'Leaf'

I am not quite sure why but this piece has created more excitement than most of my art. All my work starts with an 8.5 x 11 sheet of white paper. This is why 98% of my work does not actually take up the entire sheet of paper. And because of this there is a lot of play on the white space in my work.

In relation to that, actually, I have had gallery owners comment on how I should better utilize that white space. I have had the advice of framing my work in bright colorful frames. (This will take so much away from the art I would never be able to do that.) I have been told to create digital borders around the work with a color from the piece itself. (When I tried that it looked way too much like a print that you just buy at Micheal’s or Hobby Lobby.) I even had the suggestion to just simple fill the white space in with a darker color from the piece itself. (That is just talk that should get you thrown in the loony bin.)

My work is what it is from the way I create it. If I have a piece that begs to be framed, then great. Go ahead and frame it. After you buy my work I couldn’t care less what you do to it. But I am not going to compromise my work before it is purchased. And the only way that I can see myself ever changing my mind on that is simply if I choose to sell my work to the masses outside of individual gallery shows. I could see myself, say selling work at the Covered Bridge Festival, putting a border around it with my name in some new age fancy pants sans serif font, but only if I am printing 50 in hopes of selling them all. And I am not sure I am going to, or in the position to, sell out that fast.

But this piece was originally created to resemble that of a spring time leaf. When the spring time air hits your face and you still expect it to be cold but are crushed with an ounce of warmness all you can think is green grass and even greener leaves. Don’t get me wrong, leaves in the fall are pretty, but being a golfer the leaves during the spring and summer mean just as much as air itself come golf season.

The size of the piece creates a progression as well. The progression is to symbolize that of the coming of spring and warm weather. You get a sense of calmness, cool breezes, and the first chance to wear sandals. (And do you always wear them too soon like I do? I always tend to wear them when there is still a slight chance of flurries toward the later half of Valentine’s Day.)

This piece was featured in Indy.com Magazine as well as a featured piece in my Gallery 7 shows. It was very exciting for me to have a piece that I created for the sole reason of how much I enjoy spring to create such a stir in the art community.