Emerald Gaze Artwork

I was born the last of eight children in Chicago, IL. At age five we moved to San Diego CA area. During my life I've moved twenty-seven times and ten thousand miles but have called San Diego home for the last forty years. What an incredible honor to experience America's diversity by living in such areas as Chicago, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, New York, Puerto Rico and more. . Creation is my catalyst—especially the animal kingdom. We live within a realm of incredible diversity and beauty and mystery and my passion is to portray it so people will stop and ponder the wonder of it all. I love to offer moments of respite and reflection. Scratchboard is my medium of choice. When I discovered it through a workshop it was love at first scratch. My whole career as a hairdresser was based on subtractive art and Scratchboard fit perfectly with the way my mind works. In cutting hair I had to focus on what I was taking away and what was being revealed—very much like sculpting or woodworking. There is also the tactile response I get from the process. I was a pioneer in this medium when it was not well known. Through perseverance of many talented Scratchboard artists it is now considered to be a wonderful and complex medium for fine art. The medium “One scratch at a time” is my motto for creating my work. Scratchboard is a piece of Masonite with a layer of white Kaolin Clay and India ink on top. I use an Xacto knife to scratch off the India ink to painstakingly reveal the image I desire. Then I choose to either leave it black and white or add transparent ink for color. Although the medium has been around for over a hundred years it is still relatively unknown. Hundreds of thousands of scratches are required to refine each piece therefore it beckons a higher price. Extreme patience and forethought are necessary to achieve a high level of artistry with this unforgiving medium. Once a wrong scratch is made there is no going back. Iinspiration I find images from photographers and resources online—I either purchase from photographers or utilize public domain. I get an idea of how I want to portray the subject then go on the hunt for examples. Eventually putting my own artistic signature to the piece. Passion about the subject and composition is what motivates me to spend as much as 200 or more hours completing a piece. Mostly everything I see is evaluated for its artistic potential. Also, I rely on my own photography.