How does one arrive at a point in their life where they strive only to be an artist? In reviewing my work—wall sculpture, paintings, drawings, and collages—my aesthetic as expressed in my latest pieces presents a great deal about my life experience and unique way of seeing the world.

My artistic journey began in my childhood in a suburb of Houston, Texas. I have been making art from my earliest memories. Part of my home school education included frequent trips to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, introducing me to the great masters early on. By the time I was in high school, I was consistently winning art shows in the local art leagues as well as taking commissions for small drawings.

I enrolled in college full-time at age 16 and trained as a graphic designer. I worked as a designer for several years until one day I realized I was only truly happy when working in the studio and was tired of my life as a “Sunday Painter.” This led me to enroll in graduate school at Stephen F. Austin State University where initially I honed my abilities in rendering subject matter and produced several series of representationally themed paintings. The most notable of these was composed of representationally painted figures, fragmented and laid out into sculptural, multi-leveled blocks. This series was my way of inviting abstraction into my work and began the process of overturning the rigid conceptions I had been taught.

As I became more fully engaged in art study and creation, I felt something was missing in my work. In trees I found the solution. I had spent my entire life living in areas overshadowed by the grandeur of immense trees and as such these were a natural motif latched onto by my subconscious. One day I “saw” my first tree branch: it had a sensuously curved shape, a beautiful deep mahogany color, and was amazingly smooth to the touch. The desire to incorporate what I would later call the “momentous tree branch” into my artwork marked my dramatic shift towards abstraction.

Since my eureka moment, I typically launch a piece by constructing an altered picture plane to facilitate an unfamiliar circumstance. The altered format means pieces begin with concave or convex areas, extreme ratios of height to width, or deep sculptural space which helps me avoid being predictable in my resolution of form. Such a destabilizing beginning often coaxes out inventive, fresh solutions and revelations from piece to piece.

Since completing graduate school, I have continued to explore these revelations, and after one year of teaching college, I realized that I could only be happy making art full-time. So, I retired from teaching. Having the opportunity to truly work full-time on my art, I have renewed my discovery process and learned my working method has a lot to do with the spellbinding effect art has on me. I make art to find my voice and vision, to explore my subconscious through non-traditional mediums, to respond to a personal need for growth, and to stimulate my senses by experiencing the unknown.