Career aspirations, a beloved dog, and a portrait 6 years in the making
As a child, I had many aspirations for what I wanted to be when I grew up, but most of them had to do with either art or animals.
I wanted to be a veterinarian for a while, but realized my severe cat allergy would not go well with that.
I also wanted to be a marine biologist, but I think I was more interested in the videography of the Discovery channel documentaries I was watching than the actual science content. Taking AP Bio in 11th grade solidified that hunch!
with our tour guide, David, in Tanzania
February 2003
For most of high school, I was set on becoming a wildlife photographer after going on a photographic safari in Tanzania. I experienced some pretty magical animal encounters in that two-week trip and took some mediocre photographs. However, that was enough to inspire me to really focus on photography for the next few years with a clear goal in mind.
I took a slight detour away from creating art in college and wound up studying art history. And then took another detour away from art to pursue teaching for a while.
I was able to go on some amazing adventures as a teacher to Taiwan, Monterey, CA, and Savannah, GA, but as I became more removed from creating art, I felt less and less like myself. So, last January (2021), I decided to return to the special interests that have always sparked the most joy and curiosity for me: art & animals.
In a way, I knew myself better as a high school senior than I did at 30, but I found my way back and feel incredibly fortunate to have such supportive mentors, friends & family cheering me on as I dive into painting professionally.
Mister Wilson P., oil on canvas, 36x24
I want to talk about one piece that was in my art show at St. Catherine’s School, and that is the portrait of the late, great Mister Wilson P. This 36”x24” portrait and I have been on a long journey together.
The lovely underpainting
I started painting it in 2015 in a VMFA studio class with Diego Sanchez. I had only ever painted in acrylic at that point, so that is the medium I went with for this large portrait. During the class, I did the underpainting and finished the inside of the ears before I had to leave for California. I had every intention of finishing the painting during my “free time” in grad school, so I packed this large painting in the back of my Toyota Camry and drove across the country with it. Inevitably, grad school got in the way of my weekend painting fantasy, so this unfinished painting hung on the wall for two years in California before traveling back to the east coast to sit untouched for another two years in Savannah.
Fast forward to Summer 2021, I was taking another class with Diego and decided that, after looking at this unfinished painting for six years, it was time to actually finish it. Since I had struggled to create the look I was going for in acrylic paint, Diego suggested I switch to oil. Never having worked with oil, I was too scared to jump straight in on this portrait I’d been creating a vision for over the past six years, so I decided to first work on a smaller scale and painted a series of 8”x8” birds to get a feel for this new medium … and I loved it!
I love the consistency of the paint, how I can work slowly and take time to observe what I’ve put down and wipe it away if I decide to make a change. A lot of my process is just observing a piece, taking time to soak in what I’ve done, and think about how I want to shift the painting in the next step.
Working in acrylic, I tend to feel a sense of urgency, like I have to have all of the answers and know what I’m doing before I put any paint down. I can enter more of a meditative state working in oil and watercolor, which allows me to experience the process more deeply.
But I digress… back to the Wilson painting
a close-up view of the finished portrait in oil
Finally, in December, after six and half years with this unfinished painting literally staring at me, I was ready to tackle Wilson’s portrait in oil. It felt so natural to be working in oil on this large scale, and to see the flat, rough underpainting start to come to life.
It also seemed fitting to round out 2021 by completing the piece of my first canine muse (yes, Lewis is my current muse, but Wilson is the OG). This painting followed me around the country for 6 years, serving as a gentle reminder that art and animals are my happy place.
