Across Main Street from our apartment was a tienda Mexicana that I went to frequently, and on the corner was an old clockshop where they sold and repaired clocks and watches. For a perspective assignment in Drawing II at A-B Tech, I decided to draw a series of images of this block. The perspective in this drawing emphasizes the clockshop. The paper is a cornflower paper, which has blue petals embedded.
12 in by 19½ in, ink and gouache on cornflower paper, 2010.
The Canton Payphone was painted for Painting I class at A-B Tech. The assignment was to explore building up texture using various additives. I followed my disappointment with the growing extinction of the payphone. I had already taken photos of some, including an out-of-order payphone in Canton, NC. I covered the canvas in pages torn out from area phonebooks and built up thick applications of acrylic paint with heavy gel medium and some molding paste. In some areas, you can see the phonebook pages showing through.
10 in by 10 in, acrylic and phonebook pages on canvas, 2009.
For Sale: $70 USD
In Design I, we created a color composition based on what we had learned about color theory and color harmonies. We painted sheets of Bristol with each color, modulated through value and intensity. These were then cut up into squares and then arranged to form a balanced asymmetrical composition. Mine is a complementary color scheme using indigo and an orange-yellow.
11 in by 11 in, acrylic and paper cut-outs on paper, 2009.
The Smoky Mountains drawing was one of my experiments with brushing ink on saturated Indian Raja paper. I really enjoy the Raja straw paper because of it’s texture and character. It also can be soaked in water a few times without falling apart.
10 in by 11 in, ink on Indian Raja paper, 2010.
One of the projects at A-B Tech in Asheville, NC. We were tasked with painting a self-portrait in which a portion was in observed color and the rest to be feature an open, arbitrary, use of color. I can’t remember specifically which class this was for. We were allowed to work from a photograph, so I suspect this was for Design I rather than Painting I. I personally chose to make use of golden proportions to divide up the space. I continue to use the golden ratio in a lot of my work, but I choose to be much more subtle and loose about it.
18 in by 24 in, acrylic on paper, 2009.
This quick charcoal drawing was created sitting on the sidewalk in downtown Canton. Canton is a small mill town in the mountains of western North Carolina. We lived just off Main Street during the years I was attending A-B Tech in nearby Asheville. The idea with a drawing like this is to quickly and efficiently capture the scene through gesture without unnecessarily fussing over details or accuracy.
11 in by 14 in, charcoal on paper, 2010.