Fine Art

I have come to the visual arts from both sides, from Fine Art to Graphic Design. Once I asked a professor, "What is the real difference between the two areas?" and he said, "Well, whose problems do you want to solve?" With graphic design, I work with clients to solve their problems, to create something that visually communicates the ideas they are trying to present. With fine art, I work on my own ideas, and hope to eventually find an audience for them.

This means that the media overlap, and even some of the concepts are interchangeable. For example, my MFA in Illustration is an installation, not a series of pictures. Hence, you'll find it here.

My fine art calligraphy is sometimes done for clients, which you see in the Graphic Design and Lettering sections of this website, and sometimes done because of the pure joy of writing out the words, which you'll see throughout this section of my website. Beginning with the alphabet as subject matter and working with words and images has been a focus of my Fine Art work.

I am a painter, book maker and printmaker, and I spend a great deal of time drawing. It has taken me years to realize that the letterforms are just shapes in the same way that flower petals or faces or tree branches are just shapes, and my focus while working is on the basic principles of design. But my true passion is finding ways to integrate all of this into images with words or words adorned by images.

My shop and My Shop on ETSY is now open with items for sale.