1. Your stories/memories are personal. What do you think about viewers

bringing their own interpretations to your paintings?

Everyone should be able to bring their own interpretation to a piece of art. I hope my paintings evoke an emotion that connects to a memory or experience and encourages the viewer to spend time with the painting. Maybe the viewer becomes curious about some aspect of the painting and begins to ask questions of it. To me, that is what art and education are all about.

2. How do you overcome creative blocks?

I recently struggled with feeling uninspired and “blocked.” My father had died and I was dealing with the complex emotions we all sometimes face. For about a month I struggled to engage with painting and had to overcome a growing sense of panic because the experience of being blocked was new to me. Now - 2 months later - I am painting happily and consistently again. What works:
 

• Giving myself permission to take time off to do what I feel like doing (cleaning out a closet can really help).
  
  
• Engaging in “low stakes'' art-making. Picking up old supplies that have 
  been languishing in a drawer can feel good because I have no preconceptions about the result. I recently unearthed old jewelry-making materials that my daughter and I used long ago, along with some sea glass and beach pebbles, and messed around. Creating amateurish napkin rings in the company of good friends was delightful. 
   
• Reading about and trying a new technique. Recently, I’ve become interested in grids (“armatures”) used by renaissance painters to compose their master works. The intersections of the grid lines relate to harmonic intervals in music, which is very cool. I don’t expect to understand it all, but the science-nerd part of my brain feels satisfied.
   
• Exercising and getting outside every day. Sometimes going for a run and 
  identifying bird songs as I move along is perfect. My Portuguese Water Dog, Vela, needs regular mental stimulation and connecting with her through a fun training session grounds me. 
   
• Just sitting down and painting something, no matter how tiny. The more time that passes without painting, the more difficulty I have approaching my art table. Working on several paintings at once gives me the option of leaving one that I’m finding frustrating to make progress on another. The key is to make sure I pick up my paint brush consistently. 

3. What is your biggest inspiration?
 

Being in nature or in the presence of animals. My paintings arise from personal experience on the water, in the woods, on farms, or with animals. I am at my most present when quietly sitting outdoors, watching and listening. When watching an animal, I want to be non-disruptive and learn what it senses, how it approaches the world, and how it experiences me.

Like many artists I know, I find inspiration in patterns of dark/light and color in the landscape. Long shadows cast by low winter sun on a tree or a building can send me running back to my studio. Watercolor paint can range from being quite opaque to very translucent, and the pigments interact with each other on the paper’s surface in infinite ways, so satisfactorily expressing what I’ve seen is always a worthy challenge.

The other day I was lying face-down on a dock after jumping in the ocean, and found myself peering through a slit between boards at the aquatic life. I couldn’t stop staring at the bright green of the water, algae adhered underneath, barnacles catching plankton by waving their feathery legs, ghostly silhouettes of crabs crawling across the muddy bottom, and bright strips of reflected skylight from between dock planks. I took an iphone video and have been watching it over and over. There is a painting in there somewhere.

4. How does your art affect other aspects of your life?

Painting connects me to who I am at my core. It gives me permission to sit still and take in the sights and sounds of an environment, and license to research and visit places that I am curious about, all in pursuit of new subject matter. The satisfaction of pushing through the puzzle of creating a painting gives me confidence. Also, when I paint consistently, I notice exaggerated color and value in everything around me; the world is that much more beautiful.

Learn more about this artist:

Available artwork

"4 Questions"