20 Questions
Q: What is your primary medium?
A: a pen
Q: How many years have you been an artist?
A: all my life
Q: Are you self taught in your discipline or do you have formal training?
A: formal, BFA and MFA. Graphic Design and Fine Art.
Q: Would you describe yourself as naturally skilled in your medium or did you have to hone your skills through practice?
A: constant practice, nearly every single day
Q: Do you work another job to earn money?
A: yes, often
Q: What is your proudest accomplishment as an artist?
A: doing the work, believing that the work matters
Q: What is a challenge you have had to overcome as an artist?
A: opposite of my last answer, learning to believe in the work
Q: For you, what is the best aspect of being an artist?
A: having a voice
Q: For you, what is the most difficult aspect of being an artist?
A: having a voice, but not always wanting to share all—feeling vulnerable
Q: Who do you personally know that inspires you and how?
A: my kids, the risks they have been willing to take as they mature into adults
Q: Who is an artist (living or dead) who inspires you and how?
A: I never like mentioning just one artist, but I will say any and all artists that worked until they died are the ones I hope to emulate
Q: Do you consider your art conceptual and why or why not?
A: yes, because sometimes I do not even know what I was making visual until I mentally grapple with what I have made and sometimes I make and then develop the ideas further via my thinking
Q: If the art you produce were categorized into another media's genre, which genre would your art fit into?
A: contemporary books
Q: Who is someone who made a significant impact on you in becoming or being an artist?
A: my high school art teacher and my college drawing instructor
Q: What is something you wish you could do artistically and what is stopping you from doing that?
A: an illustrated book of poems, I don't write poems so I'd need to find someone to collaborate with to make this project a reality
Q: What is a misconception that you think people have about artists?
A: that is is all fun and mess and late nights and drinking, that it's easy work
Q: How do you give back to your community?
A: being kind to others
Q: What's your favorite pastime that doesn't involve your artistic practice?
A: being active outdoors
Q: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to your younger self?
A: take more chances
Q: What is the next thing you have coming up in your practice that you would like to tell readers about?
A: I will be mixing watercolor paint, paper, and thread to create a new series, I am currently in the zygote stage of this work and therefore afraid to even tell you this much