Back in February I was sitting in front of my computer hanging out with a few friends just listening to music and just hanging out. I was sitting in front of my computer and while surfing the web (who says that anymore?) I came across a really cool banner on the top of a random web page. I looked at the colors in that banner and became immediately excited.
I took a copy of those colors into Macromedia Freehand (for your information Chris I have moved onto Adobe Illustrator) and began creating those colors to fill an entire page with those tones. I go to select all the boxes and re-size them to fill the entire space when I realized I had the wrong selection tool. This accidental creation looked nothing like what I had in mind. As I go to close the program to try this again Jason Cornman jumps up and goes, “Hey, what is that? I like that.” I took a step back and got the approval from some others in the room. Everyone loved the new result.
So the next day I went back and looked at the completed piece and thought that perhaps I was on to something. So I took a black and white photo of some piano keys and drew out my abstract vision of what I felt those keys looked like. I then added some insane colors and created a pretty interesting look. I played around with it for a bit and created what is now called ‘Piano Keys‘ (so aptly named, huh?) This was the beginning of my life as an artist. This is of course outside of the graphic design and web work that I do full time.
So my career as an artist began in February of this year. In the past 9 months I have had 7 gallery shows and have been featured on the cover of the Brazil Times, as a featured artist in Indy.com Magazine, Pulse Magazine, and the cover artist for the 2008 Indianapolis Arts Council Gallery Guide. I just finished up with my second consecutive month at Gallery 7 at the Pike Performing Arts Center. I had an overwhelming result and could not have asked for a better experience.
As a featured artist at Gallery 7 I went a little outside the box and tried to set a new precedent as an artist in the gallery space. I donated, on each of my two receptions, a piece of work to the gallery itself. These pieces will be featured as permanent pieced in their collection. I hope that this does a few things. One, I hope it shows the gallery how much I appreciate the efforts and time they provided me. Two, that it shows future artists some inspiration on doing just the same and helping create a permanent collection at the gallery. And three that it allows for me to come back to the place that I consider a big stepping stone in my career as an artist in the future.
As my year as an artist comes to a close I have nothing but thanks to give to all those along the way that helped. The list is truly endless and from my mother being the founding member of my fan club to Danielle for her bleeding hands when helping install my most recent show to all of my audience for their kind words and their consideration in my work. I am truly blessed to have found this niche market and I hope that my self coined style of ‘digital painting’ becomes something you might one day have on your wall.
