04/24/2026
I don’t think of myself as a themed artist, but whenever I look at my work through the years a pattern does emerge. Yes there’s a lot of teams or things I enjoy that are repeated. There’s also a clear focus on people or feelings of immense effort. Effort is important to me as an artist because as my projects become more encompassing and take longer to complete, I want the effort to be visible. I want it to show in both results, composition and imagery. I don’t want to show something that seems incomplete and especially when drawing athletes, I want to showcase many different aspects of their skill and effort in their element.
This is best demonstrated in these two images. 13 years apart, same team, same position and yet completely different approach. Now, was sensational to watch. This is someone who worked hard and that was so evident watching him play. You wouldn’t know that just by the picture, but it’s true. He’s in my top 5 favorite Husker players ever. And while I remember being proud of my technical skill to capture the image, that’s about all I did. Now fast forward 13 years and this image of This is a player who is electric, who gets people on their feet and has a work ethic very similar to that of Burkhead’s, which I feel like is much more evident because of the composition and the images I chose. All the things I said about Rex are true for Emmett as well, but I think only one of these images really shows that. And it shows growth of myself as an artist. It shows the effort I put into showcasing the things I think are awesome about Emmett. As I continue to grow as an artist I want to portray things in a thoughtful manner, where it is evident to the viewer that there’s something I’m trying to show, even if they have no idea who the subject is.
