Artist statement and introduction to the gallery: In the art community, there exists a "debate" over the usage of direct reference materials. Its a tale as old as time. Should we use them. Is it "cheating" to draw from a model. Is it "lazy" to use a photograph of an apple to draw an apple. Yes and no. It depends. Beginners everywhere, say, at nearly every beginning, "I want to pull these images directly from my imagination and put them onto paper." And I wanna turn the sky purple. I know I did, many many years ago, when I first began my journey as an artist. Nearly everyone does. It's practically tradition. Now, I've been drawing since I could pick up a pencil, and I even went to school for art. But I think about this debate nearly every time I start a piece--usually while I'm figuring out what I want my reference to be. I use references nearly every time I sit down to draw or paint, in one way or another. Just a doodle? It's pr
