I paint for any number of
reasons. One
of the reasons that I can name is to let my unconscious body overtake
my conscious, selfish mind. My thoughts ceased.
There is
color. There is movement. There is intuition.
It is
a good feeling. The other reason which I wish to name is the
satisfaction that a completed paintings brings. I find that
my
own paintings appeal to my aesthetic appreciation. In
addition,
I am rather curious to see what I will produce.
For the
majority of my early endeavors with painting, I painted from my mind.
I wanted to understand those great art pieces of colored
canvases in the museums. I became enamored with the process
of
taking the potential and making it actual. I enjoyed to stare
at a blank canvas and to think of the infinity of possibility that it
could become. In the end, the canvas became one, the actual.
As time progressed, I began to paint the world, particularly
humans. I like the process of taking the actual transforming
it
to the potential and then once again turning it to the actual.
I
usually paint friends and family. This takes up most of my
work
now. I enjoy it. I miss my friends. I
miss my
family. Painting them allows them to be a part of my daily
life
though we may have not seen each other or spoken in some time.
My
childhood was spent in a small, rural town in Northern Michigan
situated on the shores of Lake Superior. I miss the woods,
the
isolation, the lake, and the sounds of the waves. I received
my
bachelor's degree from Hope College, where I studied Psychology,
Philosophy, and Classical Studies. Currently, I am in the
middle of a two year contract working at the Cognitive Neuroscience
Lab in Singapore. We study how sleep deprivation affects
normal
people in their ability to attend, remember, and perform other
cognitive tasks. I hope to be able to continue to paint and I
plan to pursue further education in the Philosophy of Science and
Mind, though, perhaps, I may hope to continue in Cognitive Neuroscience.