I was born and raised in Mount Pleasant. I left Charleston when I went off to college (UGA) and then moved to Charlotte for a graphic design job. It was good to leave but I always knew that I would come back home to the water. People who are from here say that the water, pluff mud, salt air, etc… it’s in your blood. It’s truly a part of my soul, so it’s hard to stay away for long!
I came back home in 1999 and never left again. When I came back, I took a graphic design job and quickly jumped back into my love painting on the side. I helped with the start up of Redux Contemporary Art Center and had a studio there for a couple of years. It was a great way to meet other artists and become a part of the Charleston art community that was quickly growing and becoming more diverse.
Painting a beautiful landscape picture is one thing, but making a viewer feel the landscape is much harder and something I strive for in every piece.
If I’m driving over the bridge in the morning or out in a boat on the water I mentally photograph these images. I mostly paint from memory (although I love plein air too!) and the feeling I get from being surrounded by these beautiful, vast and ever changing landscapes. I want the viewer to feel as though he or she is experiencing the landscape through my eyes. I try to evoke this by using color and texture. Sometimes I’ll let the paint drip a little so that it feels like water. I always try to give the piece a sense of realness.
An artist that I admire, Robert Ruaschenberg said “I think a picture is more like the real world when it’s made out of the real world.” Painting a beautiful picture of a landscape is one thing but making a viewer “feel” the landscape is much harder. I strive for this in every piece of art I create and maybe that’s why people gravitate towards it.