I'm so glad you stopped by to hang out for a minute! I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for looking around and answer a couple of FAQs about my current work  

 

 

Q :  Why the wolves and werewolves?

A : Most everybody likes wolves and I'm no exception. They've been a thematic motif my whole life. From representing freedom and strength, to community and protection, they've held a place of fascination, fear, and reverence the world over for millennia and it's partly that universality I find so appealing. When that motif enters into the realm of the fantastic, scary, and eerie like the werewolf, it gives me the chance to spend time with the psychology behind emotions, our perception of the world around us, and human nature itself. 

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Q : What materials do you use?

A : I'm a cheapskate for the most part. I still use the same giant pad of Canson cold press 300 gram watercolor paper I bought from Evil Hobby Store several years ago. My current brushes are a menagerie of synthetic bristle, some from cheap multipacks that have been my best friends for a decade and others from kits that for whatever reason were miles better than the kit they came with. I'm of the opinion that many brushes, pencils, and pens are award winning depending on who uses them and how. They all have as many quirks as the user and that can make or break functionality. No doubt a kolinsky sable is a majestic tool, I simply haven't gotten around to needing one for the kind of work I currently do.

When it comes to pigments however, the numbers don't often lie. I switched to M. Graham watercolor tubes a couple years ago, and while there are some colors in my old cheap set that I love, the behavior and richness of the Graham pigment wins out every time. The same can be said of the color pencils I use. I have a mix of different brands from seeking out absurdly specific colors but out of those I've used I find myself returning to Prismacolor the most. I got my first Caran d'Ache pencil and I look forward to seeing it live up to the amazing things I've heard about the brand. 

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Q : Why these oddly specific colors?

A : I've lived in the southwest for a few years now. Most every day is clear and sunny, and when golden hour comes around the most amazing colors start to show up. Every color in the wolf series is pulled from my local landscape simply because one day I looked out my window and couldn't stop staring. 

It was a late summer day in monsoon season, so there was just enough moisture in the air to turn the distant mountains this warm dark blue and the sky just above the peaks a very pale yellow-green. It was sunset, so the clouds were all shades of pink and orange and the red-brown hillsides contrasted and reflected the blue and green tinted shadows between themselves. If colors were food, everything I eat would hold these flavors. On days when the light is right, it's almost like the earth and the sky are closer together for just a couple hours.

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Q : Did you study painting in school?

A : I actually spent very little time studying painting. Studying for my BFA was mostly about breaking down a lot bad artistic habits in order to form new ones that would allow for a more mature and authentic process. I spent most of my time working with graphite and studying the fundamentals of color and design in depth. At the end of the day my favorite classes were those which taught me how to actually think and talk about art. Art history and theory were my guide to solidifying my own artistic views by helping me understand how to make choices which would accurately communicate the abstract concepts I wanted to convey. 

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