What’s your preferred medium?
I choose a medium for what best serves the idea I’m working on, whether it be recycled house paints, fancy oils, or a mix of water based inks and watercolors, I work in paint.
How do you approach/start a painting? Do you plan or is it all intuitive or reactive?
Mostly I respond to what happens after the first initial marks are made, and work from there. But there is something I want to communicate in everything I make, even if it is just about the color blue. It is a process, an alchemy, a push and pull—but I also don’t ignore that years in practice and working on improving my visual language skills comes to play too.
How do you chose a color palette?
I look to nature to guide my color choices, and I’m always inspired by the elegant way she knows best.
What inspired this particular painting?
Living in Seattle is a special thing. It’s a small but vibrant metropolis surrounded by nature on all sides, and a lot of that landscape is made up of bodies of water. The light here can be subtle and gray, or it can be dramatic and bursting with color, depending on the time of the year. This painting captures one of those moments when everyone gathers at the waters edge to watch the sunset in the height of summer, waiting for the bright, blinding sun to drop below the edge of the earth. And then we are rewarded with a radiant vibration of color. But it only lasts for a few moments, and it’s never the same.
Do you listen to music while painting? If so, what’s on your playlist?
I always have music on! This morning I have listened to: The Barr brothers, Phosphorescent, Dawn of Midi, Lord Huron, Blitzen Trapper, Little Dragon, School of Seven Bells, Purity Ring. My playlist rarely takes a break, unless I’m putting on Slate’s Culture Gabfest—which I really wish were a daily podcast, because I’m so obsessed!
Who is your favorite living contemporary artist?
Too many to choose!
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