Art is part of the fiber of life. With strong threads, art is woven tightly into the tapestry that maps our culture and society,a tapestry which begins with civialization and continues through present day and into the future.The tapestry is growing, ever-changing, with new colors and patterns added every year; it grows larger and larger as the wheel of time rolls on and on. The threads that mark art in this tapestry are of many different shades and hues, some starting at the beginning and continuing even now; others spanning only small sections, identifying a prominent consciousness of the various art ideas and movements from our culture and society's history.
Art is everywhere in our society; it manifests itself in museums, in libraries, on billboards, on advertisements, in logos, street graffiti etc. However, the definition of art is often a controversial one. To me, art must include three things: creative expression on the part of the artist that is manifested in the work, consideration of the formal elements and a message: some type of thought to be communicated to the viewers. While students and people in general study art, it is essential that they experience all of it’s facets including art making, art criticism, aesthetics and art history.
Art making provides the outlet for many a creative thought, imagination and ingenuity for the creator, allowing experience with different media as well as the formal elements. Art criticism challenges our minds by asking provocative questions, such as what is the artist trying to say? What is the piece about? Is it a successful piece? Aesthetics drives us as individuals to consider and examine our own ideas and opinions of what is pleasing, what is beautiful, and, indeed, what is art? Art history is the study of artifacts from the past, present and future that holds the rich embodiment of history and culture. Art is a complex and evolving study of creation and of life; a colorful and rich tapestry that will continue to grow as long as art lives.
As an artist, I seek to develop a style that is dynamic, ever-changing and growing like the tapestry of our society. Rather than finding one medium that works for me and sticking with it and remaining stagnant, I seek to experience and try a variety of media, including graphite pencils and charcoal, textiles, clay, paint, etc. With this variety of media and through the study of other artists, I attempt to build new skills upon my old ones as I experiment with new techniques. This cycle that begins with a skill, an idea and an expression, is a layering process through which my style emerges, and I develop myself. As such, my growing process as an artist is like a maple leaf. Beginning as a small bud and encouraged by the sun into lush emerald beauty the leaf then pales to yellow, and then deepens to orange until finally it is brown. Only then will it return to the ground to be reborn and begin the growing process all over again, yet deeper this time.
As the seasons pass, a leaf changes from color to color and the tapestry of our society changes. Likewise I change and grow into a more thoughtful and more skillful artist as time goes by. My artwork and style constantly grows and evolves as new thoughts and ideas emerge while time marches on...