Back to the Drawing Board

bigleaf maple leaf, graphite, 8x10

As an artist, I've roamed far and wide. My taste in experiencing artforms is very broad, so I've never been inclined in my own work to stick to one genre, nor even to one medium. Given all the beautiful, profound ways that humans express themselves, how does anyone ever choose?

galangal root, graphite, 11x14

But my love of green growing things has never wavered. From my original college botany major; to awkwardly winning "Yard of the Month" when I was twenty-five and much too young for civic awards; to the truly ridiculous amount of money I've spent on plants over the years, engagement with the plant world has been one of the few constants in my life.


When my art career started feeling stale and lifeless a few years ago, I eventually decided to go back to basics. My desire to just draw was almost overpowering; I'd been working in abstraction and concept-based art for quite a while, and it felt odd to want to simply render.


But I did it. Still doing it, actually; drawing for its own sake is one of the purest pleasures in life. And of course I drew plants. Trees. Downed trunks. Dried leaves. Almost anything plant-ish I could see,


I've decided to hang out here in the botanical art world for a while. I've enrolled in Cornell College's distance course in Botanical Illustration, and I'll record my experience here starting later in January 2020.

For now, it's good to start a new blog. I like starting blogs. It's also good to start a new artistic journey, one that's probably been a long time coming.

branchlet, graphite and colored pencil, 15x22