PMZ

30x30"

acrylic, newspaper

2008

Here's a wedding gift for some friends who helped us buy our first house.... Hey Gus and Linda. They both worked for PMZ, where they met. Linda likes Vladimir Kush, a surrealist artist, so I incorporated some imagery from a painting of his. I was trying to figure out how to add more texture and found the newspaper nearby. That is when I saw the ads for homes, so there are torn pieces of newspaper in here, even PMZ ads.

karina's collage

18x24"

acrylic on canvas, magazines

The pictures are cut from magazine's and glued to the canvas using matte medium. They don't really have any specific meaning, just that they looked interesting put together. It was a gift for my sister, Karina.

Commissions

Drawings for band: Pointdexter

2.5X3.5'

acrylic

2009

30X30"

acrylic

2009

I painted this logo at the district office for the Merced Union High School District. They already had the logo but I enlarged it and painted it by hand.

4x4' acrylic painting for Character Counts

old magazines and bottlecaps

hand made bracelet made from 50's magazine ads and bottle caps

3x4'

acrylic, old 50's magazine ads, bottle caps

2009

What do you do with piles of bottle caps?

I have been saving all our bottle caps for a few years . . . . I knew I'd think of something. I made a bracelet and a painting. The 50's magazines were given to me. Thanks Mary Swier! I can't think of a better way to preserve them then make art out of them!

canvas

18X24"

Canvas, string, needles

2009

The idea for this sculpture(?) came from me starting my job teaching. I am learning to do so many things at once. This is what learning looks like to me. It is like stitching together pieces of information at a time to your existing memories. I found an old frame at a flea market. The red is actually a piece of paper taped to the wall behind the frame. The canvas was attached very carefully to the frame by a series of little nails. I had to sew the canvas onto the frame and keep it tight as I sewed. I left some needles hanging to symbolize the continuation of the learning process.

influenced

close- up

22X30"

oil, acrylic

2005

This painting contains my favorite lines from movies, books, songs. I hand wrote the quotes with paint pens of different colors.

musical inspiration

16X20

2005

Oil, thread

This painting was created using oil paint and turpentine. The turpentine creates interesting textures when dripped on the canvas. I was trying to emphasize texture, line, movement. I was listening to a song while I worked on it (Thomas Newman: Drive Away). After it was dried I threaded string across the the canvas to create thin lines and to add contrast in texture.

beatles

3x4'

acrylic

2007
My brother got married and the theme for their wedding was "all you need is love". A student in my class in college used this technique of applying images to the canvas with gesso or matte medium. This is my first try with it. I really liked the end result. I applied photographs of the Beatles as well as song lyrics and music notes. The splashes of paint really seem to match the mood and imagery.

post college

22x30"

acrylic and oil

2004

The same painting class:

I used the turpentine and oil paints to create some depth in the textures and layering. I let the paint drip on this one, too. I am really starting to understand the concept of allowing the paint to invent itself and create some movement independent of my brush strokes. There is a balance here between the need to control the paint and the ability to let it just happen on its own.

post college

3x4'

oil and acrylic

2005

After graduating from Sac State in 2004 I went back to school in Merced and took a painting class. Here's something that I came up with after being inspired by the color blue and brown. I was reading in a magazine about colors and how we sometimes go through phases where we want to wear a certain color or buy a lot of things in that color. At this time I was trying to figure out what to do with my life (with a BA in Studio Art). Phthalo blue was so appealing to me in its intensity. The magazine said you should surround yourself with this color if you want to realize your dreams. Someone bought the painting at an art show for $300. She said it reminded her of flowers.

moving onward

close-up

4x5'

acrylic

2004
This is what happened next.

When the class was over I just dripped a lot of paint all over it which dried in vertical patterns. Then I painted between the drips. There are many layers in this painting. Some areas are opaque and others are more transparent where you can see some depth.

college

4X5'

latex

2004
This was an assignment in college. We had to focus on a small section of a heavily painted table surface in the art studio. Then we had to enlarge it to 4X5 feet. I put together the canvas myself. This was my first large abstract painting. I still remember trying to figure out how I was going to buy the supplies to make this canvas since I was a poor college student and had no truck. I gessoed it on a late afternoon before I went home for Christmas break.

Didn't like this painting at all when I finished it. I really didn't understand the whole idea of abstract painting at this time and really didn't understand why we had to do the assignment. My professor's specialty was in the abstract.

painting from a series of pattern paintings

18X24 inches

Acrylic paint

2004
Here's a painting from senior year in college. I was working on a series of pattern paintings. The design is very flat and two dimensional. The emphasis is on color, shape, movement.

Digital versions from layering paintings!