From the Archive

Before the city portraits and the resin work, I was doing these 4ft x 3ft animal portraits, with acrylic paint gradient backgrounds, stippled images, and gold leaf. Stippling is a shading technique using small dots in varying degrees of density to give the illusion of darker or lighter shades. It would take forever. And I really only made 1 or 2 a year. At the time each of the animals represented something I was working through in my life: gentleness, grace, playfulness, balance, etc. The process of creation echoed my process of learning and practicing the traits. It was almost impossible for me to work on one of these “just because.”

Sometimes people ask me why I don’t still make them- the real answer is because I’ve found other ways to get my personal needs met in my artwork.