These critters have some significance for me that I didn’t realize until recently. They all come from/inhabit my home state, hometown, backyard. All animals I have and could have seen easily, had I taken the time to look for them.
Now they function in another way… translating my Oklahoma upbringing into my New England education.
It’s 77 days 12 hours and 13 minutes to commencement. I set the countdown on my phone the first day of this past Fall semester. As it ticked down, around 100 days til, a panic overtook me. “What in the world am I going to use in my portfolio.” Words every artist hates to tell themselves, when you realize that your work is good, but not good enough for your own standards. So what do you do?
I decided to just say, let me create work that I believe in. Something I’m proud of because it was my vision, not an assignment. So with that I have my series entitled Critter, a collection of illustrations.
My critter series is slow going. Every illustration can take anywhere from 3 days to weeks to complete. I work from images of animals and bugs I have taken myself as well as images from the internet.