Paul Missal’s self-portrait, a lesson

I’ve never taken a class from Paul Missal, but, more than anyone else since I graduated from Willamette University in 2003, the longtime PNCA professor—along with his self-portrait, here pictured—has taught me about seeing and perception and how they relate to art and portraiture.

Never the easy pretty

I’ve always been drawn to the sort of beauty that has a lot of character.

The studio visit

While having other artists over to your studio might leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling of peer acceptance, it’s not particularly useful for bettering your work.

Down-to-earth

Ellen Dissayanake forces artists to be what they should naturally be: practical, logical, sane, focused on creation.

Working the whole composition

Focusing on just one area of a painting at a time isolates it from the rest of the dynamic.  It makes for a very disjointed or even mannered look.  To make an integrated painting, the artist must work the whole composition.

Mixed: The Politics of Hybrid Identities

Tim Combs and I are just two of the Northwest artists participating in the art show at Lewis and Clark College’s Sixth Annual Ray Warren Multicultural Symposium, which runs through Friday.

John T Unger says “DEFEND ART.”

Artist John T Unger’s battle with a mass-producing imitator is not, as he claims, about defending art: it’s about trying to make a corrupt and evil system work in his favor.

A Parisian interlude

Jim Hodges’ cracked mirror work was just one of the discoveries from my recent visit to Paris.

How to write an artist’s statement

An artist’s statement is not meant to be a summary of everything the artist stands for.  It’s supposed to be a window into a particular body of work.

Drawing life

Recently, I spent a few weeks visiting with my grandmother in the retirement home in France where she lives now.  On the third day of visiting, I started to draw her on a whim while my mother painted her mother’s nails.

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