A huge thanks to Kathryn Schmidt and the editors at Ridgewood Living magazine for this beautiful article about my time as Artist-in-Residence at Claude Monet's estate in Giverny, France. It's been a real adventure over the last few years and I always love sharing my story as an artist and teacher.
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What a year 2023 was! I can't believe that I spent 1/4 of it in France, painting in Monet's garden and traveling around France. Those 3 months were magical and it gave me the confidence to travel internationally. To just realize that there's a whole world out there and so many things to see and people to meet.
Speaking of travel, I'm planning some workshops for 2024-2025. I'm excited to be a part of a German-based company called ARTISTRAVEL (See picture below) - We're even talking about possibly doing a Japan workshop at some point. I've been fascinated with Japan since I was a kid so I'd love to go there to experience it. I never thought I'd have the ability to travel around the world so I'm very grateful for all these opportunities Closer to home, there's a Sargent exhibit up in Boston that I'd like to go see. Last year my long-time friend, Asem Ahmed and I saw the Sargent and Spain exhibit in D.C., which was great. So I may see if he wants to go check out the Boston show. Last week, I finished up my semester at the Ridgewood Community School. Now, I'm looking at the spring semester which begins in March 2024. I'm planning to teach the same watercolor course and I may also teach a drawing course. During the summer 2024, I'll be spending 5 weeks in Florence to finish up my graduate degree. The MA program at the Florence Academy of Art has been a perfect fit with my career. My own skills have improved greatly and I highly recommend this program to other artist/educators. One of my main goals for 2024 is to network to find new opportunities for commissioned work. I've built up a large portfolio of commissions and I'm at a point where I'm really happy with my artistic abilities. I've always loved portraits and now I'm looking to take my professional career to the next level. Anyone interested in my commission information can check out my COMMISSIONS PAGE. Looking back on 2023, I'm feeling very proud of all that I accomplished. It's been a lot of work to improve as an artist and to find opportunities, but I love what I do and I wouldn't trade it for the world. As always, there were good times and bad times, good people and not-so-good people. There was also a lot of trial and error, but I learned a lot about myself through the process. Thank you for following a long and I wish you all a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year! I'm a little late to this, but as of October of 2023, I crossed over the 10 year mark for my blog. I started this blog in college and looking back, I'm very happy that I did. This blog covers my art, inspiration, techniques, art history, travel and some other interesting topics thrown in.
I really enjoy sharing stuff on this blog and many people have also tried to get me onto other sharing platforms. I've been back and forth with some, but the truth is that I see all these things as pointless, ephemeral and often harmful. When I was in college, I had a Facebook and it was great because all my friends had one and it was simply a way to communicate with one another. It changed at some point and I see these sites now completely dominating people's lives. I also don't like the fact that if I post something it is often hidden from my own followers. And when it is discoverable, my art is sandwiched between vapid ads for make-up or fast food. My own site here is entirely under my control and I write whenever I want to write and people can come and go as they please. No addictive or manipulative tactics here. One of my goals with this blog is to not only share my journey, but to encourage others to go out into the world and paint. I hope you can look at art in person and support artists whom you enjoy. Make real connections and stay in touch with people. It's a tough road as an artist of any kind, but it's extremely rewarding and I wouldn't trade my life for anything. So what's coming in the future? I am planning some really big things in my life. Since returning from France, I've been connecting with some absolutely amazing people, organizations, galleries, schools, etc. I'm heading to Florence during the summer of 2024 as I finish my MA program at the Florence Academy of Art; so 2024 will be a busy year for me! I'm really excited and proud of all that I've accomplished. To those reading: thank you. Thank you for following along and I hope my blog provides information, introspection and inspiration. We were cleaning out some things today and I found some old treasures. Just like a lot of kids, I enjoyed drawing. My earliest memories of drawing were when I was about 8 years old. I'm sure I did some stuff in school before that, but I remember independently drawing around 8 - 10 years old. One of the things that I also did was to trace over the outline of newspaper photos with a sharpie. I think I may have been younger when I was doing this and I'm not sure why it appealed to me.
In elementary school, I remember getting a how to draw book from the library and I think it was Star Wars themed because I did a step-by-step drawing of a Yoda from it; I'm not into Star Wars, but that memory sticks with me. I was really into cartoons, but I was also compelled to do portraits. I did a portrait of my Grandmother and I can still remember her sitting as I drew her. Luckily, I put a date on these drawings (10 years old). I drew a portrait of George Washington from the dollar bill and I did a master copy of an Edward Hopper who I liked a lot when I was young. I really cherish these old drawings from when I was a kid and it's interesting because I can see glimpses of my style in these early works. There's something deeply rewarding about drawing and I can never quite put it into works. It's about capturing what I see and creating something new. I'm so happy that I rediscovered these. |
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