Q: Tell me something about your history in the creative arts. Did you have a formal school education or are you self taught?
A: For the most part, I am self taught. Been drawing since I was 1st able to hold a pencil and painting since I was about 16. I did eventually go to art school after high school, but sadly the technical side of my art training lacked. I did enjoy what life drawing and painting I was able to receive though.
Q: We’re interested to hear about your basic inspirations that drive your creative energies.
A: It’s too vague to say life generally, but living and enduring this world is the greatest inspiration. That which you struggle with, personal relationships, identity, social and political issues. I tend to put a lot of those worries and concerns into my work, whether in satire or sincerity. I’m always influenced by other artists, too. Painters, musicians, filmmakers, photographers, writers etc. You can’t help but be impacted by the culture around you.
Q: What were the circumstances that planted that first creative spark in you, and how is that tied to your current inspirations?
A: Well, from what I’ve been told by my mom, I initially became obsessed with drawing dinosaurs at an early age. Actually, I really detested drawing people and figures in my youth. I only wanted to illustrate animals, reptiles and eventually cartoons/comic characters. It wasn’t until my teens that I really developed an interest in the fine arts, learning more about art history. My work became a lot more personal and conceptual at that time, which still continues into my current work nowadays.
Q: Do you have others in your family with creative energies?
A: No one in my family got into the arts like I did, no. However, my mom always enjoyed her craft work; cross stitching, stained glass, decorative works. She enjoyed making things to beautify her home and took pride in the final product.
Q: Was there a particular person in your past that nurtured your creative instincts, like an artist, or a teacher, or mentor of some kind?
A: No one in particular. I was always a bit of a lone wolf growing up.
Q: Where is the source of your creative inspiration, initially, and how has it been nurtured throughout your creative endeavours?
A: There isn’t an identifiable source that I can tell. It’s always been an interest and desire from the get go for me. However, I had many people who believed in me growing up, even when I didn’t believe in myself. You always get the ‘you might need a second job’ talk, but otherwise it was clear to those around me that I had some talent for the visual arts.
Q: Where does your creative process begin?
A: It begins in the imagination, the idea or vision of an image.
Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: A lot can inspire my ideas. I find music and film to be great initiators though. Sets up an atmosphere and mood while I’m at work. For the most part though, the sketchbook is the best place to really work though your ideas and brainstorm. Often just start doodling until something spawns from a sketch.
Q: How do you feel that creating your “art” is a part of your lifestyle, and life’s plan for you?
A: I’ve always felt that without my art, it’d be a difficult life for me to put up with. I enjoy my solitude and find a lot of the world a bit exhausting. Painting is a way for me to express myself quietly and without inhibition. I feel very blessed to be able to paint as a career, even if it means I’m only squeaking by. It’s the source of a lot of my happiness.
Q: How has your creative nature influenced your personal relationships?
A: It’s probably made me more of a recluse, to be honest – I spend a lot of time in the studio. I have always been a tad shy, as well. Socializing is not an easy thing for me. Over the years, I do feel my art has helped me get better with that too, though Attending gallery openings, meeting and talking with new people… You get a more versed with experience and exposure.
Q: What is a typical day like for you?
A: I wake up around 9am and do a 20-30min run before getting cleaned up and starting work. I paint till around 6pm when my boy friend gets home and then it’s usually just the typical things people do. Cook dinner, clean, get chores done, relax. It’s an enjoyable life for me.
Q: Do you ever want to get away from it all? What do you do for release, and to shake out the cobwebs of energy spent?
A: I fantasize often about escaping it all and going off to live in some inhabited area.. But I know that’s nonsensical. Painting is my release and since it’s what I do daily, I get that freedom on a regular basis. I also find spending time with animals to be a real therapy! I have another fantasy about working on a llama farm when I’m old. They seem like a treat to hang out with, hehe.
Q: How important, in your art, is the message, as in, imbedding a literal purposeful message into your artistic aesthetics.
A: It becomes more important with age. Sometimes you just want to make something beautiful and emotional, and that tends to be the type of work majority of people respond to. However, your concerns and frustrations with the world grow and develop as you get older. There’s a greater need to speak out about it or at least comment on it through my art.
