Why do I draw?

Drawing is a meditation for me. It’s a way to quiet my mind. When I’m concentrating on a line or shadow, I cannot think of anything else. Sometimes I’m not really thinking at all. I’m following.

Where did my interest in drawing come from?

My grandmother. I remember sitting at grandma’s kitchen table on their farm drawing with crayons and pencils. Sometimes I’d continue drawing while she baked pies.

What kinds of drawings do I create?

I am a figurative draftsperson, not so much a photo-realist but perhaps an emotional realist. I’m looking for what’s inside while drawing the outside. I love the human body and the face, so that’s where I concentrate my skills. I draw with graphite, charcoal, ink, and silverpoint on aquarelle watercolor paper.

Where do my drawings come from?

I am always looking. When something catches my eye, I make a mental note. Sometimes that becomes a drawing, either from having a model recreate a pose from classical painting or sculpture, or from a reference photo that I take.

What am I drawing right now?

I’m working on three larger pieces right now. I am fascinated with Michelangelo’s Ingudi from the Sistine Chapel. I am recreating these poses with live models, working to understand how he transformed the figure onto a ceiling 68 feet up and make it appear dimensionally correct. I’ve completed four of the 20 that he painted.

I’m also working on two pieces about my connections to family, by blood and by choice. These aren’t necessarily narrative in nature unless you grew up in my skin.

Where do I come from?

A small farming community in central Illinois, Monticello, to be exact. We moved to northern Illinois, Dixon, when I was about ten. I moved to Decatur, Il for college at Millikin University.

Am I available for commissions?

You bet.