Cat Art? Dog Art? Pet Portraits? Murals? Contemporary Folk Art?


Exactly how would YOU describe my artwork?

Cat Art? Dog Art? Pet Portraits? Murals? Contemporary Folk Art? Any of these words would easily apply, I guess. And then, again, none of them could apply, just as easily.

You see, to be a visual artist, it is always a part of your nature to be both seeking and defying verbal description simultaneously. Artists seek to illuminate through a visual language that touches the soul beyond what a simple phrase could say; yet the artist is also perpetually looking for creative ways to speak about his or her vision. Such a paradox.

The paradox deepens when the artist is faced with the modern era of marketing artwork via blogs and websites and social media. Suddenly our verbose oratories have been shunned. We must now find a few “keywords” that will be noticed by search engines, and we must limit our posts to 140 or less characters in some venues!

OK, I confess, I put those words in my title and again in the text copy to satisfy the keyword thing. As far as I am concerned, however, you can call my stuff whatever you want to call it.

I love to paint. I love color and texture and interesting visual effects. I love dogs and cats and I love painting the critters. It’s a lot of fun! but if you ask me my passion, well, truly, it is the more expressive work that enriches my soul and feeds my artistic spirit.

My expressive work usually comes in the form of collage. For some reason, I feel more free to dig into my own person with collage, expressing something about personal thoughts, feelings or beliefs by assembling random objects and phrases onto some sort of background. Although I struggle as I am creating them to find some way to bring order to the randomness, it always sorta surprises me when a theme or core structure begins to take shape. I don’t make them with the intention of selling them, necessarily, so it tends to surprise me when others even take interest in them.

I open up my studio on First Fridays and other days that I am there during the day so that people can come in and chat or buy things. Usually it is the animal art that people want to buy, but it is the collage that moves them. I like that. My art professors from college would cringe if they knew how much I was enjoying the more slick and commercial aspects of some of my work. Never they fear, though. I am always just a paintbrush away from digging into the depths of my creative soul.

So, please, do follow me on Twitter and MySpace and even Facebook! I also have a CafePress shop and I am exploring Etsy and other commercial venues. Please check out my website as well. This is all part of the world of finding ways to survive as an artist, and, truthfully, there is a lot of creative potential in cyberspace. Plus, it gives YOU an opportunity to make a favorite image into a favorite shirt or mug!

I hope, someday, though, that you get a chance to look at one of my more introspective pieces, too, and that you take the time to share your thoughts. Those are the keywords that mean the most to me.

It is all part of the adventure.

Life is an Adventure!
BZTAT
www.artadventuresstudios.com