The Inspiration for my series came one sleepless night in Center City Philadelphia.  Between constant sirens, street lights, and the people of whom are crazy enough to be up and about at such an ungodly hour, I missed the sweet quiet of my Alabama home perched on the shore of Lady Anne Lake. I also noticed the absence of the stars and the moon, for the buildings were so tall and the streets so bright. I remembered my two month stay in Pearl City Hawaii. It is the only other place that has ever felt like home to me. I have always loved the ocean and the moon, so in my mind they create a beautiful pair.

                The moon is a very special entity to me. It represents the feminine as the sun represents the masculine. It lights up the night sky and represents the moving tides of life as it goes from full to new and back again as it travels across the zodiac flaring into life everything that it means to be human. My ancestors even named a day for the moon. Monadagh or Monday. Yet, I painted only one aspect of the emotions the moon insights. The story of my series is that of a goddess in love with the moon. This is a love story that is the same for us all, no matter the age or experience.  She dances and plays in her oceanic realm dreaming of her sky bound love, but knows not if he loves her back. As the moon stands fuller she is happy to simply be in love, yet as the moon darkens she begins to have her doubts. She does not know if he loves her or even cares. There is also always the chance of someone who loves some and the other also loves them yet neither knows how the other feels.

                There is not a certain way I wish for people to feel when they see my artwork. Everything in this world is up to interpretation, and I do not demand that people feel the same way I feel.  Not everyone likes American cheese, but most people do like cheese. When they see love they do not have to feel the same way I feel for all of us see what we all know as love in a different light. When you ask the question what is love you rarely get a straight forward answer, and when someone dose answer you it is a complicated conundrum. How can I expect people to feel the same way I do about an indefinable emotion. All that I do ask is that they feel something, for love is as changing as the moon, and as constant as the oceans tides.

                I do not know when I started to create artwork, but I do know I have always been curios about this world and how things work. I also know that I have always liked pretty thingz, not for myself but just to stare at. I know that my curiosity of these things eventually got me started drawing. I remembered when I was young and I wanted to see if I could draw a dog. I failed at doing so. Therefore I fallowed my poor dog around trying to draw her and got better results but she kept moving. From then on I stopped just staring at thing to drawing them. When I finally figured out oil paint I sated to create not just things I saw but things my mind created.

                My favorite artist is Leo Hone. He lives in Hawaii and all of his paintings reflect Hawaiian culture, and he paints an owl somewhere is all his paintings, but they are not always owls. Karen Kilmnik is also one of my favorite artists. She created scatter art via environmental installations.  I find it amazing how if you took just one piece of her art work it is not much to look at but once it is all set up in the instillation it all turns into this one amazing piece of art work. I’m often inspired by artists but not to replicate their ideas, but to create artwork of my own filled with my own ideas usually struck by an idea that came upon me while seeing other artwork.

                When you are asked to create a self portrait normally you would draw a picture of your face, or a bust out of clay. Yet when I was asked to make a self portrait when given a 25lb bag of clay, I did not wish to create a bust but to create something to represent who I am not what I look like. In the end I had three sculptures in the likeness of a tree each etched with different symbols representing different things that come together to create what we call life. One blue with a pumpkin plant, one green and red with a column cactus, and a blue and red tree with a day lily. Who said a self portrait has to be a picture of you? I believe a self portrait is a picture of who you are.