Why is it called the “Growing Series”?

Freehand drawing of Minnie Mouse, Age 9 1/2

Drawing: ink, charcoal, pastels, crayons, pencils
Painting: watercolor, oil, acrylics, guache
Sculpture: clay, metalwork, casting, welding, paper, plastic, mixed media, wood, glass
Printmaking: Intaglio, litho, screen printing

Countless mediums, countless ways of creating a piece, and countless ideas. Seeing just how closely my eyes, brain, and hands can communicate with one another to create a drawing that looks so realistic you want to pick it up is astonishing to me. The ability to dive deep into the imagination or letting the hands and brain work together to create interesting shapes, designs, and images that communicate emotions, memories, and reactions in other people. This curiosity is what has always driven me to create art.

Between the ages of six and ten, I would use my coloring books as reference material and see how closely I could copy various Disney characters free hand. Sometimes I would trace the characters in my coloring books to train my hand to make the shapes. I would draw and redraw the various characters until I got them right. Bringing them to school to show my friends was the best part about it because of their reactions, “Wow, how did you do that?!” or “I can’t believe you didn’t trace it!”.

By the time I was 13, I could draw flowers that were in vases, around the yard, or dried realistically. I remember trying to draw people and becoming increasingly frustrated because for some reason my eyes and brain were not communicating all the necessary information to my hands.

In high school, I was starting to experiment with different mediums and what I could create with them. Summers in high school were spent in fields, by the river, in old mining towns, and in ghost towns drawing landscapes, buildings, and trees. This was also when I was first warned that I needed to find a style and medium and stick to it.

Every opportunity I had in my college career to learn a new art medium I took. I never understood why I should only focus in one medium. If I’m being encouraged to learn several languages, I should also be encouraged to learn several artistic mediums. I love that I know how to do so many different types of art.

After class one day, I took one of my headless nude figure paintings on The Bus and rested my head where his would have been I got several double takes and laughs. The reactions, looks, and conversations it sparked on the bus ride were priceless.

Moving my life back to California from Hawaii after graduation, a poor economy, friends and family passing away, and an injury that could have affected my life as an artist left me feeling like I was spinning out of control, in a tailspin about to crash and burn. I was starting to sporadically jump from medium to medium, this has been the only moment where I felt overwhelmed by the number of mediums I know. Even creating my meditative Mitsuro pieces and oil paintings couldn’t bring me back into that place of peace and passion. Usually when I create a piece, I tune everything else out. I’m completely focused on what I’m creating and I couldn’t get to that place.

When I started creating the organic sketches that ultimately became my “Growing” series, I originally intended them all to become large oil paintings. A friend suggested that I try drawing the sketches into final black and white pieces and see how I like them. When I sat down with a charcoal pencil, a piece of white paper, and started to draw; for the first time in a long time I felt happy. Going back to pencil, paper, and line. The beginning. It was a relief to just draw what I enjoyed, to let all of my experiences come through me and pour into those lines. To let my work evolve with each drawing. To allow myself to see things abstractly. To go back to the beginning and grow with each piece I now create.

Creating this series brought me back to what I care about. Allowing my eyes, brain, and hands to dance together to create something from my imagination that will start a conversation with others.

All of us face challenges in our lives and this series is a reminder that sometimes if we allow ourselves to go back to the beginning, to sit down with what may be the simplest thing, we may find ourselves waiting for us to show up to help us grow once again.

Growing Series: Looking Forward