Art Experience

I love visual art. I wish I would have taken more classes in art during school. Even though I didn't take many classes, I drew a bit at home hoping that I could refine my skills that way. Here are some examples of work from a few years ago...

You'll notice these people have no hair. I never liked drawing hair so I would leave it for the end. In the middle of creating an art portfolio for a school application, I managed to break my arm. I could still hold a pencil but my range of movement was limited to more crude lines. So, I submitted a few drawings like these. Oh well.

I  also have learned a bit about watercolor. It frustrated me at first; the paint was running down my page, the colors faded after the painting was dry, and even when I started to gain more control, I would accidentally drip one drop of water from my paintbrush onto my painting and sit there watching the white burst of water blot out my work. Brutal. But I've come to appreciate it.

And then there was yupo paper. A friend of mine was going to teach a class called "Watercolor with Yupo" and I decided to take it. I had never heard of yupo paper before and assumed it was thicker paper. It's the complete opposite. It's like painting on plastic. It took me a while to appreciate it but once I did I enjoyed being able to take a damp brush and cleanly pick off paint to create white space (like the white spots on the mountain below). I also liked the end result - vibrant colors! These are two paintings I did during the class

Some mentors of mine over the past years have been Max Jones, Tom Nixon and Albert Sevey. Mr. Jones would often tell his students, "Remember improvise, adapt, and over come, you are in the art Marines now." Tom was extremely encouraging and had a gentle way of helping me see what I needed to improve on. Mr. Sevey was a medic in the air force who later taught 3D Studio Max classes. I remember during class one day he told me there was a moment in his life when he was creating animations when he realized that he see so much destruction already in the air force that he didn't want to create more. This was one of the first times I paused to think about what it was I wanted to create.

Here are two things I worked on in Mr. Jones's class - Alaska Native Art. My only regret is that this was the only art class I took in high school and I started it late, so I couldn't take all the semesters that were offered.

Bunny from balsa wood. I carved baleen to make the eyes. 2009.

Hide pouch and beads. 2009.