Art is my life. And the act of living a life, experiencing this human form, is as art, each action, each thought, another stroke upon our individual canvases.

Pablo Picasso stated, “Every act of creation begins with an act of destruction.” And so it is in life, our strokes are often misplaced, distorted, unrefined, and those strokes eventually are destroyed in order to create something beautiful.

When I was a young teenager, I drew a naked figure. My mother scolded me for the subject matter. Upset, I swore if I couldn’t draw what I wanted to, I’d never draw again. In 1994, when I was 19 I was incarcerated in the Texas penal system and had ample time to reconsider many things, including my oath to never draw again.

Graphite and colored pencils were easily accessible so I mastered those mediums first. In 1998 a friend gave me a professional set of watercolors and some brushes. I spent many years mastering watercolors and to this day enjoy painting in this medium. In 2001 I discovered acrylic paints and shortly after that moved into oils, my favored medium.

I do not believe discovering and mastering mediums alone, makes one an artist. Art demands more of us than capability. It requires passion, vision, depth, layers of humanity, symbolism and the breath of life. As we mature in our vision and our capability to share that in some expressive form, art and the artist are together made. I am often as amazed by the end result, as a by-stander, feeling moved and touched upon by the master’s hand.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.