I've had a love affair with paint
Since my mother stood me at an easel
At the age of three.
She provided art materials and lessons.
In high school,
My commercial art instructor said,
'You have a special relationship
With your brush.'
When I could drive,
I set up a studio in the back
Of my father's clock shop.
The tranquility of personal space
and jazz on the radio was intoxication.
I loved there
For 35 years I worked in arts and publishing,
Where I had many opportunities to create
Maps, charts, stories and photos.
I then stared a jewelry business which incorporated
My affection for clocks and watches.
But an old
Kept tugging at my heart,
So I moved to the south to refurbish a barn.
When my studio was finished,
I had recreated the lovely atmosphere
Of clocks, watches, art materials and jazz.
I really love working paint,
Especially acrylic and watercolor.
Abstract expressionism and representational abstract
Are my favorite styles.
When painting, I like to kick things up
By listening to post-grunge and funk metal bands.
But when I'm contemplative-- It's jazz all the way.
I believe when I paint an abstract --
I am receiving a snapshot
of my subconscious mind.
I don't know what the image will be
Until I have completed my visual,
Because it only exist
Beneath a level of consciousnesses.
To become real, it must be projected
From mind, to hand, to canvas.
For me, It is
The purest form
Of spirit-to-human expression
That I can experience.
On the canvas before me
Are subconscious thoughts
To see and contemplate.
- Jewel Becker Simmons
