I have always believed that the computer is another media with which the artist can create works of art.  As in all works of art, digital paintings are a combination of imagination, artistic ability and personal vision. The only difference is that the computer is the means with which to complete a vision.

I combine my painting background with digital photography to produce what I call “digital paintings”. On the computer, I combine and manipulate photographs, which I have taken, then use painting techniques to produce something completely new. Every “digital painting” is a combination of two or more photographs. There must be a new reality and an emotional response from me in the finished image. I think of these creations as being “beyond photography”. Hopefully my images invite the viewer to enter his or her own thoughts into this new vision.

I have always believed that the computer is another media with which the artist can create works of art.  As in all works of art, digital paintings are a combination of imagination, artistic ability and personal vision. The only difference is that the computer is the means with which to complete a vision.

Artist Statement

Moments

“I am not a complicated artist with a grandiose theory about my creations.”

Moments are the reason I create. When I am able to bring together in an art work my understanding and insights about a subject, the feelings of exhilaration and satisfaction are wonderful moments. The very act of creating transports me into state of mind where moments fly by and I am in a world of my own. There are moments of frustration as well as satisfaction, but these are the moments in which I experiment and find new solutions. Whether I use paint or the computer, it does not matter. The very act of creating my visions gives me those special moments.

In those moments, I strive to show something new about my understanding of the natural and manmade world. There is a rhythm, balance and beauty in every glimpse of a subject that I try to convey. It is that “something” that might never be seen unless I uncover it. From junk yards, forest and gardens, there is an intriguing mystery in every place and object. Trying to visualize and create it gives me my Moments.

Autobiography

Art has been a part of my life from the first moment I picked up a brush and started my first art lesson at the age of six. I took private art lessons from Lou Musgrove in Petersburg, Virginia from first grade through my graduation from Petersburg High School in 1960. After graduating from Mary Washington in 1964, I immediately began teaching art that fall at Caves Springs High School, Roanoke County, Virginia. For the next 43 years, I taught art in high, middle and elementary schools in the state.

In 1987 an Apple G4 with PaintsWorks Plus Software was placed in my art room at Godwin Middle School in Prince William County. That small machine sparked a completely new creative world for me. From that moment on I knew that I wanted to produce art works on a computer. I had completed fifteen hours of my master course at UMW, but technology took over and I started working towards mastering it. I completed an Instructional Technology Certification from George Mason University and became a technology instructor for teachers in Prince William County Schools.

In 1995 I began teaching my art classes (would now be called Computer Graphics) in a computer lab at Godwin Middle school. In 2000, I moved to the first instructional technology high school in Prince William County and wrote the curriculum for Computer Graphics I, II, Multimedia I, II and Independent Studies in Multimedia for Prince William County Schools. In June 2007, I retired and am now able to create my art work in all the media I love the most—computer, oils, watercolor, and pen and ink.

I have lived in Stafford County for the last 30 years with my husband, Robert. Both of my children, Anna and Riley, graduated from North Stafford High School. Riley was killed in an automobile accident on Fall Hill Ave. (article: Killer Curve, Riley Crockett, appeared in the Free Lance Star) in1988. My stepson, Rusty, died in 1990 and my daughter Anna was in an automobile accident which left her in MCV for 5 weeks with head trauma in 1991. Anna recovered fully and now lives with her husband, Rick Merryman, and their daughter Caroline in Kilmarnock, VA. Having survived all those things and teaching for 40 or more years, it is one of my greatest pleasures to be able to create my own art works.

[Click image to enlarge.] First Friday Reception [Images courtesy artists.]

My students:  I taught at Forest Park High School when it first started up in 2000. Those in the freshman class were the first ones to complete the specialty program in Computer Graphics and Multimedia.  I taught these students all four years. Most students had two class under me their senior year, but a few had Independent Study with me also.  They were assigned special projects for the school or organizations (in and out of school).  These students were so talented in computer graphics and multimedia that we got a $32,000 grant for the department which was under the art department.  All of them showed up at the gallery opening.  It really was so very special for them to be there.

[Images Courtesy Jeanne Tanks.]
First Friday Opening