Hello, my name is Carmen! I like to paint!
I'm a freelance artist and children's illustrator, and I live on a foresty hill which inspires me year-round. I also have a very talented (he's fantastic at sleeping) fat orange cat named Kiba, and he likes to sit on whatever I am doing.
I like to paint in watercolors best and that is the medium of most of my artwork, but I also like to use acrylics, oils, and pen & ink when the idea calls for it. I am greatly inspired and influenced by the illustrators of the Golden Age and times past, and aspire to create artwork that has the same kind of childlike innocence and timelessness.

As children my mom (who is also an artist) would let my brother and I play with all of her professional art supplies, and we managed to ruin quite a few brushes! But I owe many thanks to her for always letting us at the good stuff and staunchly refusing to stifle our imaginations. I also owe endless thanks to God, who gave this art gift to my family members and myself -- really it is from His inexpressible beauty, mystery and love that every single one of my paintings stems. I just attempt in my small way to express the inexpressible, whether it be whimsy, fantasy, sillyness, or a visual story.

If you'd like to know more about my daily life, see works in progress and new art as it is released, please visit my online JOURNAL or follow me on TWITTER! I also write and perform music, which can be found here.

* May 2009 - Interview at Elena's Easel