Values of Attention Painting

I am a Houston area, self-taught artist. I strive for that perfect balance of raw, high-energy painting with no regard for anything, and the refined, skillful look of machine-made accuracy. I love the undisciplined abstract, but I try to make a more relatable feel, giving it some direction, some composition that almost makes it recognizable as something, but leaving more questions than answers. Something not quite in nature, not quite man made. More of a state of mind, than an actual thing. I became a professional artist at the age of 18, which left no time or point for a formal art education. At Custom Art Multimedia, under Pat Dudley Roberts, we created large, corporate statement pieces in a wide variety of mediums and styles. My personal studio burned down in the 90’s and effectively ended most serious work. In 2016 I began working exclusively on abstract painting. Working from the interest of creating a more palatable abstract for those who would tend to dismiss the art form. An abstract you could take home to your mother. I strive for diversity in my work. Each piece is a new experience, which is exciting. I may sometimes work in a series, but I don’t want my work to be different arrangements of the same thing. Hopefully, with this diversity, my work has its own distinctive style, I can’t see it through eyes other than my own. My medium of choice is acrylic on canvas mostly for its durability. I want my work to withstand the test of time, both the originality of the image and the materials. Abstract artists create pure art, putting more of ourselves into the work, revealing more than we realize, trying to capture something we are not sure what it is we are looking for, in an exploration of painting the perfectly imperfect. The integrity of the piece is important to me, I want my work to last generations. My canvases are stretched and painted at least five inches oversized, unstretched and archivally stored, rolled around a 12” tube. When exhibited or sold, it is stretched on new bars perfectly taught with the proper hanging hardware. The photographs show what will be seen on the face of the canvas. All of this is to 1, ensure the finished piece is as new as possible 2, the edges are a continuation of the face, and it is easier to paint 3, there are no age-related issues like sagging or dust.