Artist Registry

My work reflects the desire to find beauty and peace in the landscape of today. Our world can be a hectic, chaotic place, where we forget to look at the gifts of beauty outside our windows and in our homes. I try to bring that beauty and peace back into focus by painting my Missouri landscapes and people as they relate to home and family stability.

I believe the presence of the divine in creation can be about composition design, color, shape, movement, sound and silence, and words. But the mystery of creation is always relational--something that exists between the viewer and the viewed. I hope some of the wonder I see and feel in God’s creation as expressed in my art can be experienced by the viewer in a way that they can experience more of the joy in the extraordinary ordinary around them. I am blessed when someone lets me know how my art has touched them.

My art represents a past of childhood abuse, addiction, and a life long struggle with mental illness.  Trying to put things together over time, piece by piece with much thought and reflection until each piece fits precisely where I want it.  It  is much easier in art than in life.  Art and life are one and the same to me.  I hide things in my pieces as things about myself  are still hidden in me, hopefully to be discovered.  Putting a piece together takes a lot of time, just like putting a life back together.  My time is spent searching for all those pieces in art and in life.

"Art is a Dance between Light & Color, Shape & Design. I Try to Bring to the Canvas Not Only What I See With My Eyes, but What I See With My Imagination." - Dorene Cantrell

My idea for a piece of jewelry when it is worn is that it should escape notice by the wearer. Jewelry is only an accent to help showcase the personality and style of the one wearing it. The observer can view the overall affect of the decoration and see the style of its owner. Jewelry is quite personal and helps reveal facets of the person wearing it. Consider the statement, “That looks just like Linda,” which is often used when buying a gift. Jewelry reveals character. Appreciate it and love yourself. I design on many levels. I begin with a feeling or mental picture.

I am an expressionistic abstract artist. I work intuitively with one mark leading to the next, experimenting and playing with various materials, tools, techniques and the elements of line, color, shape, space and texture paying careful attention to creating bold and dynamic compositions. Occasionally, I find myself working realistically as well. This work might be classified as being more of a blended style of impressionism and realism capturing the essence of the subject. In whatever style I find myself working in, good composition and design are very important to me.

Creating my work is both a struggle and a labor of love. I choose to work in Pen and Ink because it is not a simple media to master and is also relatively uncommon. I strive to develop art with a feel for the subject matter and the story I wish to tell. The search for the beauty in the complexity of form, pattern and texture is important. I enjoy creating visual shortcuts, innuendo and suggestion balanced against insanely detailed rendering in my pen work. I intentionally mix drawing styles and textures to best honor my subjects.

Beauty touches the soul and awakens something in us. I feel more alive after walking along a creek, or through autumn leaves, and capturing those glimpses of beauty is my goal as an artist. 

Why B&W, well, why not? We do live in a world of color; black and white reduces the image to the basics of the image structure, without the distraction of color.

I love how a tiny line applied to a smile or eyebrow or how one speck of color can change the whole perspective of a painting.