Bunny Attack - May 2017

Biography:

I am a Madison artist, and am mostly self-taught. I have taken a few art classes throughout the years, but have established my style on my own time and my own terms. It is through a quiet observation that most of my work comes to life. Introverted and imaginative, I spend my life in a state of observation and interpretation; I am mostly drawn to the colors of the fading day, the patterns and details presented in the natural world, the stories that come to life via melodies, harmonies and lyrics in my favorite music. I take interest in the darker side of things and find myself representing a personal and inner duality in my illustrations; I am intrigued by the complexity of our experiences, perceptions, decisions and motivations that make up the experience of life and my concepts are usually inspired by personal ones. I don’t seek it out, I let the images come to me, and I capture the details using my pens or my camera. With my work, I hope to convey the emotions and beautiful details that make up my existence, and encourage the viewer to take a closer look within to appreciate their own life experience.

About “The Dangers of Living” (collection title)

Upon creation, these pieces were never meant to be in a collection together, mostly created separately within a 5 year span. The reason they ended up in a collection together is that they follow a common thread and have helped establish the artist I wanted to be, and feel like I have become. Fumbling about throughout my 20’s and testing the waters of different people and different lives, I have struggled to create a personal style in terms of my art. I have always been interested in the darker side of life and the stories that lie within, but never really knew how to tell those stories, or portray what I felt. The first pieces I created that fit this feeling was the “Hang in there, baby” series, self-portraits shot in a garage, and inspired by the despair that some experience. I was excited by this new direction, until then I mainly focused on nature photography, which I enjoy, but felt there was something lacking. I didn’t want to blend in. I sensed the shift to a more interesting artist inside of me evolving outward and learning to speak. The next year, I created an illustration of an owl in black and white, the first in my current illustrative style. My drawings and paintings have always been colorful, depicting animal and nature scenes. Although some were abstract, there was not a distinct style connecting them together. Using winding lines, stippling and anthropomorphism, I found my style and began telling the story of my life. Each of the illustrations, although beginning as simple ideas they turned out, somewhat unintentionally, to be self-portraits.