I discovered drawing and painting during covid quarantine – somewhat by accident – as an unexpected way of relieving nighttime anxiety. Instead of lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, and worrying about ‘the state of the world’, I decided one night to get up and try tinkering with drawing and painting as a distraction from sleeplessness.
While I’ve never had any formal training, I discovered this solitary nocturnal activity was calming, engaging, and wonderfully therapeutic. I especially love the challenge of trying to capture the balance between light and dark in objects and their surrounding – identifying and mastering how powerful little bits of light discretely find their way onto the surface of objects – and unpacking those things that the eye takes for granted and doesn’t consciously register.
Whether it’s how light reflects on the side of a glass to introduce seemingly foreign colors and shapes – or how it can carve out the wrinkled expression of a face and the texture on the surface of elderly skin, I love trying to master this and get it right. There is so much power in these little bits of light and their ability to shape and change an object, the colors within it, and the overall mood it creates. And, I’m grateful for their soporific effects.
Paintings were done with oil on canvas. Sketches were done with pencil on paper *
