Making art has become an essential part of how I move through the world. For a number of years, drawing and painting took a back seat while I raised my son. During those years, I found it difficult to divide my attention between parenting a young child and the kind of focused creative practice I wanted. A few years ago, as my son grew older, I began drawing every day, and that daily practice gradually expanded back into painting. Today I paint or draw nearly every day, even if it’s limited to twenty minutes.

I work in acrylic and oil and frequently draw with charcoal and dark graphite. I have long been especially fond of animals, particularly dogs and horses. Having grown up with dogs and spent years owning and riding horses, I’ve always been deeply connected to animals. Much of my work is inspired by the bond between people and animals as well as interiors and familiar objects that bring beauty into our everyday lives. I’m interested in simplifying what I see—flattening space, exaggerating forms and allowing confident lines and brushwork to remain visible rather than working toward photographic realism. I want gesture and shape to carry the energy of the painting.

Experimentation is an important part of my studio practice. Still life gives me endless opportunities to design compositions, explore color relationships, play with edges, line, value and the balance between description and abstraction. I’m interested in how a painting can remain recognizable, while still feeling loose, expressive and immediate.

For me, making art is both a daily discipline and a way of paying closer attention. The more consistently I paint and draw, the more I find there is to notice.