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I am a self-taught artist specializing in photo-realistic portraiture of Arabian horses. My works exemplify the character and physical traits of this unique breed. I currently live in Everett, Washington. My travels frequently take me to Arizona, California and British Columbia, so feel free to contact me for in-person visits and photography if you are in any of these areas.
Desert-bred by the roaming Bedouin people of the ancient Middle East as war horses, the Arabian has come to symbolize delicate beauty. To this day, the Arabian embodies many dichotomies.. wildness and domesticity, beauty and fierceness, daintiness and incredible endurance. This character is aptly captured in the black and white of a charcoal drawing. Through my work, I capture impossible moments of perfection in fantastic photo-realism. These are the kinds of moments that Arabian horse lovers have glimpsed out of the corner of their souls' eyes, too quick to be caught but hauntingly powerful, just like these animals themselves.
What follows is a lighthearted chronology of my artistic development.
I began my work at an early age. My mother, at the time studying to become a nurse, began bringing home scrap paper so that I wouldn't deface the house anymore.
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My first self-portrait (just shy of my fourth birthday) was rendered on the back of a Medical Microbiology final exam. You might be able to read the test questions if you look closely.
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It should be no wonder that I would eventually pursue education in Public Health later in life, with all these subliminal messages (thanks, Mom). Here's an early scribbling of kites, drawn on the back of some poor soul's cardiogram tape!
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Even then, my interesting perspective (and sense of humor) was budding. My mom had begun to err on the side of caution and ask me what each drawing was, instead of trying to guess. She titled everything based on my answers. For instance, "Man in a Fast Car" (below) soon became a family icon.
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Soon, no one was safe from my roving artistic eye, as well as my broadly interpretive sense of anatomy.....
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Luckily for my family, my attentions turned to the foremost animal in my life on a 40-acre working farm in Rapid City, Manitoba, Canada: Arabian horses.
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This love affair with Arabian horses would find itself reborn much later in life. My work focuses on Arabian horses, even though I do not have any myself . My current life goals include additional education, buying an acreage and a few Arabian horses, and spending every free moment I have amidst the glory of nature. |
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My first art teacher, at Told Middle School, in Carnation, Washington, was Mrs. Johnson. She taught us that we could learn from copying other established artists. Among my first influences was Bev Doolittle, whose pioneering camouflage of pinto horses was among my most coveted artist copies. It is this artist copy that is featured behind me in the photo below. Also below are excerpts from local media coverage of my budding art career when I was a teenager.
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