I am a perfectionist and a lifelong rule follower, but an artistic rebel. As an artist, my paintings are often a reflection of my own desire for things to be orderly, structured and balanced and yet still feel carefree and whimsical. Having always been drawn to and inspired by color, contrast and shapes, I create using bold color palettes along with the contrast of sketchy style black freehand line work. I paint using a variety of tools including palette knives, straight edge objects such as credit cards and, on occasion, actual paint brushes. I love starting with a multi layered, heavily textured background. Many of my favorite paintings are actually painted over multiple old paintings that never quite worked. Some may find it comical that my preference for palette knife painting began with my perfectionist need to keep my hands clean. My use of bold black line work satisfies my desire to create a less structured, whimsical and playfully chaotic feeling in my work. My artistic style can be easily recognized by the melding of structure, order and a little chaos.