Going Hard In the Paint

"When it is all finished,
you will discover it was never random"
-Anonymous 
​

    Would you believe me if I said I completed my first painting almost a year ago? Probably. I never claimed to be a Monet, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, or Picasso. But when I tell you I stinking love painting I'm not lying. Painting for me is like a step child I gained in marriage (or how I imagine it would feel). Photography was my baby, my first true love. Then design came to me, the just as beautiful second children I loved just the same but I'd always compared the two. Then there was painting and other mediums that got thrown onto me. These children who drained me because I had to work at it, yet I made them as my own and learned to love something that wasn't necessary natural. 
    When I was close to graduation I had to take a few final fine arts courses to move on and since I had taken every photo, printmaking, and design class under the sun I was forced out of my comfort zone of digital arts. I always said I was horrible drawer and wrejected the idea of paint until this semester. It was then I had two painting professors who change that perspective for me. The first professor was Phillip Jackson. A atmosphere oil painter, Jackson work focuses on the essence of his subjects and heavily related to magic in everyday objects. His work has an touch of spirituality incorporated while looking at his subject's purpose. As I worked at Everlasting Dualities, I was photographing mundane objects but also looking how family's affiliation with religion played a part in the relationship dynamic. He was a huge supporter in this and he really helped me look at the world a different way in all mediums. He encouraged my moody, dramatic side and I'll forever be grateful his teaching and mentoring found me. Next was Charlie Buckley. A realistic painter working from photographs, he opened my eyes to the different methods of painting and things that went into a painting (building a huge canvas, working in fresco, photo transfer, etc.) and help me really find what I liked! In this course we made a large food painting of our choice and that's when my first baby "Feeling Crabby" was born (after four months of sweat and tears). I found I loved the shapes crabs and their claws made and I could actually incorporate bright colors and still make it moody!
   With all of this, I'm so excited to say I'll be showing my paintings (and Everlasting Dualities) for the first time in September at Calvert Brewery in September. Until then I'm going to be adding to my series The Coastal Collective, coastal scenes inspired by real coastal people. Paint has a official place in my heart yet at the same time so do these professors. When I'm in the classroom with my own group of students, I think of professors like Jackson and Buckley. They left their mark on me for the fact even though they were educators, they were artists and hustlers. The lessons they taught were learn from experience and they had specific style and passion to them that was contagious! I can only hope to help these students shine the way they helped me!