, humor that cut so deep with a picture, portraits that would make me weep for their beauty. These images fueled my need to learn about painting, learn about why some art moved me and why some did not. I was not able to attend a “classical” art school, plus, in the 80’s “fine art” schools had little respect anymore. I was like a beggar looking in a restaurant window when it came to “museum” artwork- I knew I wanted it, but could not indulge, so illustrators became my heros, my teachers. It’s funny, but many of those illustrators that I had admired over the years turned into professional “fine artists” and I believe their work is so strong today because of their grounding in design and illustration. To be a storyteller is tough. To please a client is tougher. To please a client while telling their story and yet maintain an artists’ individual style is the ultimate challenge. So, my work has always been based in storytelling and even now I start to think about the end result at the very beginning.
