My Dad

When I was very young, my dad and I would paint and create artworks together. He would smile and laugh as he worked with cans of simple house paint and a few brushes. His enthusiasm was infectious!

He encouraged me to do whatever came to mind: No move was wrong. Have fun, he’d say, let the paint sing!

I believe my dad was inspired by his contemporary, the painter Jackson Pollock. Perhaps emulating Pollock’s technique, he’d pour a bit of paint onto the work surface (usually a flat piece of scrap wood he had found), dip the brush into the paint, drip the wet color about, then dive the brush down onto the surface for a different stroke or touch effect. He’d swirl the brush around, then repeat the process with a different color.

While this pour and drip process seemed reminiscent of Pollock’s technique, my dad’s work as a landscape architect began to appear in his creations: He eventually began to combine clean, geometric lines with the pouring and dripping.

My works from early March 2020, “Aerial Garden,” “Cityscape,” and “Happy Birthday,” (Geometry Gallery) are inspired by my dad. His legacy of familial inspiration has led me to evolve and—most importantly—to have the confidence to create my own artist’s way.