Poeette

10/04/2026

Yes, I was on the front of the local newspaper this week. But it will always be a bigger deal when one of my students succeeds. I do not want to be known for making art. I want to be known for making artists.
Someday I’ll teach art again.

09/15/2026

What I can do versus what I want to do.
While the cartoonish painting of my mother looks much more simple, it works another part of my brain where my artist brain likes to live.

Of course I love the painting of Tashlyn in oil and i recognize the skill I had to develop in order to paint her in one afternoon… but it doesn’t give my artist brain the workout like the painting of my mother. Painting realistically in oil is more of a math problem to solve than artistic expression.

The stories behind both paintings give the art work a soul but one is based on skill and the other art.

What style speaks most to you?

09/14/2026

Hey Erik's Art Shop how’s are your paintings come long for Arts around the Square on the 26th?

I heard you are doing a live painting? Sounds cool.

08/21/2026

08/07/2026

Painting practice with oils

07/30/2026

Let’s play a game

Tuesday I declared this painting finished. I went to photograph it and found mistakes that I felt I must change.

Can you spot all the differences between the two?

07/30/2026

“I want to apologize to all the church mothers for poking fun at the knitting, painting, and scrapbooking they wisely incorporated into the community calendar,” wrote Kat Armstrong in 2023.

“If you had asked me a decade ago to consider using an adult coloring book, I would have rolled my eyes. Is this what we think of women?

I used to think something like cross-stitching was a waste of time, a slight to women’s mental capabilities, and maybe even an attempt to keep us in our place.

But after several years as a Bible teacher, ministry leader, author, and pastor’s wife, I can now see the value of ‘crafting for Christ.’

While it would be a problem if crafting were the sole activity a church offered for its female disciples, I have come to find that it is a valid way (one of many) for women to connect with God and each other.”