Hello Art Fans!

It's been a while since I sat down to connect. I am getting ready for a show coming up in a couple of weeks. The art collective I belong to is participating in the Saint Paul Art Crawl. We are transforming the warehouse of a carpeting store into a gallery. It's going to be really cool when we get it all set up and the best thing is it's almost totally green as we are using the tubes from the carpet as posts to hang art on.

I hope you can come check it out!

I will be at Schneider Carpet One 1112 7th St. W. Saint Paul, MN 55102

Friday April 27, 6-10pm

Saturday April 28, 12-8pm

Sunday, April 29, 12-5pm

I've decided to write a little about my art as I hope to make it more engaging and can help you connect to it. So, I've been putting down my thoughts on a few of my pieces today. I think I will try to blog more frequently. I hope you enjoy it and can give me a little feedback as I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Today's explanation is about the painting I call "Listening" an acrylic painting on stretched canvas

32" x 40"

The square shapes in my work have become symbolic representations of souls, or energy of people in an abstract form. In this piece, the squares are all talking but none are listening. The energy below is reaching up to the squares but they are unaware of the force just below the surface as they are too busy talking over each other. I think I'm trying to remind myself to listen to what lies beneath and notice what isn’t said out loud. Notice the “brick wall” layer running underneath everything as well. This is symbolic of shutting down and living in your own head.

I've been working on a series about communication which this piece falls into. I'm not sure how many more paintings will evolve but I enjoy taking an idea and playing with it. If you look at my work you can see the theme of squares (energy of souls) comes up often. I don’t always start a painting with a solid idea but usually one evolves or reveals itself while I’m working. I find it interesting to hear what others see and think about in art which is sometimes quite different from my thoughts. One thing I enjoy about abstract art is that one is free to interpret things in many ways, or just admire it for what it is. Most of my work has ideas playing through it because that's where the fun lies for me. The discussion which can develop about a piece is really fun for me. Getting to know a piece, listening to what it’s saying to me and getting lost in it is where I find the most joy. This is what I’m searching for when I look at art and create art. I’m trying to listen and share what I find within myself. So a questions I pose to myself while working are...What do I see in this piece? What do I feel from this piece? What am I trying to say?

For me, art is emotional and a way to connect with others non verbally. I hope this helps a little and explains why I'm a painter. Thank you for reading this and looking at my work!