My Style

I paint realistically, but with a smoothed-over cartoonish style that could be compared to imagery from children books. I paint my subjects in a way that comes naturally for me, and the end product gets across a signature of my personal voice that I can’t avoid. Even if I’d like to paint with realistic precision or a hazy impression of the idea, I can’t help but fiddle with it until it evolves into the visual mark I always make. I’ve learned to live with it. I suppose this pseuso-realism conveys the idea that I like to be straightforward and unapologetic about clarity with my subject, but absolute detail and accuracy are not necessary. “Close enough” I sometimes say to my students. “We get the picture.” I don’t mind at all if certain parts of the piece are a little off-kilter or have a slightly wonky perspective. A little more interesting, human, and goofy, I say.

I am often told I should illustrate children’s books. It’s true I have drawn a good deal of influence from Mother Goose, Brother’s Grimm, and Hans Christian Anderson. My mother often read the classics to us, and I’m not sure I knew of many other children’s tales until I was forced to read more modern books in school. Imagery from the famous tales appeared much as my paintings do now—realistic without being photographic, slightly stylized, and colorful. My painting subjects probably come from a similar place in the imagination that brought to life Little Bo Peep, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Little Match Girl. It’s for kids, but a sinister twist seems to be lurking in the mix.

I like to exaggerate color; I just can’t help it. When I try to make a neutral-colored piece I get bored and blah feeling and find a way to spice it up with color. The nature of my subject doesn’t read in black and white. My mind-states don’t feel anything like neutral states. Color is, to me, the most powerful tool of visual expression, and I’ve always delighted in the amazing fact that I get to fool around with the Real Deal. The building blocks of the world. The vibrant, expressive, heart-grabbing, wow-producing tools of beauty. I understand that subtle colors have their place, too, and some of my favorite artists use them like poetry. But I can’t resist the enchantment of straight-out-of-the-tube color. When I occasionally tone it down for the sake of making a point, my next piece pops out with a vengeance of color.

This post is a composite of three previous posts from my old blog, September 2014.