Artist Statement and Previous Works

This work is special for me: It is symbolic in more ways than one. Trading my steel toed boots and gloves for a canvas and paint brushes still feel unreal for me. I still hear a small voice whispering in the back of my head when I create, a voice telling me I should be doing real work like car repairs or driving an 18 wheeler. But I won’t stand for this anymore; I was conditioned in life to suppress my needs and be who others wanted me to be, but not anymore: I will continue to help others as much as I can, but this time I will do it as myself: as an artist.

This work mark the first time I truly did something for myself, disregarding the few rules and obligation surrounding it: it feels…invigorating to have fun doing something that has always seemed like work to me, So I hope the fun I had in creating this artwork gets transmitted to you, the reader.

As for the Emergent thematic, I could go on with my rhetoric about explaining how this painting is related to the theme, but it is not needed in these circumstances because what’s emergent is not the painting itself: it’s me as an artist. Before, I had never considered myself an artist, to the point I have even gone to length in the past to hide to coworkers and family that I was an aspiring artist. The reason why is simple: what life as taught me is that many people out there does not care about art, they don’t believe it’s a real job and won’t take you seriously if you tell them you want to make a living as an artist, but still, it does not prevent some to always ask the same question: can you draw me something (for free)?In a way, I’ve always tried to repress my artistic nature to ‘’blend in’’ and not attract unwanted attention, so I believe that it makes sense that, by stepping out here in the limelight and showcasing my creations publicly, I am ‘’emerging’’ as an artist out of hiding for the first time in my life.

In light of all of the above, believe that it is natural that my artwork is of a personal nature. I have almost always created for others through my life, so I wanted to ‘’emerge’’ out in public view with a very personal creation to expose myself as much as possible and to say to the viewer that I did what I wanted to do as an artist for once, not what somebody else wanted me to do.

The artwork itself is about my dog, that much is clear, but the reason why I personally wanted to create this is simple; to serve as an artistic proof that Skippy, my weird old mascot, lived. So this painting is what it is: a tribute to this weird dog that my family found abandoned on the side of the road over a decade ago, a dog that didn’t fail to brighten my days ever since . Skippy has kept me company for what will most likely be the most uncertain decade of my life, making me laugh when I should have been depressed, and I am now thanking him in my own way.

I simply tried to create this according to my belief of what is art: Creations that attempt to be appealing to the senses, and so I went and used colors and objects related to Skippy and used them in a way that please the eye.

As a last remark, I am proud to stand up along with my creative self in public for once instead of hiding it. As a first time, there is much work in progress, and it is making me nervous, but I sincerely hope you will like my artwork!

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You can click on the images at the bottom to see some of my previous works