Brett interviewed me...

Bonjour D!

What influences surrounded you when you decided to painting?

Well, as far as school is concerned, I had two choices: art or music.  I knew I would go to Mason Gross (tuition remission) so technically I could have studied either.  When I was in high school I figured I would go into music, specifically early music, but quite honestly there are NO schools in this country with the type of music program that would be able to facilitate a musician like me.  The only place to go to be successful in my field is England.  My dad also advised me that the music business wasn’t pretty and that unless I wanted to teach music I wouldn’t be able to make much money (there isn’t much work for church musicians in this country).  That’s when I decided to study painting at school and definitely keep going with my musical career, just not get a degree in it right now.  So, all in all, music was my first choice but I know that I made the right decision.  I feel and have been feeling like I’m doing the right thing with myself.

You work mainly in oil with a more classical style right? Do you step out
of that world at all?

Yes, I generally work in oil but I do wonder from time to time.  I do very well in the clay department.  I’ve been making some really cool things.  And yeah most people say I work with a classical style.  Really though, I’m physically an abstract painter, but I don’t really paint ‘abstract’ images.  My images always contain a lot of abstraction in them.  I convey unique moments of discovery. I’ve been working with water as a subject for nearly 3 years now, and I haven’t blocked yet! I’m still learning and probably won’t ever stop.

What is your most prided piece?

That’s really hard to answer… but at the moment, I’m leaning towards a painting that I did in the spring of 2010. It has these swirling hands underwater with a strong light source off to the right.  I’m not often proud of my work, but that one pulls on my heart strings every time I look at it. I swear there is a piece of my soul in that painting somewhere.

Your father works in the music department, do you dabblein any other art
forms or just visual?

I am a singer. I focus mainly on early music.  I do sing classical things sometimes when the occasion calls for it.  I mostly sing renaissance polyphony, but I also do a lot of solo work.  I also do intuitive massage… I really do a lot of things. But they all relate.

Are there any other artists in your family?

My grandmother on my dad’s side was an impressionist.  She was an incredible painter! Her paintings and my paintings cover my parent’s house. Unfortunately, I never got to meet her. She died way before I was born, but I know that her talent runs through my veins. So that’s good enough for me until I see her in heaven.

When did you first start painting and how has that influnced you life?
My first memory of painting is when I was either 3 or 4 years old. I was in preK and I remember painting a big piece of paper dark blue with poster paint.  I haven’t put down my brush since.  It has influenced my life in many indescribable ways.  When I was in high school for example, when I wasn’t at a choir rehearsal, I was up in my bedroom, copying renaissance paintings (that was how I learned to do what I do by the way).  Painting has been in a sense my life- long lover or partner.  I always look at things  and think to myself, ‘how would I paint that?’ or ‘which pigments would I use to make that color?’

5 tools you keep in your art box?

Besides the obvious brushes and paint and things-  a palette knife, a rag, a 5-in-1, roll of tape, and extra tubes of pthalo blue!

How do you feel about more abstract forms of painting, photo realism and
urban art?

I say painting is painting and you have to be true to the type of painter that you are, no matter if you fit into any of the categories.  But, to be honest, I tend to have a problem with abstract expressionists as people. Not necessarily the art itself.  It’s not my favorite, but I have respect for it.  I really just don’t like the people and how they talk about art and themselves. By the way, this is just a general feeling, and I have met a few abstract expressionists that I have a great deal of respect for.  So far, however, the stigma that I have in my head applies 95% of the time.

Ideal place to create?

If I could lay in my amazing bed all day everyday and paint there, that would be friggin’ awesome! Unfortunately, I do not have the space to facilitate such a fantasy at the moment… somday I’ll make it happen.

If there was one way you could push your work farther what would that be?

The best way I could push my work further than where it is would be to paint all day everyday and let it push itself.  I let my painting go where it needs to go and I try very hard not to over analyze it and take control.  If something isn’t feeling right, I stop immediately.  I’m a very intuitive painter.  In a lot of ways, it’s my paint that tells me what to do.

How do you think your work would be looked at in times past, is there a
specific time in which you feel your work would fit best be it past
present or future?

I think Michelangelo would have digged my stuff.  People then definitely would have thought I was a bit strange, but I think I would have been pretty successful in 15^th cent. Italy.

We’ll be done with school in May, (hopefully), what are your plans how are
you preparing?

I have decided this week actually to take 5 yrs. But my plan after I get my degree is to move to the UK and go to school for art conservation.  I’m preparing by pacing myself and trying to stay organized. I will also be able to pursue my musical career over there and have already made tons of connections.

Will you ever put the brush down, or do you think you’ll be working well
into old age?
Good question Brett. That made me go ‘hmmmmm…’  I have to say that in order to be a real true artist, you have to be able to put the brush down.  Who is to say that you won’t pick it back up anyway?  So yes, someday I will put my brushes away, but for an indefinite amount of time.  But even if I never did pick them up again, there would always be paint on my mind and in my veins.  So I guess, B, it really all depends on your definition of brushes…


What direction will you be headed for your thesis project?

Speaking of Michelangelo, his ‘Last Judgment’ in the Sistine Chapel inspired my thesis idea. I’m not going to go into too much detail at this point, but to give you a small inkling of an idea,  it’s going to be 13’ x 9’…