Artist Appreciation Month!

A few weeks ago, Marietta Greg at Patience Brewster, contacted me about my blog.  She loved my blog and my work and was interested in me joining her in celebration of artist appreciation month in an effort to share more about myself as an artist.  I was honored by this and was happy to answer a few of her questions!  Below is the interview that I would love to share with all my readers!

1. As a child, do you recall a significant moment when you felt truly affected or inspired by any particular artwork or artist?

For as long as remember, I have always had a love of art.  Whether it be arts and crafts at a party, art class in school, or just from reading comics and watching cartoons.  I do, however, remember a particular time in my childhood where I was inspired by a particular artist.  I must have been about 10 years old when I watched a documentary of Walt Disney on tv and was completely inspired by his accomplishments as an artist.  I even had an entire sketch book filled with drawings of his disney characters and a few characters of my own that were inspired by his work.

2. As an artist, what do you hope to convey with your work?

As an artist, I've always struggled with my own personal style.  Through out my college years at Pratt Institute, I worked hard and tried many different styles and mediums until I developed a style that was uniquely my own and that I felt completely comfortable with.  And although my style has changed and shifted through out the years, as you can see throughout this blog, I try to stay true to myself.  It has always been a goal of mine to have someone recognize my work as my own.

3. What memorable responses have you had to your work?

As much as I always loved drawing and illustrating, it just never paid the bills, so I always put it on the back burner and been working as a graphic designer/photo retoucher since graduating from college.  While I love what I do for a living, my true passion is making art!  In an attempt to not want to give up on my childhood passion, I started this blog in 2012 to showcase some of my artwork.  I've had a lot of positive response to the work on my blog, be it from friends, colleges, or just receiving an email from a random reader of my blog saying they love my work!  It's positive responses such as these that keep me motivated to keep doodling and making art!

4. What is your dream project?

I've always been drawn to children's book art.  When I was in college, I wrote and illustrated two children's books as part of a semester long project, and I loved it!  I never took the time to try to get either of those books published, so for me a dream project would be to either find the time to get those two books published, or to team up with a fairly established children's book author and illustrate their children's book.  Or maybe do both!

Also, another dream project of mine would be to finally open up an Etsy store.  I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but just haven't figured out exactly what I would sell.  It would be a great accomplishment to be able to make a business out of doing what I love to do!

5. What artists, of any medium, do you admire? (Famous or not!)

For sure it's hard to just pick one or two artists that I admire.  Some of the more well known artist's I admire are Walt Disney, Tim Burton, Gary Baseman, Jaime Lee Reardin.  Some of the more local artist who's work I admire are Gemma Correll, Rachel Davidson, Emily Martian, Doreen Mulryan, Liz Urso.  I could go on and on!  And while my style doesn't really reflect any one particular artist, I would like to think I take a little of each artist with me into my work.

Well, that's it!  Thanks again Marietta for taking the time to reach out to me in celebration of artist appreciation month!