Watercolors
What started as a simple element for a design project eventually became a passion rooted in the loss of someone I loved.
As the story goes, I started painting watercolors because an employer wanted a blue crab illustrated on an event menu. It really was that simple.
But what kept me painting was something much more personal. At the same time I was working on that menu, my mother was in the final stages of her cancer journey. While she was in the hospital, I thought she might find some comfort in seeing paintings of her chickens, which had recently been lost to some unwelcome raccoons.
My mother never got to see the chickens. I hadn't even finished the first painting before she was gone.
After that day, I made it my goal to paint all nineteen chickens. What begins a small gesture for my mother became a way to memorialize them alongside her—and, in the process, watercolors became something far more meaningful to me than I ever expected.
From there, I began painting crabs for fundraisers, and eventually a women offered to sell some of my paintings in her shop. That experience introduced me to something every artist learns sooner or later—the cost of framing. It is also part of the reason I now use repurposed frames in all of my work.
That choice, too, has a connection to my mother.
My mother had a collection of all kinds of things, many of them gathered for flea market resale. When I first started framing my paintings, I often used frames that came from her collection. Today, I continue that tradition by searching thrift stores, flea markets, and yard sales for frames that can be given a second life.
This simple request on a project lead to a more complicated and meaningful passion—one that allows me to keep a small piece of my mother with me.
While I still paint crabs and chickens from time to time, my body of work has grown to include a wide variety of subjects. One question I am asked often is, "What do you like to paint the most?"
My answer is simple: anything that presents a challenge.
I am drawn to subjects you might not typically expect to see in watercolor—the overlooked, the unusual, and the things that may not traditionally be perceived as beautiful. For me, part of the challenge is finding something worth noticing and giving it a new life through pain.
