07/15/06

How the Art Began

Through the years, ever since I was very young, I have drawn a rose and a dove on various letters, papers, etc. It is important to know this, because in many of the artworks, both etchings and canvases that I have painted, there is a hidden rose and/or a hidden dove.

In the early 1990’s I bought a piece of British Scraper Board. It is an art board that is used with a stylus to etch a picture. The board is black and when you etch away the top layer the white underlayment appears. I had the board tucked away for a couple of years, when one day in January of 1994 I woke up after a dream and etched a single “soul person” bowed down on his knees and humbly praying. *that figure is also in many of the paintings and etchings.)

Later in the 1990’s I would wake up after having a wonderful “Angel Dream” and know that I had to do another etching. I couldn’t get away from the feeling and it would only relent when I would begin to etch another picture. The pictures became more and more detailed. The pictures were of Angels surrounding souls looking for God, sometimes being on track and going towards God… sometimes wandering a little farther away. There was always a lighted way to find their way back to God.

I kept these etchings tucked away and showed them to some of my friends but never had an idea that they would travel outside of my own house! I wondered many times about why the inclination was so extremely strong at times and why I needed to do these. Honestly, there were many times that I wondered if I could be just imagining the visions that I thought I was getting. But when another one came to me there was no doubt.

 In the year 2000 I was invited to participate in an event called “Hospice-tality” at Mullin’s Farm in Spotsylvania, VA. It was for Hospice Support Care, a volunteer Hospice group.

There was an auction and I donated some of the children’s books I had written and offered to donate a lithograph made from one of the first etchings that I had done. That was the first time one of the works had been “made public”! It auctioned well and that was the beginning!

I did the lithographs and signings and was content. But in 2001 I woke up and needed to do another kind of art. I wanted to do the same “etching-type” look of art, but I wanted to do it in full color on a canvas. (I had never been a painter.) I couldn’t shake the feeling and so I gave in a bought a large 3’x4’ canvas. (I had wanted the 4’x5’ but it wouldn’t fit in my car!) I began to paint, and paint, and paint. What transpired as my first canvas was entitled “A Message of Faith.” It was printed and was very large!