I really love that term…visual energy. I wish that I could say that I came up with it myself…but I actually heard David Bromstad (the first HGTV Design Star and host of HGTV’s Color Splash:Miami) use it when describing what the added touches he was proposing would do for the room. I am always looking for new ways to describe what I do, and when I heard it, I just loved it…everything I do provides “visual energy”….Yeah… don’t you just love it when things just kind-of all come together like that?

So, “Visual Energy” is what I named this series of drawings. The cyclone shape of the original drawing is unique in that, while it’s very traditional in nature, it is made up of very contemporary forms, shapes and patterns…so it is adaptable. I took my original freehand lifeline drawing, scanned it, and then uploaded it in Adobe Illustrator. I then used the LiveTrace and Expand commands to convert it to vector art – these tools have joined my list of very good friends along with my sketchbook! All of the fun and manipulation happened next. By reflecting the image and creating multiple copies in a radial or array pattern, I created these medallion motifs.

When I was teaching my middle school art class last fall, I directed the students in a t-shirt creation project using their original graphics on iron-on transfers. I used one of these as a sample on a “piece” of a white t-shirt. One of the students loved it so much, he said he wanted it! I said, “You do realize this is only a PIECE of a t-shirt!?” His very simple and “no-brainer” response? “I know – I am going to hang it on my wall!” It was then that I knew my idea of t-shirts and lithograph prints just might fly with young and old alike. So stay tuned!

Oh, and by the way, two of my students’ t-shirts received “Honorable Mention” for Best-in-Show at the annual ACSI Art Festival and exhibit this year! Congratulations, Talen and Michael!