Tell us briefly about your background & how you got started in your medium.

I’m a barista here at Cornerstone Coffeehouse, art teacher at Susquehanna Art Museum, and freelance illustrator from Enola, PA who has lived in Pittsburgh, PA, Seoul, South Korea, and Sydney, Australia. A lot has changed in my life since last year’s art show. After some soul-searching, I’ve decided to head in the direction of art education, which includes taking art and art history courses here in Harrisburg at HACC.

How does your medium inform your viewpoint? Or what do you like most about your medium?

Last year’s selection was mostly sketchbook pieces, so more for my own personal entertainment, but these ones were bigger and more challenging. With my two favorite media, watercolor and ink, it’s all about resolve. Once you make a mark with pen, you can’t erase it. So you’ve just got to go with that. “What is, is.” That philosophy has informed a lot of my life. If you make a mistake, you have to own it, or learn how to transform it into something else. Those vicissitudes are part of the process.
 

Who or what have been your artistic inspirations?

I get inspired everyday by people on Instagram, youtube, and TV, my friends in real life, and local artists here in Harrisburg, so it’s hard to pick a few, but as for major influences in my life I aspire to emulate the dreamy colors of James Jean’s illustrations, the linework of Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau designs, and the playful figures of JJ Knight’s digital illustrations.

Do you have a favorite piece in your portfolio?

This year my absolute favorite piece is the illustration of Vasquez Rocks. It was such a surreal feeling to visit this park in real life when I’ve spent years watching it on Star Trek and other various TV shows and music videos, so when I went to LA it was a privilege to actually go there! The quality of light and how it falls over the rocks is amazing, and I hope I did it justice in the painting. I’m also quite proud of the framing job I did on that piece in particular, as I think the frame gives the rocks a glowing sort of effect. In addition, it’s small but I am very excited for the painting of the full moon. The flat black ground really allows the colorful craters and “seas” of the moon’s surface to shine.

What would be your advice to artists just starting out in your medium?

Drawing what you love and how you love is so important – both in terms of the medium that you use and also in the subject matter. Using a medium that you hate just because it is perceived as more prestigious or valuable (such as using oil or acrylics over watercolors, for example) will only make you miserable. Having that subject that you are trying to do justice to is a powerful motivator, serving like the carrot in front of you as you run. That being said, just the act of practicing, even if nobody sees it, is actually the biggest push forward that you can have. I would be nowhere today if it weren’t for my years and years of sketchbook practice that would never see the light of day.