Optimistic Gold Painting

Painting has been that little itch in the back of my brain for decades. I’ve always had a sketch book by the bed and started with classes, at the likes of Carnegie Mellon, since I was a teenager in Pittsburgh where I grew up in a big house with 8 family members: all artists in one way or another. Following high school, which was a perfectly scripted John Hughes movie, I got my Film degree at Penn State. I then satisfied more than my 15 minutes of fame in Warhol’s birthplace with on-camera reporting for the local TV station, before making my way to New York to advance my now 30-year career in television marketing. In New York and LA, I was able to work with some incredibly talented humans while also having a hand in more than one pop culture moment, including heading the marketing campaigns for Schitt’s Creek and meeting my hero, Carrie Fisher. In TV marketing, creativity comes through telling a story in the form of a rectangle. A television screen, computer screen, billboard, print ad, Instagram post or Tweet. From color palette and how it reflects the mood of a show to the time of day something is airing on the network. Is the design elaborate and complicated or clean and simple? Is the tone serious or light? These are the cornerstones of the many photo shoots, promo shoots, brand campaigns I have overseen over the years. And now I find myself personally translating that to the four edges of a canvas. Lately, I’m also finding inspiration pulled from the organics I see around me at home and in nature. I now stretch my creative muscles in ways that are translating from TV Screen to Canvas. And I’m loving bringing something entirely new to my audience!