When I was a graduate student in London, I found ninety pounds on the ground and bought a membership to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I then worked at the Leighton House Museum and British Museum and studied 19th century art under a teacher who valued fine draughtsmanship and described modern art as something “perpetrated” against the public. Perhaps unsurprisingly I initially favored representational, figurative art. I learned how to draw from Tina Re and how to paint in watercolor from Ann Lindsay and Judi Betts. None of my drawings sit down—they exhibit that stamina and hyperactivity that I’m often called out for. I love drawing lively subjects—exuberant people, animals, plants, anything teeming with life, even still things have energy pulsing through their forms.
