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For me, art is a way to introduce a little magic into the mundane world.” |
I was classically trained as a painter starting very young, and my parents encouraged my art. Growing up we lived on a small farm in the rural southtowns of Buffalo, NY. It was a 20 minute drive into town to get groceries, and our nearest neighbor was just barely visible beyond the trees. I spent a lot of time as a child imagining and playing either alone or with my brother, climbing around the old barn and running through the orchards, and reading all the books in my parent’s extensive library of classic science fiction! I developed a deep empathy for animals (especially the barn cats, of which we had dozens upon dozens), and would invent complicated stories about their lives. At the same time, living on the farm introduced me to death and loss pretty early on. As any farm kid can tell you, animals live short, tragic little lives for the most part! Many of my pets were lost to wildlife or accidents, and having innumerable barn cats meant there was never a shortage of anatomical learning experiences around, as they would leave rabbits, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, and birds in various conditions all over the place. All this left me fascinated by death and the macabre, the brief nature of our little lives... but it never stopped me from trying to save birds and rabbits from out vicious cats! I did learn early on that despite my affinity for little creatures I was too emotional about them in pain to want to go into veterinary medecine (and I fainted when my father stitched up a bunny the cats had hurt, so maybe not made of the right stuff for med school). The imagery and drama of the critters around the farm mingled with the piles of books I read has stayed with me my whole life.
Today I draw on all that rich memory and my love for magic in the everyday to create fabulous characters and quirky creatures. For me, Art is a way to introduce a little magic into the mundane world. |
