Next week, my solo show "Venus in the 12th" will open to the public. Creating this body of work and being able to share it with the world in a professional gallery space, is truly a dream come true. Twenty years ago, back when I had just graduated art college, I would exhibit my work in group shows around Los Angeles county. After showing in group settings for several years, I was finally invited by a curator in 2008 to hold a solo show of my work. I always love to mention that the show took place in Beverly Hills, although it was not a gallery space. As a young artist, I ultimately felt grateful for the opportunity since any chance to show my art in public, even if it was a frozen yogurt shop, was better than having no opportunity at all.

Postcard and images from my first solo art show, "In Case of Emergency" at Berri Good!

Around this same time, my career in animation had just begun. I initially thought I would be working as an editorial illustrator in order to sustain my fine arts career, but instead I found work as an artist in animation to be much more lucrative and sustainable. With this change in my day job, I found myself increasingly less focused on my personal art practice. Although I would still make new paintings every so often, I had much less gallery show opportunities coming my way as I slowly fell out of that circuit. After a few more years of working in animation, I eventually found myself falling in love, getting married and having kids. As happy and excited as I was for these changes to my life, it also caused my dreams of being a gallery artist to drift further away from me. As a new parent, finding the time and energy to work on my own projects felt like an impossible feat.

"Manifesting," 9" x 12" acrylic on wood panel, 2017. This was the one personal art piece I managed to create after having my 1st child and before my 2nd child was born.

Then in 2021, the conviction to restart my personal art practice kicked in. With my youngest child about to enter preschool, I found moments of free time beginning to open up and I wanted to use those moments to make art. The only problem was that the style I used to work in 12 years ago, no longer resonated with me. So my first mission was to find a way of painting that felt true to how I wanted to express myself at this time in my life. After allowing myself to play with paint for several months in my converted garage art studio, I eventually found a way of applying acrylic paint to canvas that resulted in colorful, abstract shapes that appeared to dance and flow across the surface. There was a sensual and dreamy quality to these swooshes of color that exactly matched what I was feeling inside.

Creating abstract art was a new challenge for me, so I decided to dive deep and find the confidence to create artworks that contained no representational imagery. I honestly did not realize how much courage it took to make an abstract artwork and release it out into the world, until I began doing it. I ended up creating a collection of small, abstract paintings which I called "Embers," each with their own unique color palette, in fall of 2021. I was nervous about how they would be received, but thankfully they found a welcoming audience. Finding this positive reception helped to propel me to continue moving forward and experiment with mixing abstract and representational imagery.

Ember Series, ten 6" x 6" acrylic paintings on wood panel, 2021.

After making new artworks and releasing them online for more than a year, I was beginning to find the desire to show my work in person, grow intensely. I knew that the union that I was a member and now Vice President of, The Animation Guild, had a gallery space. I was intimidated at first by the idea of signing up for a show of my own, but I figured if I gave myself enough lead time, then I could do it. So in the fall of 2022, I put my name in and noted my preference to hold the show in early 2024. My submission was accepted and now the task of creating a body of work for a gallery show became my primary focus throughout all of 2023.

The more I worked on this show, the more ambitious my plans became. Not only did I plan to make several brand new paintings for this exhibit, but these paintings would also be 3x larger in scale than most of my previous work. I became so excited by what I was creating that it led me to go down the path of designing and self-publishing an art book that catalogues the paintings and process behind this collection. Now, after more than a year of working silently in my art studio, I will be able to finally share both the paintings and my book with the world starting on February 1st. If you are in the Los Angeles area, then I invite you to join me for the opening and take part in what is a dream come true for me.

In my art studio in January 2024, surrounded by artworks for my "Venus in the 12th" solo show.