Any person who really helped you in your awesome artistic journey?

My mom helped a lot, actually. She was a high school art teacher (and MY high school art teacher) in our tiny West Texas town. She also had pottery and textile classes, lots of printmaking projects — really eclectic and evolving curriculum. Super mean to me though, always sent me to the principal’s office for chewing gum and talking … and it was Texas, so they could hit us. 

What do you do when you need a break?

I love house projects for that, mostly the demo part. I can rip out a totally functional bathroom in about a day, absolutely down to a pile of rubble. Slowly getting better at rebuilding it, usually I have to call a few people to help me. I also play my kids’ Nintendo sometimes....  

What was your favorite thing to draw as a child? Why did that lodge in your head?

Fighter jets, mostly, and space shuttles. It was the '80s so Top Gun and the Challenger Space Shuttle had a big impact. In high school I was an exchange student to Belgium and studied art, we’d go to the zoo in Antwerp and draw animals for four hours a week. I can still draw a four-horned sheep from memory. 

“JEEZ ok, I really sweat stuff like this.”

What’s your biggest art inspiration? This may not be visual. Like, anything!

I really love printmaking. Anything that's just super process-oriented — silkscreen, etchings, linocut, etc. I can get really lost in layering color and texture, typography and vintage advertising language can be a big part of that for me, also. We’re between houses currently but I’m excited to set up a studio in our new location. 

How do you celebrate the completion of a big project?

Send an invoice! Usually there are a handful of clients/projects happening so I cross it off my list and move onto the next.