Artist Statement
One art-related memory I have is of a pencil drawing I did when I was about 8. It came about when I saw the cover photo of a Life Magazine. The year was about 1967. A photo of a jaguar, with teeth bared, was staring back at me. Being made in God’s image, I had to get a sheet of my mothers typing paper and a wooden No. 2 pencil and draw the jaguar, in all it’s detail, as well as an 8-year-old was able.
The fascination generated by this created animal sparked in me an awe that I had to attempt to reproduce. That desire to say “there is something here I just can’t quiet get my mind around”, something just out of my reach. It was like an object on the top shelf that a child desires but is not able to put its hands on.
C.S. Lewis, in Weight of Glory, beautifully described what is happening with this internal longing we experience: “These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
This may well describe the driving force of most artist. I can certainly relate. But here I want to shift my gaze beyond the unreachable “thing” and acknowledge the reachable, and my motive for creating the work I create.
The God of the Scriptures, the Creator of the universe, made visible in the incarnation of Christ, is the person the longing Lewis mentions is for. Knowing that “For by Him (Christ) all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible…” Colossians 1:16a, as they say, changes everything.
Whether it’s the elegance and mystery of an owl sitting quietly on a branch in a dark forest, or the visual magnificence of the evening sun shining on an old barn, casting shadows across a recently harvested field that is nestled in the Appalachian Mountains or an urban scene informing the canvas of the everyday life and struggle of people created in the image of God; My desire is that all the “work of my hands” directs the viewer to the creative and loving God who offered us redemption through Christ.
- 2020 – First Place in Drawing Category (for charcoal work) – Grand Prairie Arts Council National Exhibition
- 2020 – First Place in Oils – Richardson Civic Art Society’s Membership Exhibition
- 2020 – Award of Excellence – 15th Annual Paint Off Competition, Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibition
- 2020 – Juror’s Choice Award – oil on canvas Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit in Brownwood, Texas
- 2019 – Best of Show – An Artists’ Christmas (8 x 24 Oil on canvas called “Shotgun”)
- 2019 – First Place – Drawing (pastels) – Grand Prairie Arts Council Juried Art Show and Sale
- 2019 – Judge’s Choice Award – 8th Annual Art at the OPOMAC
- 2019 – Best of Show – RCAS 53rd Annual Juried Art Exhibition & Sale
- 2018 – Best of Show – Ellis County Art Association Members Show
- 2018 – Best of Show – IAA Animal Art Competition
- 2018 – First Place – Oils – Richardson Civic Art Society Membership Show
- 2018 – First Place – Pastels – Grand Prairie Arts Council 2018 Open Juried Art Show & Sale
- 2018 – First Place – Oil- Paint and Photograph Rowlett (sponsored by Artists Round Texas)
- 2018 – First Place – Pastels – Richardson Civic Art Society 52nd Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition
- 2018 – First Place – Paint Historic Waxahachie Plein Air Competition and Exhibition
- 2017 – First Place in oils, 2017 Grand Prairie Arts Council Juried Art Show & Sale
- 2017 – Best of Show – Paint Historic Waxahachie Plein Air Event
- 2016 – First Place – Paint and Photograph Rowlett Juried Art Competition
- 2016 – First Place in the “Paint the Glen” plein air competition and sale in Glen Rose, Texas
- 2014 – First Place, Oils – RCAS Membership Show – Summer Light
- 2014 – Best of Show in the “50+ Show, sponsored by the Richardson Civic Art Society
- 2014 – First Place in Drawing (pastel) in the “50+ Show” sponsored by the Richardson Civic Art Society
- 2013 – First Place – Drawing/Pastels
- 2012 – First Place – Drawing/Pastels – 11th Annual Irving National Wildlife Juried Competition
- 2011 – First Place in Pastels – Irving Art Association’s 10th Annual Wildlife Competetion
- 2011 – First Place in Oils – Desoto Art League Annual Art Show- Desoto, Texas
- 2010 – First Place in Oils – Grand Prairie Arts Council Annual Juried Art Show & Sale
- 2010 – First Place – Midlothian Conference Center Arts Council Annual Show for pastel
- 2010 – First Place in Pastels/Graphics for Tried by Fire
- 2010 – First Place in Dry Media – Cedar Hill Regional Art Exhibit in Cedar Hill, Texas
- 2009 – Best of Show in the Midlothian Art Council’s 2009 Fine Art Show
- 2009 – People’s Choice Award in the 4th Annual “Paint Out” in Waxahachie, Texas
- 2009 – First Place in Dry Media – Cedar Hill Regional Art Exhibit
- 2008 – Best of Show – Ellis County Art Association Members Show
- 2008 – Best of Show – Rio Brazos Art Exhibition- 12th Annual Juried Show & Sale – Granbury, TX
- 2008 – First Place in Oils – Grand Prairie Arts Council Annual Jurried Art Show & Sale
- 2008 – Best of Show – Visual Arts Society of Texas – 40th Annual Visual Arts Exhibition and Sale
- 2007 – People’s Choice – Paint Historic Waxahachie Plein air event
- 2004 – Best of Show – Irving Art Association’s Annual Wildlife Show
- 1997 – Best of Show – 1st Annual Art of the Square – Glen Rose, Texas
