The Nestheads...

As I've been drawing these past few weeks, I've been thinking more and more about my nestheads.  These characters are intriguing to me...they seem to have a personality all their own.  The more I read through Scripture, the more ideas I seem to get about who I'd like for them to be, what kind of lives they have, and what environment they're in.  I'd like to think that their environment has an effect on them in one way or another...I'm thinking about how I can show the relationship these girls have with the birds who rest in their nests and the woods and air around them (not in a mystical and spiritual way, but in a natural and living way). 

As you can tell, these are pretty vague, abstract ideas at the moment...I think it'll just take time to develop them, to write their stories.

What do you think of this one?

Two new nests...

Nests # 3 & 4. 

Click to buy (or find out more).

Brand spanking new work...

Remember the post when I showed you the 4x4's I had started?

Well, here's one I finished.

Ooooh! I am so excited about these little guys. I was able to go to the studio for a WHOLE day this weekend. I had so much fun that my back hurt by the end of the day. :)

 

If you like these, you will LOVE Crystal Neubauer's work. 

She is very inspiring for young gal like myself.

Hopefully these can be up for sale on ETSY soon.

A fresh start...

Well, I have decided to take my artwork in a new direction. This year (yes, the whole year) I want to MAKE myself stay focused on one concept. I'd like to create a whole line of characters, which I will call "nest heads." I've had it in my mind for some time. It's been mostly an abstract idea, one that hasn't been clearly revealed to me, at least not yet. I have been finding that as I share my heart with the Lord about the direction I'd like my artwork to move, He doesn't respond with a clear answer. Often I am left with only a taste or a scent of the direction I should move.

I know some artists who start out with a very clear picture in mind for how they'd like the final piece to look. When they finish the work, it tends to look exactly as they had intended. But for me, it's really not that simple.

For example, lately I've been reading in the Bible verses like

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him." (Psalm 36)
"He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul." (Psalm 23)
"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." (Psalm 27)

...and they make me think of quietness and stillness, patience and goodness. So, as I try to translate these abstract ideas into some sort of visual imagery, the concept advances along with me as I paint or glue or draw. What starts out as a photograph of a young girl out in the cold, or a simple sketch of a nest, or a few verses here and there, ends up to be a bigger drawing of that same girl, alone, walking through the woods on a cold day, in quiet and solitude and stillness. Here's just a start...


Does this make any sense? I guess all I'm trying to say is that I seem to live in this state of constant curiosity. I never know where I will be from one drawing to the next. I have a hard time seeing down the distant road, and usually just try to do the best I can with each idea that God brings to my mind. Even if the road leads to nowhere and all I do is set the idea down somewhere, usually in my sketchbook. I seem to live more in my sketchbook than in the public eye...which goes back to what I was saying earlier. Do you remember? About sticking with one concept for a whole year? I guess it's my way of trying to see down the distant road...