My Life As An Artist

My Life As An Artist

As far back as I can remember I was always making some kind of art, from sculpting clay to holiday decorations and craft projects.  When I was old enough to get an allowance, I spent it all on art supplies. As a child I was happy to copy, to coordinate my hand and eye and attempt to achieve technical mastery of my tools.  Back then, the Sunday Pittsburgh Press always included an article about a famous person and with the story, they published a sketch of the person. Many artists drew the portraits so the styles and techniques varied.  Using Conte crayon and charcoal on newsprint pads I imitated the styles. In my early teen years I did a lot of drawing from nature delighting in the intimacy gained through such a close look at a subject.

 A couple of years later I began drawing portraits (mostly of my family.)  I also loved to draw caricatures even though my subjects would often complain I accentuated their worst features!

After graduation from high school, I attended Edinboro State College, as it was called then.  I took several drawing, painting and design/ color classes along with art history, printmaking, jewelry, pottery, and sculpture classes. In the drawing and painting classes we stood at easels and drew or painted still lives and figures of the models posing for us.  These classes helped me to loosen up – to use the larger gesture of my whole arm instead of the tight strokes of cramped fingers.  I continued drawing and painting on my own, developing a looser style which was much more expressive in terms of color and form.

Next stop:  Miami, Florida…

 I liked the freedom of being in a new city and exploring all it had to offer.  We were young and this was my kind of place.  My hair bleached out to match the bright Miami sun.  Sloppy t-shirts and jeans were the norm, and just about everyone I knew was acting up or acting out.  I applied to Barry University and continued my art studies.

At the time, the popular notion of a serious artist was to be an alienated rebel who trampled on tradition, howled at the absurdity of life, and looked down on middle class values.  I identified with this icon of my generation.  I strove to excise myself from the mainstream. 

At Barry the classes were three to six hours, which gave the students plenty of time to immerse themselves in their projects. We drank coffee and talked to each other for hours.    We built light and sound machines, projects we set on fire, constructions to tickle the senses. I had classes in calligraphy, architecture, one and two dimensional design, life drawing, and painting.  I added collage materials to the oil paint and that process intensified my sense of composition.

Since then my life has taken a lot of turns.  I’ve lived in most of the states in New England and plenty of them up and down the Eastern Coast, and now in the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Through most of it, I kept drawing and painting.

Today, my art is in a non-objective stage.  All art is abstract in the sense that it moves away from ‘reality’ to some degree.  Non-objective art, however, does not begin with the world and often has no reference point.  When I paint, I use acrylics that work better for me because they dry quickly.  I can work on a painting over days, adding layers onto the canvas.   The windows in my ‘studio’ face south; the other windows face west and look out on the boat ramp.   It’s a lovely environment to work in.