It all started with a God-given talent discovered at an early age. For as long as I can remember, I have loved to draw and over the years, what was once an enjoyable hobby has evolved into a professional career. It has long been said that the best careers are those that fill one with a sense of joy and excitement about the possibilities of each day. Creating art does this for me. It fills me with happiness and a sense of divine purpose and allows me to transfer my inner visions to an outer reality.

The process of creating for me begins with great reference photos. I wanted viewers of my art to feel as if they were experiencing a real moment, as if they were the one standing in the way of the charging elephant or seeing giraffes create a dust cloud on the banks of the Sabie River. I felt that in order for that to happen, and in order for me to be able to recreate that reality, I needed to experience it all for myself. So I travel as much as possible and take photos. My African series of drawings and paintings was created from a photo safari trip to Kruger National Park, in South Africa. It was an unbelievable learning experience for me that is now documented in many of my latest works. Each work takes weeks and sometimes months to create, as I work quite deliberately under a hand-held magnifying glass to achieve a photo-realism quality.

As I grow older, I find my desire for new and different avenues of self expression is ever growing, too. Recently, a new passion for abstract art, which favors “abstract expressionism”, has emerged. I use an assortment of color combinations as well as creative techniques to bring about variety and balance to the process. As one who had only entered realism paintings into shows for years, the recent entering of abstracts into a regional show was a courageous step for me. I was pleasantly surprised that the abstracts received all three top honors in the competition. The latest adventure was to apply to the Kentucky Guild in both “realism” and “abstract” categories. I was accepted into both and received my first invitation to exhibit my abstract work in a gallery.

The meaning in art surely must vary within each artist and within each viewer, but for me art is simply a way of living life as creatively as possible. It’s a way of giving back what I have been blessed to receive. It is a way to feel close to the Creator. It helps to create the variety that makes life interesting on a daily basis. It is simply a necessity.