Looking To The Past

A while ago I ran into some of my old work. It was interesting to analyze it and remember way back when to when I was working on those particular pieces. From as long as I can remember, I have always been incredibly attached to my work, even to the point of making my parents purchase the pieces back for charity. Don't ya just love Catholic school fundraisers? Anyways, sometimes you need to look back to see where you were, what you've done, how far you've come and the potential that you posses some creative ability. Yes, slumps blow, and creative searching for inspiration is often needed. Mine today, has been looking to the past.

Circa 1993, 10 years old. Even from a young age I was conscience of equality. Check out the Eskimos and the the Eskimos yo-yo in their hands. I was enthralled with their culture at a young age and adored going to the Arctic Museum on the WOU campus where Paul Jensen was my personal tour guide and offend took pieces out of the display cases to show me how they worked. It was a favorite past time. Oh, and yes, this piece is one I did while at Catholic school, where I made my parents buy it back because I liked it so much. HA! What a child I was...

At a young aged I learned how to be a master copier. I remember liking a particular Matisse piece one afternoon and decided that that was what I wanted to draw. The first imagine I started with water colors. The proportions weren't right, and I got frustrated (yes, I've always been a perfectionist), so I moved to pencil and color pencil. I thought it turned out better that way. Now, the rejected one and the final are framed and hung next to each other. I like it that way.

Circa age 20. Ah, college and the required classes. Below is one of the first 'typographic' pieces I ever did. The class was Intro to Typography, and everything had to be done by hand. Color pencils used to be a good friend of mine. I will always love this piece.

I believe the sketch below was from an Advanced Life Drawing class. I remember we had to do a series of three 20 min. sketches. This was one of them. It's interesting looking at pieces and always getting the same reaction. The piece below always makes me want to take a life drawing class, just for the hell of it.