Boots, Brushes and the Open Road

cowhide and satin self portrait

There’s a certain kind of quiet that lives out here between the lowing of cattle and the wind through dry grass. That’s where my art starts. Not in the studio, not with a sketch, but out in the world. Boots on the ground, camera in hand, soaking in the places most people don’t get the pleasure of experiencing.

I paint the American West not because it’s fashionable or nostalgic, but because it feels true. There is beauty in it. There is shadow. There is strength. It’s in the posture of the tired ranch hand, the curve of the steer’s horn and the dust that sticks to everything.

I used to be a tattoo artist until chronic nerve pain ended that chapter. But my time there reinvigorated my love and drive to make art. Now I paint full time, working mostly in watercolor, though I stray into oil, acrylic and ink when the piece call for it.

Right now I’m living in a small Kansas town with a basement studio. However, we are fixing up a vintage 1953 Spartan camper to be part mobile studio part home for when my children eventually fly form the nest. The absolute dream of vintage small space living with my husband and dogs on our own ranch with the ability to hit the road. The best of both worlds with the choice to travel and let the changing sky and shifting terrain shape what I paint next as well as a place to call home that my children can always come back to.

This journal, Boots to Brushes, is where I’ll be sharing behind the scenes glimpses, studio days, stories form the road and what it really looks like the build a life around art. If you’ve ever felt pulled toward wide open spaces or wanted to see how a painting comes to life from sketch to finished piece, you’re in the right place.

Keep chasing those dreams,

MERC