My goal is to inspire happiness, hope, and wonder through an artistic celebration of God’s creation. I want to take your breath away! I want to bless you with beauty!
Mecca
My Inspiration
God’s glorious creation, the riches of human history, and the emotions that a scene or subject imbues.
My Method
As I work, I love playing with CONTRASTS and creating a piece you JUST WANT TO TOUCH!!!
I delight in using thin, watery washes and heavily sculpted textures; pure, bright colors and heavily mixed, mucky-muddy colors; brightest lights & deepest darks, warm & cool; while leaving areas more unfinished & just downright overworking an area; creating glassy, glossy wet & bone matte dry areas; messy & tidy; defined & foggy…ALL In the SAME PAINTING when possible!!
No color, touch, technique or treatment is out of the question or off the menu for me. LIFE is naturally limiting and requires great discipline to succeed in your passion. In art, as I pursue my life’s passion with focused discipline, I relish the opportunity to explore beyond the boundaries of a set style or approach.
My History as an Artist
My patient propensity to spend long, enjoyable hours on art projects in grade school led my parents to send me to art classes after school and eventually hire an adult artist to tutor me privately at the age of eleven. My foundational training was primarily in pencil, charcoal, pastels and acrylic.
Eventually, I would go on to earn dual degrees from Arizona State University: a Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting, and a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art with an emphasis in Sculpture (1995). At the university, I branched out into three-dimensional art, working primarily in stone, metals (bronze, aluminum, steel, & copper), concrete, wax, clay and plaster.
But always, my true passion remained with painting. And it was in college that I absolutely fell in love with OIL painting, in particular.
Shortly after graduation from the university, I joined The Phoenix Art Group (PAG) in Phoenix, Arizona. From 1996-2003, I worked with the PAG painting & sometimes designing under internationally collected artists such as Douglas, Augustine, and Jardine. While working with the PAG, I created paintings that sold around the world.
Paintings for places or people of notoriety while with the PAG: I created 4 massive 8 x 11 ft paintings of New York city bridges for a New York City Hilton, painted a small portrait for one of the palaces of the crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, created artwork for the penthouse suite at Caesar’s Palace, and designed many original works for countless Spring and Fall shows for the home interiors Highpoint show in Highpoint, North Carolina as well as the Phoenix Art Group gallery in AZ.
My work under those incorporated artist names has been made into posters and prints which provided affordable artwork for design & furniture stores like Ethan Allen, Rob & Stucky, Z gallery, Bombay Company, Linens ‘n Things, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target and Joanne’s.
In 2003, I left the PAG and started my own art business. I began taking private commissions, which included many landscape paintings, as well as still-life and portrait paintings (primarily horses & people).
Since 2009, I have been focusing primarily on homeschooling & raising my children (my greatest masterpieces!!) while, occasionally taking private commissions.
Now that my children are in their teens, I am able to enter back in to a more consistent focus of expressing my creativity, once again, on the canvas. With nearly a dozen years of bottled up inspiration, I am ecstatic to be back at my easel, and sharing my creations with you! Thank you for your interest and appreciation!
