It happened one day, Sparks accidently spilled tequila on one of her wet paintings. It was then that she became obsessessed with creating, not just backgrounds, but objects with booze on canvas. That being said, it’s rare that you will see Sparks painting without a shot glass filled with tequila, scotch or some other alcohol close by.
Sparks lives in Tehachapi, a small mountain town in CA. In April of 2009, having dabbled in digital art for a few years, she picked up a beginner’s set of acrylic paint and a couple of canvases and from the first moment she brushed paint to canvas, she was captivated by both the process and the results of converting her feelings into something tangible and visually compelling.
In her first year of painting, Sparks embarked on an intense and prolific period of self-education and experimentation, producing about 300 canvases in both oil and acrylic. Some of her favorite paintings are created using techniques that cede some of the control to the medium — using alcohol, canned air, or simply tilting the canvas and and letting the paint go where it will. Others of her favorites involve very deliberate techniques that create interesting textures with fingers, palette knife, body parts, sand from her backyard, etc.
