I've watched Abi work over the past few years, mostly hunkered down in a coffee shop in front of a laptop and a cup of tea making millions of meticulous adjustments moonlighting as a contract concept artist for various video game studios around Austin. 

What is really exciting is what she does on her own time, working on an ever enlarging body of work incorporating her background in illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art with her own unique vision.

At first glance, her immaculate draftsmanship and painstaking technique jump off the page.  Beautiful line work, mark making and attention to detail create simple yet beautiful and powerful images that draw you in and really do inspire a bit of awe in the viewer.  Further investigations begin to show just how deep her work goes.

While intense drawing remains the backbone of her work, the characters, tones and environments she creates begins to shine through, revealing her own character in her art.  I've seen lots of great draftsmen who can reproduce, create and finish off a drawing with ease, but don't step further and actually say anything. 

I find a lot of Abi's personality in the works, quiet, calm, and collected, with a compassionate and sensual laugh never far from the surface.  Neither cynical nor punchy, the works do contain a quiet intimacy that goes far beyond good draftsmanship or easy to swallow pop sensibilities that have won over the day in the art world today. 

Her work and dedication to her craft has also seen her move effortlessly between mediums as well.  She makes the transition from drawing into a variety of printmaking mediums (solar plates, etchings, relief prints) without missing a beat.  Her art neither shrinks from this jump nor does it suffer.  Instead, her sensibilities and fastidious working methods are well suited for the new mediums.  Backed up by some extra instruction from technical classes at Flatbed Press, the new mediums allow her to incorporate her working processes deeper into her finished works.

In addition to the drawings and prints, Abi has also infused some of her work with an uncanny natural eye for color with some watercolor washes and paintings, as well as some larger, more elaborate oil paintings.  The color surprisingly pushes the work further, and her oil paintings are imbedded with a true painter's touch, building an interwoven surface of color and marks that is visually inviting and stands well on its own merits.

It's an exciting time to watch an artist put together her talents, sensibilities and project a view of her own psyche and be self motivated to do so while wading through seemingly endless amounts of detail work on her laborious video game concept art.  It's a real tribute to her work to see her escape what simply could be called great drawings and imbue them with a sense of humor, style and grace. 

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Her work can currently be found at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar until Dec. 24, 2010.  She participated on the past few East Austin Studio Tours and has had a couple of solo shows at the Birdhouse Gallery as well.  Her website, hoarsefly.com, shows off her art and gives you a better picture of things as well. 

Feeding Time


Idle Hands


City Cow