Hi. I'm an artist currently living in Chicago. My work is mostly focused on drawing while I continue to bring more painting into my life. In 2021, I graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in studio.

Currently I enjoy drawing and painting from observation. The persistent challenge in attempting to represent the form gives me so much to try to learn and do. Seeing something (a flower, sculpture, person, animal, etc.) is not the same as studying it. When I am observing, there are always questions about where and how to represent the next edge, curve, texture. It's an interaction full of learning that doesn't go away and an objective I continue to strive for.

You may reach me either at the following social media platforms or the contact form below. Thanks.

Painting and drawing from observation

I spent most of my life creating in the way many drawings appear in popular media: outlines, stipple, trying to make something like a photo, trying to make it appear real. But somehow feeling that something was missing. Thanks to my wonderful professors, I began learning different ways to approach the art I was making.

First I began to draw much larger, more than I ever had before. Using one's whole body to draw is a much different feeling than hovering over a sheet of paper. And given my prior injuries, the new experience felt very liberating.

It was very exciting as I also learned to depict how a subject moves away and towards the viewer, trying to communicate texture through line onto a 2D surface. It is perhaps the most challenging way to draw that I've ever attempted. But I get so much out of it as I continue to explore.
It's a constant effort to remind myself to draw in this new way. Imagine trying to do something differently than what you have been doing your entire life. I still don't always 'get it' and it's hard but so much fun to keep trying.

I then applied these new lessons to my observational drawing as I spent weeks on this pair of cheetahs. In the past, I would have found myself at a stalled end with a work like this; wondering what else I could do or how to determine if it was finished. However, learning to ask oneself many questions as you try to reach the next curve and edge can extend one's attention span further than previously imagined.