I grew up on dairy farms as a young boy and had never been to the ballet. Then in 1996 when I was 14 years old I went to my first barefoot ballet competition and was overwhelmed and inspired by the dancers beauty, grace and power all stored inside them from a refinement process of immense discipline. They were like other-wordly beautiful machines of pure expression. This event instantly ignited a period of massive transformation where my Dancing Mind process really took off. I began sketching and painting Ballerinas obsessively and continued to do so for the next 6 years into the early 2000's. During this time I had a deep fascination with Edgar Degas and Toulouse Lautrec and began attending competitive ballet events and showcases where I would sit back stage and ask the dancers to pose for me as I sketched them. I would also generate rapid motion sketches as they danced on stage and I would also take time exposure photos to capture their movements through time then later paint them in my studio. I only painted in oils during this period.
