What do you use to make your traditional artwork?

I use a large variety of traditional media so it is hard to wrap it up in a simple answer.

Paintings:

For acrylic and oil paintings I use a combination of Golden, Utrect, Gamblin, and Graham paints. I tend to paint on pre-stretched 7/8” thick canvases. I’ve found that these are more affordable and are easier for buyers to frame if they decide to do so.

Printmaking:

For my hand-pulled prints I use either battleship linoleum or easy-carve linoleum (also called speedy carve linoleum depending on brand) for the block, Gamblin or Speedball oil-based relief ink, a speedball hard brayer, and wooden spoon (used to hand-print as opposed to using a press). I use a variety of papers for printing but Rives BFK, Stonehenge, and Kitakata are three of the more commonly used types. Rives BFK is a beautiful paper with a wonderful texture. Stonehenge is smoother and holds up well to hand-printing. Kitakata is a Japanese paper that is thin but strong. It has one very smooth side that is incredible for fine details and it is a light brown color.

Drawing:

I use basically anything I can get my hands on for drawing but some favorites include: the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, Muji Ballpoint Pens, Micron Pens, Faber Castel Polychromos colored pencils, and Staedtler drawing pencils (B and 2B are my favorites).

Who or what are some of your biggest influences?

When I initially decided I wanted to be an artist, I thought that I would go into animation and as a result developed a soft spot for well-animated movies, shows, and shorts. I also watched a lot of anime as a teenager which might have encouraged my original desire to be an animator if I’m completely honest. Despite not being an animator I am still one of those people who will fangirl at a shot that is animated well. Some animated projects that really inspire me include Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited away, Coraline, Adventure Time, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall, and Gravity Falls.

For illustration and fine art, I am often drawn to artists who use bright colors and beautiful shape design in their work. James Jean always comes to mind along with Victo Ngai, Loish, Lauren Ys (squid.licker on instagram), and Samantha Mash. I also love the work of Pip and Pop, an artist that creates incredible neon and pastel landscape installations made out of dyed sugar, foam, glitter, plastic toys, and other found objects. Their installations are soft and dreamy and I want to live in them.

I am also inspired a lot by comics and graphic novels, one of my favorites recently being the Hilda comics.

Did you go to art school?

Technically I did… sort of. I spent a year going to the Art Institute of Portland with the intent of studying animation but it really wasn’t for me. I thought I was not destined to be an artist so I transferred to Western Oregon University to try and figure out what I was going to do with my life. After 1 term of no art classes I realized my mistake and changed declared my major as art. I loved my experience there and still talk to some of my professors on occasion but wonder sometimes if I shouldn’t have pushed myself harder during those years. I think it would have been a gamble though. After all, the whole reason I transferred was because I felt that the curriculum was too intense for my art skill at the time. I look at my skill now and feel like I could have handled more but that is only after building that skill at my university.

What are some personal goals you have for your career? Anything that you want to do but haven’t done yet?

Loads! I would love to work on more large scale projects like I have done with scenic painting projects. There is something about the bustle of activity, everyone who is working diligently and crushing it to bring a large project to fruition is so alluring. Scenic painting has made me want to try my hand at painting some murals. I would also like to dive into doing editorial and illustrations for print. I always want to expand my printmaking game and there are some methods like etching and screen printing that I would love to get more into if I had a better set up for it. But in the short term I want to experiment with creating different types of products, like notebooks, washi tape, stickers, and enamel pins. I also want to create lots of t-shirt designs. I haven’t decided yet if I will be printing them myself or outsourcing them but I think it would be fun to do limited edition shirts that are handprinted. I basically want to do all of the things!