For me, art is the ultimate form of expression. It’s not just a way of conveying a message or a statement, but it’s also a way of conveying to others how I feel. I think that the reason for this is that the inspiration for my work is taken from photographs from times I have spent with friends and family. Granted, not all of my work reflects that, but most of it does. With me you can often tell how I am feeling by the colors I use. Look at the skies, are they dark and foreboding? Usually these were created with lots of cool colors; greys, blues, greens, etc. Usually that reflects a dark and tumultuous time of my life. In happy times my skies are often filled with warm colors; browns, reds, yellows, with very few blues and greys. My foregrounds are usually filled with a mix of different warm and cool colors, depending on the color of the background. The reason for this is because I have learned that no matter what you are going through there are good and bad sides to every situation. This helps to reflect the balance that we all experience in our lives. Just because we are going through hard times doesn’t mean that everything is all bad or that we will be sad every minute of the day. Usually life will hand us something to help balance things out.
People will often look at a painting and think, "Now what is that artist trying to say?" But with me, my goal is to have people look at my painting and think, "What is he feeling?" Like I said, painting is more than just trying to make a statement, it's also trying to express how you feel inside. If you can determine how I was feeling the day that I painted that scene, then I've done my job.
So the next time someone looks at a painting and wonders what that artist was trying to say, remind him that it's not just the statement that's important, but also the emotion he is expressing.
