Interview #14
Only 2 days before the studio tour!
Q1.Why did you choose to become an artist? Did someone influence you?
A1.I had a near death experience (Addisons Disease) 18 years ago. I was chronically ill for almost a year. When I was diagnosed and I recovered, I felt what have I got to lose. I want to study art.
I had taught myself to draw as a young elementary school teacher.
So, I took formal drawing lessons. I loved drawing. It was so relaxing and it came so naturally. So I thought I would try painting. I registered in Teresa Bernard’s watercolour painting classes for 4 straight years. It was the most challenging medium to work in but I continued with. To relieve the frustration, I would use learned watercolour techniques on fabric. It was a medium I was comfortable with as I had worked with fabric since I was 8 years old.
Q2. What does being and artist mean to you?
A2. Being an artist, means being at one with the world. As I create my images on paper, canvas or fabric, for that brief period of time, I am that image.
Q3.What are your artistic influences?
A3. If I am making social comments, then language is often a catalyst that motives me. If I am painting anything else, I am influence by light and then colour.
Q4. If you could use your art to express something socially important to you, what would you do?
A4. Many of my fabric art pieces make many social comments about the injustices I see around me (poverty, homelessness, over population, male female inequalities, and ineffective politicians). Over the years, I have made dozens of cloth game boards that satirize what I witness around me.
Q5.Can you share your creative process with us? Ex: How do you a start painting? Do you plan your projects?
A5.I work usually from either my photographs, still life, or my imagination. I always do a thumbnail sketch. If I am painting watercolours, I do a detailed value drawing (same scale as the finished painting) on paper. I then trace it onto watercolour paper (this way I can make sure my composition is balanced). I am a glazer.
I usually paint with a non staining triad of red, yellow, blue, loosely painting these colours all over the surface. Dry it and then start glazing layer upon layer.
If I am painting fabric, I start many different ways. Sometimes I use glue lines as a resist. Sometimes, I will start with a triad of fabric paint and then use salt for texture. Heat set it. Wash it and continue glazing. Sometimes as many as 6 layers. I then embroider, embellish with tulles, beads and then proceed to hand quilt wall hangings or wearable art.
Q6.What is your favorite subject to paint?
A6. I paint a variety of subjects. In the last year I have painted beach scenes and flowers in watercolour on paper, trees in water colour on canvas and landscapes on fabric.