Q: How do you feel living in your city/ town/ country, affect your creative energies or influence your work?
A: I’ve lived in Toronto for the last decade and have found a great change in my work from what it was previously. I mean, you can’t help but change with time, but the prescience of the city has become frequent imagery in my painting now and it’s really driven some of the conceptual themes behind my work.
Q: How do you feel the “cultural landscape” of your city/ town/ country affect your work?
A: Toronto is a much more culturally diverse city than what I grew up with. In a personal way, it’s changed me greatly and made me a more open minded, versed person. However, it’s been the more alienating aspect of the city that’s greatly affected my work. Advertising, business, technology and the fast paced drive of the city. It took years for me to warm up to that sort of environment, but from my perspective now, the city is the landscape of my independence and adulthood.
Q: What do you think of art as activism?
A: Art can speak to people in ways other methods don’t. Whether it’s music, film, a painting, an installation… People are drawn to the arts as entertainment most usually, but every so often you take more from it and it’s inspiring, and motivating.
Q: What is the power of your medium, and message, for you?
A: The best thing I can hope for from my work is to inspire others.
Q: If you do collaborative projects with others, can you speak about how this interaction with fellow collaborators works for you?
A: I’ve only collaborated once in my career, just this last summer. Though a fun project, I think due to it being done online and over a computer, the process was not what it could have been. You don’t get the same kind of brainstorming and enthusiasm when the person is a country away.
Q: Can you say something about your use of storytelling, and its role in your work?
A: I enjoy narrative painting. I used to want to be an illustrator or animator as a teen. Though it’s still a large part of my work, I’m slowly trying to be more subtle in what I do. Allow some room for interpretation, a little mystery. I’ve always been more drawn to the dark and suspenseful. The pregnant moment is a great spot to try and keep the audience lingering.
Q: How important is the audience in the personal drive you have to create?
A: I’ve told myself it’s more important to try and please myself in my work than everyone else. There’s just too many people with varying opinions to impress and I believe if I truly enjoy what I’m making, then it’s where the most potential lies in creating better work. However, it’s good to consider the audience in the process as well. Try to separate yourself from the work and look at it objectively. You can’t help but feel a little bias and fooled by your own perspective at times.
Q: How does personal intuition play a part in your life’s work?
A: I like to set up an idea and image for a work previous to painting, but in the end, a lot of the changes and details I add along the way I play out through intuition.. Whether it feels right. I’m not a terribly spontaneous person, I like to plan and know well in advance to something happening, but feeling things through is a big part of creating art.
Q: What would you hope to accomplish in the next few years?
A: My hopes are to continue painting and sustaining myself, hopefully to go beyond that. I’ll have room to be realistic about bigger plans when I feel more stable that way, I think.
Q: What is core to your personal mission?
A: To create and inspire. It generally makes me happy and feel some kind of purpose in this life. “Finding beauty in the dissonance”, so to speak.
Q: Do you have upcoming projects that you’re inspired with?
A: I’m currently working away on a body of work for a solo show at the Subtext Gallery next May, in San Diego. It’s going to involve nearly 20 finished paintings, so a bit all consuming for me. I enjoy it though and find I work well under the show pressure.
Q: What is your idea of success?
A: Doing what you love and having people respond positively to it.
Q: What makes you happiest?
A: Painting, animals, music and loved ones!
Q: What is your moment of perfection?
A: Nah, doesn’t exist.
Q: Where do you go when you need that fire inside you stoked?
A: A set of headphones, good music, and my studio!
Q: What, to you, is art?
A: Creation, imagination, skill…
Q: What’s the best part of being who you are right now?
A: I’m, for the most part, my own boss.
Q: What do you do in your ‘other life’?
A: Well, since you asked. I actually moonlight as a superhero vigilantly. Tights, mask, cape and all that jazz.
Q: What is the next answer you have for us that we’ve all been waiting to ask?
A: My favourite colour is red.. Alright, red and teal.