Starting Out

When I first became interested in creating art, I was a kid in about the 5th grade. I was lucky and had grandparents who tried getting you everything you were interested in, so I would receive weird double sided crayons, amazing metallic pencils, a beautiful art box containing water colours, oil pastels, coloured pencils and a smooshy eraser. That way I could find what medium I preferred.

It wasn't till I got to high school that I really got to explore what I could do with art. My high school was art oriented, my first two years I majored in Vocal Arts. I had taken a fashion drawing minor in my second year, and I was hooked, I switched my major to Visual Arts.

It was interesting to see the different styles that were in one class. One student could draw up masterpieces in a matter of minuets, another could paint landscapes like there was no tomorrow. I honestly, felt like I wasn't good enough to be there, cause they had all studied for two years more then I. But I learnt new techniques , and tried different styles, expanding my portfolio.

After graduating I was really able to find MY style. School was good as a jumping off point, but your art is always geared to what the teacher will like so you can get the marks to pass. When your doing it for yourself you can experiment a lot more.

Like in school, I tried to keep a weekly theme for my paintings, I wasn't always able to keep to the theme or able to be in the mood to paint, but it kept me going. A lot of them turned out terrible and were painted over very quickly. Art isn't always what you think it will be, you can have this amazing painting or drawing planned out, but once you get your medium in your hands and you start going, it (for me) usually turns into something completely different.