How amazing is this world we live in? Are we awake? In our fast paced lives we often overlook the beauty and life that is all around us. We no longer see it in the trees, buildings, the people at our sides, or even in ourselves. Many of us are living "inside the box" - restricted by limitations we've placed upon ourselves, without even noticing. We are numb, our senses asleep. My paintings are a reminder, a call to wake us up to the vibrant life that is all around us. By traveling the globe and painting new cultures, places, and perspective, I recreate that beauty, that reminder in color that inspires each of us, and wakes us up.
The style in which I paint is inspired by my experience of freedom as a painter. Before that point, painting for me was exciting but also suffocating. I felt that the work I produced had to emulate the work of others before me, had to replicate reality. I was squeezed into a box by my own limitations and restrictions.
Then, one day during an oil painting class at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, I abandoned my preconceived ideas of the scene I was working on. My painting was set free! The trees were no longer green - I made them sunburst orange. The lines of the building were no longer neat and proportional, I made them curved and dancing. I was overwhelmed with freedom and creativity. The box I was painting in didn't just expand - it vanished.
Since that first taste of freedom as a painter, my days have been about traveling the world and painting the spectacular beauty I see. The streets and countryside of Old World Europe, the heart of the Caribbean jungle, the lively markets and tantalizing spices of Morocco, the dramatic coastline of California, the adobe architecture and vast landscape of the Southwest, the waterfalls and lush green of Hawaii and the endless aqua seas of the Bahamas have been my studio.
Enjoy my paintings; I hope they bring you joy, passion, and freedom in your life. And wake you up, to experience the world - out of the box.
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