Although I took four years of art in high school, everything that I have learned in the 30 years since graduation has been learned entirely on my own with no guidance. At the age of four I could usually be found one of two places: in the back yard tossing pears over a fence to a couple of horses grazing in the field beyond or inside at the kitchen table with a pencil or kiddie paints and paper strewn about me, quietly covering the entire page with various somethings. After all, when you look at the world around you your peripheral vision isn't bordered by anything and so naturally pages must be filled. While Barbie and assorted other dolls had their places, my first love was always drawing. Sketching horses was my jam until about the age of 32 when I suddenly decided that people were going to be my jam. Since switching to human subjects I feel that my natural ability has really grown. Hair and fabric is a party. Faces, an adventure. Learning about my subjects, a fascination. After the initial sketching I always begin with the eyes, doing my best to make them as expressive as they are in the photos I reference, trying to feel what my subject must have felt and experienced in his life. Looking into the finished eyes brings on a lot of strong personal emotion, sometimes almost to tears, whereupon I must take a break to sigh and rest my head in my hands to try to relieve some of what I feel and wonder if I'll make it through the rest of the drawing.
When I'm not drawing I'm just living my life with my husband and six cats and trying to learn the Irish language on my own.
