I am a sculptor, painter and
mosaic artist who began doing art when I was young.
Since early on, I have looked to nature for
inspiration and have done art in a natural and
instinctive manner, doing my work free of
limitations. I have developed my own mystical styles
that I have used successfully for my art.
Some of my past art will be
considered visionary and avante garde in it's
nature. Examples of this could be seen in much of my
display that I had for an art show at the Naked Art
Gallery in 1999. This kind of work of mine rejects
academic rules and regulations for art in modern
society. It is art for celebrating nature, life and
freedom in an unrestricted state, which only exists
in indigenous peoples and individuals who resist
modern society and seek to stay close to the earth
in their hearts and thinking. Some of my art during
this time could also be seen as a resistance to the
oppression of modern society and government, as it
rejects the premise that says because we are born
into something than we have obligation to uphold and
accept it. I continued with this message when some
of my work was accepted into the juried show at the
Pensacola Museum of Art soon after the show I had at
the Naked Art Gallery. I continued to look for ways
to become more free as an artist and to use art for
a way to celebrate natural life, joy and harmony,
and hopefully to spread light to other people with
my art in my efforts to open hearts and minds to new
things.
My art can be spiritual in that
it has depicted people in their ideal state being
close to nature, doing their own farming, hunting
and fishing, and living free on the land. My art
embraces the spiritual idea that we all have a place
on the earth to be ourselves and live on land that
the creator gave for all of us to live in harmony,
not for some to take it and decide who gets to have
some. My art fundamentally rejects all modern
governments and political ideologies, however it is
not political, because my art embraces the spiritual
belief that all politics and ideologies will fall. I
used painted rocks in a cirlce surrounding a rock
representing the sun and I have used words combined
with images on 11 tablets that I displayed in 1999
to represent these things.
My art is not photo- realistic in
style, but it is often colorful, illuminating and
idealized in my own natural way of doing art that
enables me to express my feelings about life and
beliefs about nature. Balance, the power of the sun
and nature, the joy of the earth and simple ways of
life are central to my themes in art. The conceptual
aspect of my art is realistic, in that I believe
that art has the power to shape lives and culture,
and I look to the roots of my people and others'
from times when many ancient peoples lived free of
the kind of restrictions that people face in modern
society, as I see a duty to inform people that we
are part of the natural world and belong in
accordance with it both in thought and action. For
myself, it is one of the few things I can do, to be
an artist, that gives me outlet to have a free
spirit and mind when living in this kind of society.
My art teaches that we are prisoners and slaves of
an oppressive, controlling and restrictive society
and for us to grow and prosper we must be free.
My art transgresses the
boundaries and labels that many academics seek to
impose upon art in our society. As an artist, I
reject strict constraints and or ways of doing art
that suggest that it absolutely must be done a
certain way. I do my art from my own heart the way I
want to naturally. I am able to adapt and change my
styles, all of them remaining my own styles, to be
successful at art. I like to develop styles that I
already have to make them sharper, or sometimes I
simplify a certain style, mixing it up and doing
different things. I consider my art both avante
garde and classical in it's conception and
technique.
My current painting is simple and
a celebration of the sun, earth, life, joy and
harmony. In the future I hope to do some different
things, and will be doing so as I plan to display
new mosaics soon. I am also coming back into doing
some sculpting and hope to make sculpture that is
focused on natural forms and other interesting
things. I also hope to make functional pieces that
are useful for people. These sculptures and
functional pieces will be made using natural
materials.
