terra firma 03 | Page 62

I’m from the US, born in the state of Texas. I’ve drawn since I was about 5 years old which has grown into my practice in painting and personal study of art history, and I started taking photos about 5 years ago.  Details: Concerning what I do, I started painting after my first art class in the 9th grade, 2010. I didn’t really have any idea on where I wanted to take it conceptually until I started studying people like Van Gogh and Rothko (and also my own life and personal experiences) a year or so afterwards. I realized what is generally important in good art, minus aesthetic pleasure; emotions and honesty. Sometimes I feel if one paints to paint, it’s just another empty profession. I prefer to try to connect with others, on an emotional and personal level, so that’s what my paintings are centered upon.  I’ve been into taking pictures for the same amount of time, although I don’t take it as seriously as painting and haven’t studied it as thoroughly either. So there’s only a couple of inspirations I can note, like a friend who still utilizes early 1900s photo processing methods (platinum - palladium prints, darkroom type stuff) and a project titled ‘Transfiguration’ from a photographer Gosha Rubchinskiy. Inspired by Polaroid, “frame up, shoot and try to capture and document the energy of the setting” type of photo taking. But tying both subjects together, I try to keep things playful / a little unprofessional.