My sketchbook is a sacred place where I let my mind free and explore the depths of my imagination. It is the one place where I truly create without expectation. It’s pages are full of idea children - some of which failed miserably and others that flourished and grew into successful completed works.
The sketch above is a study from a Salvador Dali painting which I embellished in my own style.
In the photo above, the small square sketch on the left side was the brain child for my painting called Paragon, available in the Print Shop. On the right is the beginning of my piece Regeneration.
This image above is the preliminary sketch for the album artwork I made for a band called It Was A Good Dream. Please email for any album art inquiries.
I find inspiration all around me but I intentionally seek inspiration from three main sources. The first is in nature, I frequently walk around my neighborhood collecting outlandish materials. This can be anything from an oddly shaped leaf or a stick with an intricate pattern or texture. Anything with a unique form can set off my imagination and make me visualize how the shape could be abstracted and morphed into something new. You’d be amazed at what you can find on the street when you’re looking for it.
At times, doodling feels a lot like therapy. When I’m struggling with invasive thoughts or can’t seem to work through an issue, moving my pencil around on paper helps clear up some of the mess and entanglement. In this particular sketch I was thinking about fear and how it manifests itself in my life.
The second source of inspiration comes from my community and from artists that came before me. Sharing knowledge and experiences with other artists always leaves me feeling renewed and alive. I do my best to bring this energy into my work every day and to diversify my interests so that my work may be informed holistically by my experiences as a human on this crazy planet. The sketch above was directly inspired by contemporary photographer Sheri Furneaux, check out her work on IG @bigbabyintoyland.
My third source of inspiration comes from studying the bone structure, skin and movement of wild animals. If you look closely at a butterfly’s wings you will notice that the structure is almost identical to that of a flower petal. These parallels and formal similarities are all around us and they remind me of the infinite ways that we are all interconnected.
This sketch above is a depiction of a dream. There was no consistent narrative that I could remember but there was a lot of alien beings emerging from pools of water and rock formations.