Pick what you want to see…
I am a self-taught watercolor artist. In 1995, I took my love of color and animals and whimsy and joined them with my skillsets as an architect to create this whimsical style of art that I named…
RAREJULESI’ve been creating in this style ever since. I love the playfulness and the twist on reality that compels a smile and a desire to linger in search of detail for the story within each image…
I’ve always loved animals…of all kinds…and the older I get the more I love animals more than I love people. I think that’s because I don’t see animals raping the land and the living as I do see my own species committing such atrocities. The empath in me also feels the pain and suffering of these wild living things and I yearn to do something to help them. A lot of my art is therefore focused on animals, partly as a cathartic exercise….it allows me to spend time with something I love….but also to help bring awareness. So many humans do not know or notice the living treasures we share this planet with. It is my hope that seeing these animals through art will inspire them to make space on this planet for more than humans and to take positive action that will help all living things THRIVE!
ANIMALSLet me know if you have a favorite animal you’d like me to feature with my art!
I think my love for flowers is genetic, passed down to me from my sweet mama who taught me names of wildflowers before I could likely say anything else! A master naturalist and a science teacher to 6th graders for decades, she shared her curiosity for nature and her love for flowers not just with me, but with hundreds of people of all ages. Mom taught me to find wonder in a blade of grass and to stop time with the study of the intricacies, patterns, colors and awe found in our natural world. Like my mom, I am often found butt up, hands down, peering at something on the ground that others might miss. I learned my color wisdom from studying colors in nature. And with my affinity for the bright jewel tones of the spectrum, flowers are the perfect examples of tried and true color combinations. Loving flowers eventually turned into an obsession with seed collecting and now I’m on a mission, like Ladybird Johnson, to spread beauty across the land (if only I can remember to remove the seeds from my pockets before doing laundry!) As with my animal focused art, it is my hope that my flowerful art will give pleasure but also pause….that people will revel in the beauty but also stop and think about what is at risk as our planet warms and as droughts threaten blooms and bees. After all, EARTH without ART is just EH……I didn’t coin that phrase, but it’s fitting!
FLOWERSLet me know if you have a favorite flower you’d like me to feature with my art!
Whenever I learn about or witness the plight and suffering humans have inflicted on our planet, I get very distraught, as I feel powerless to stop it or right the wrongs. It is through my art advocacy that I feel like I can use my skills and time to best have an impact. I find emotional solace in creative immersion and spend hours intently studying my subjects in order to generate these art originals. It is my hope that through art, I can find solace and meaningful outreach that will bring about positive change. Please take the time to read the artist statements for each advocacy piece.
ADVOCACYAll proceeds from the sale of my advocacy art will be directed to nonprofits bringing about positive change for that cause. Be a part of the action!
Sometimes when I want to do art or I need to do art (to help my mental and emotional health) but I’m not feeling very creative, I turn to a style of expression that for me is about executing on a set of rules. I get to make up what those rules are, but to get started they are typically very simple and do not require a lot of thought. I lean into my architecture training and often start with lines, shapes and patterns and sometimes use math principles to provide sequence and structure and to direct my exploration. More often than not, once I get myself going, my creative juices start flowing and what starts as a simple exercise becomes something of complexity and sometimes even beauty. Most of my abstractions are done for the joy and peace found in the making rather than with an end result in mind. I often find unexpected lessons of skill, color, pattern and play that I will incorporate into my other art work. It’s during the execution of these abstractions that I can either zone out in peaceful silence, enjoy my favorite artist playlist, or listen to a really good audio book. The more involved pieces are likely products of when I was hooked on a book and didn’t want to stop listening!
ABSTRACTIONSWhat do you do that soothes your mind in time of angst or primes your mind when you are not yet quite ready to be creative?
Holidays are a magical time…..at least that used to be a guaranteed experience for me well into my 20s. But as I get older, I find that I really have to work to make that magic happen in my head and heart. Making gifts and immersing myself in art brings me that rosy warm feeling I am always yearning for but sometimes struggle to find amidst the rampant commercialism and materialism that overtakes the holiday season. I hope these art originals help you capture the magic….
HOLIDAYMay this art inspire you to make gifts to give to your loved ones this year!
Is doing art an excuse to travel or is travel an excuse to do art?! Either way, you’ll never catch me away from home without my sketchbook and camera at the minimum. I find that I don’t truly SEE a place or thing until I start to draw it. And my memories of a place or thing cement themselves into my head less so with my eyes and more so via my hand, guiding a pencil or brush along the paper. As much as I love to travel and fill pages of my sketchbook, the subjects of my formal art do not often directly depict something I’ve seen…..but it’s in escaping the norm that my creativity blossoms and be it consciously or subconsciously, I gather collections of patterns, colors, form, light, plants, animals, faces…..and once back at my studio I am rejuvenated and eager to assemble something new from these fresh resources.
TRAVELMay this art inspire you to really look the next time you are in a new place…..try your hand at capturing the essence of what you see!
I know it’s good to challenge myself and art often does that for me, forcing me out of my comfort zone. For me, that challenge is strongest when I attempt to do portraits! I find it funny sometimes that I can so quickly capture the likeness of an animal, but I so often struggle trying to make my faces look real! I think part of that is that our human brains are so adapted to reading faces and so we are sensitive to the subtlety and nuance of every little thing, even beyond what our brain and conscious eye can define. It’s because of this struggle perhaps that my style has centered more in the whimsical and cartoon depiction of reality….the brain eases the rigid rules of what something should look like and switches to observing just what is there in the drawing. But there are times when what I want to convey with my art requires a departure from whimsy, and working on portraits is a great way for me to develop and hone my artist’s eye and hand at finding the essence of something and depicting it realistically on paper or canvas.
PORTRAITSWhen you look at a face, be it a stranger or a friend or loved one, what do you really see? What is it that defines that person before you? What is their essence? May this art inspire you to look closely for the deeper essence in everything around you….
I mostly do art to please myself, but I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit that it feels really good when others like it too. Over the years, I have made a point to challenge myself to submit art to adjudicated exhibitions….mostly because I am more productive with a deadline, but also because I like having set parameters and I am motivated by the thrill of anticipation for my art, my message, to reach an audience. After all, advocacy only works with outreach. I am grateful for these opportunities to share my art with the world outside my studio and sketchbook.
AWARDEDMany thanks to the Wildflower Center and the Neill-Cochran House Museum for their support of artists!
Do you have an item on your to do list that you have to add in every year because somehow the end of the year comes and you haven’t done it regardless of how hard your pledge was to make this the year you did it?! For me, that item is “finish the illustrations for my children’s book THANK YOU LITTLE BUG” that I wrote back in 1996! I’ll share some of the page art that I have managed to complete, along with some sketches for another children’s book idea call ELIZA SELECTS A PET….one of these days, I’ll finally get to strike these two off my list!
ILLUSTRATIONSMay this art inspire you to keep pushing at those things that are hard but important to you!
Sometimes my creativity doesn’t easily fit into a genre or category. The projects here are a mix of ways I create in mediums other than paint. Many of them are products of exploration….I find such joy in making things, anything, with my hands, and I try not to limit myself by what I do not know.
CREATIONSMay this art inspire you to CREATE. It doesn’t matter if you are good at it or even know what you’re doing at first. Just start, and then find the joy in bringing something to life!
I’m always fascinated about where and how artists do their art. Maybe you are too? I’ve included some candid photos here just in case you are curious….
PHOTOGRAPHSMay these photos inspire you to share your personal journey with others!
