Concept is everything

Really, what I should say is that concept is very important, however, I do not feel that it is everything. I think you need both in order to succeed as a great artist, or perhaps I should re-phrase this: I think that I need to have solid concept in my work that comes through in an already technically good and magnificently painted piece.

I feel one without the other is pointless.

My friend Jen always gets me on concept- she always is asking me in the process of painting... "But what is it about???!!!" Jen graduated from Webster University in St. Louis, where you must have your concept worked out and your plan before you even start painting. I come from Fontbonne University where old school is old school. You learn to paint first, and then you create solid concept.

The majority of my work for the past 3-4 years has concentrated on a series that I call "Duality". This series started with my two twin nieces who serve as models for my figurative works. The paintings initially started as a documentation of their age progression (think of Andrew Wyeth and his Helga series), then later came to represent a play on the term of "Duality". I started painting them upside down and the idea is to incorporate the meaning of "Duality", where the painting has two points of view or purposes. I would like for my paintings in Duality series to incorporate both of those thoughts, however, they are now additionally at times pictoral representations of personal events or emotions that viewers can interpret on a universal level.