Childhood things

Rubber tires, fake fur, and old cut up pantyhose from Halloween costumes past. Paints, papers, jars, and stencils. Bits of clay, wire, metal, and glitter. Little boxes of round pebbles, dulled broken pieces of glass, various hardware, and springs. Scraps of ribbon, leather, and feathers. Old dried flowers, seeds, trinkets and things. Well played with matchbox cars, a stack of Chinese fortune papers. Spirit pins and an old dried up friendship flower from a guy just to say thanks for all the help in school. Wax candle stubs and candle molds. Notebooks filled with ideas and sketches and memories. Boxes of letters from friends, a time capsule opened at last. All of this gets sorted through. Some discarded, others treasured, none overlooked.

Early Influences

I remember painting in kindergarten and first grade. Those huge jugs of watery tempura paint and stiff brushes with layers of hard, chipped paint covering the handles. That pretty much described the easels as well. I wanted to be out in the hallway painting for hours each day, but we were only allowed out there once every couple of weeks. That was where I painted my rendering of the Statue of Liberty. I won an award for it. Looking at it years later I realized that it was a pretty realistic silhouette. Undoubtedly, this was one of the places that inspired my art career years later. The other place would have been at my grandmother's dining room table making crafts with construction paper, glue and glitter.