About the artist of
THE FOURTH TREASUREI was born in Texas, and was called an oil brat because my dad worked for an oil company that moved us from one “Oil Capital of the World” to the next--Dallas, Houston, Austin, Hobbs (New Mexico), Tulsa, and London, England (not sure how London got squeaked in as an Oil Capital). I have since lived in California, Japan, and Colorado to try to get the oil out of my system.
I took traditional employment seriously in my early 20s, fresh out of the University of Texas, working as a commercial designer in Austin, then starting my own design firm. However, the artist in me called, so I began taking jobs only as a way of funding my art--with money, time, and energy to create. The decision to pursue my own art happened around the time I first met Todd.
I’d never met a writer before and was inspired by Todd’s talent with words. He seemed to be in equal awe of me as an artist, so we began working together on projects soon after meeting. We also used travel as an inspiration, making it around the world and living a year in Japan for the first two years of our relationship. We got married shortly after returning to the States and consider our creative collaborations one of the main foundations of our relationship. It’s something we’ve always done together since we first met. The most satisfying aspect of working with Todd is he supplies the words I’m unable to write but can only communicate through my paintings and illustrations. I supply the visual extension of his words. We know each other so well and have worked this way for so long, creating as a team is instinctual.
In addition to our collaboration, I also work as a freelance artist for a variety of clients and a wide range of media. I create the art and design for books and their covers, develop logos and icons, most of which are used on the Web, design Web sites and software, and work on many other projects that incorporate my creative skills. I’ve worked in media ranging from pen-and-ink to photography, digital to brush, and oil to found-objects. My main passion right now is creating with the Japanese shodō brush, tweaking this traditional art to meet my abstract way of looking at things. I have a book coming out in the spring of 2002 from Stone Bridge Press that is a collection of my shodō brush paintings. I plan to show another body of shodō work in an upcoming art show.
Although I enjoy the variety of environments in which I create my art, my favorite venue is a book. The gallery setting is a monumental showing of my work and a bit intimidating, but displaying my images in a book feels more personal. The viewer can hold the piece in her hands, actually touch the image, and can easily take that collection of art home with her. I love books and relish the idea of someone keeping a group of my pieces privately and personally on her shelf, pulling them out to look at whenever she feels like it.
Other books by the artist:
Glyphix: Drawing on the Words Within
Stone Bridge Press, in press365 Views of Mt. Fuji: Algorithms of the Floating World
Stone Bridge Press, 1998Altered Egos
Blind Chameleon Press, 1990
