The above personal links are controlled by the individual and are not any form of representation of statement by Hillsdale College. They are provided as a convenience and views expressed on the sites may not reflect the views or opinions of the College.
“…drawing initiates an attitude that is contrary to freedom as identified with self-indulgence and fantasy. It involves effort, effort to reach a specific result, to make concrete a perception, a sensation, an idea. Drawing is an effort to translate motivation into actuality.”
— Mercedes Matter
Education
B.F.A. in Illustration, School of Visual Arts
M.F.A. in Painting, Indiana University
Biography
I believe that my role as a teacher is to expose students to the tradition, language and craft of painting and drawing while helping them discover their path to leading a creative and purposeful life. I am a representational painter working in oils and watercolors. I enjoy both the process of discovering what makes something look the way it does and the challenge of translating that into paint in the simplest way possible. The interaction with the subject, and trying to capture the many moments of attention placed on it, is what keeps me most engaged in a painting and why working directly from the motif is central to my work and teaching. My influences range from old masters such as Velasquez and Vermeer to 20th-century artists like Giorgio Morandi and the English painter Euan Uglow.