Blog Posts

Just for Fun

11/7/2016

Sketch of one of my favorite characters from the TV show, "Gilmore Girls": Jess. Graphite on paper.

A new additions to my selection of portraiture of babies. This has been added to my Portraiture album on this website. Others provided below to feature just my collection of this category, which is usually mixed into the larger group of portraiture of people and animals.

"Portrait of Bella"

Organic Mosaic: Miscarriage

11/5/2016

In the style of my Organic Mosaic series, this digital drawing expresses the isolation and helplessness on the part of the mother suffering through miscarriage.

Updating Portraiture Portfolio

11/5/2016

Adding past drawing works to the Portraiture Portfolio.

Prophetic Art Time Capsule

11/2/2016

Life is cyclical. We revisit the same instances, the same questions in our paths, but from new perspectives. I came across these recently in my studio and portfolios from high school.

The first image was a book-report project from my summer reading one year. I read "Silas Marner," by George Eliot. For those who don't know, Eliot was a woman, who wrote under a male pen name in order to be taken seriously. In her novel, a child conceived out of wedlock is discarded and left on Marner's doorstep. A miser in the same tradition of Ebenezer Scrooge, he finds fulfillment in the golden haired child he is gifted to adopt and raise by Providence.

The second painting is one I did for a Pro-life student art and writing contest, conducted by the Tennessee Right to Life. Years later, I would be invited back as a judge for the same contest (again, noting how interestingly cyclical life can be). In my simpler high school minded creativity, the best I could muster to depict abortion was a potential baby lost, the absence, the shadow of a baby that was killed instead of allowed to be held in his or her parents hands. I won the contest for which I had entered. If I remember correctly, there weren't many participants that year, however by the time I was invited back as a judge, it had clearly gained in popularity due to the much larger submission size.

Why is this cyclical to me? Because the first image of Marner's adopted child, Eppie, is the spitting image of my first child. She has golden curls, and she has a personality that draws everyone to her, like the beautiful girl in Eliot's novel. As I write this, she is in nearly the same position asleep, as I depicted that fictional child over 15 years ago. Meanwhile, the second work, painted 2 years later, the same spacing we had intended for our first two children, is the spitting image of my miscarried child, Alex. While my husband and I never intended abortion, as we view it as a violation of everything sacred about human life, Alex died inside of me this past summer, at about 8.5 weeks growth and we faced what we never thought we would: the loss of a child during pregnancy. As a result we had to go through the process of my body clearing out the remains, and we grieved, realizing there was a child we would never, never, in any real way, get to hold. There is a palpable ache present, that is now so much more pronounced in that second painting.

These paintings, completed before I was really Pro-Life, when I was still a very young artist with no real direction, who mostly drew pictures of actors I crushed on in my sketchbooks, and cartoon characters like Jigglypuff decorated my doodles in my textbooks, somehow link to today, and the artist I am now. I am fully Pro-Life. I realize the baby-shadow in the image I painted in high school isn't just a potential child, but the representation of an actual lost child, having now lost one myself. I now understand juxtaposed against an image of abortion, why Eppie is so fortunate, why she is such a treasure, not only as the salvation of Silas Marner, but also for her own sake as a child spared from death, instead given the alternative of adoption. I have had a conversion stretching further back than 15 years. I have so many people and events responsible for that gradual transition, most especially my husband, and the experiences we have shared together. I am a better person, a more loving and compassionate person, because I can now understand what the Pro-Lifers from my high school and college years were so passionate about.

I painted the portrait of Eppie from Silas Marner for a grade. I painted the depiction of a lost baby through abortion for a prize. But here they are now, as portraits of my two children that I have had so far, one that made it to beautiful fruition, and the other we remember and for which we grieve. I have come across the same intersection in my life, but from a new path that has wound and doubled back, giving me a glimpse into how I have grown both as an artist, and as a person.

Portrait of Cat, Pertwee

10/29/2016

Adding a missing portrait from the last few months. This is our cat, Brigadier Pertwee Summers, measuring 16 x 20 inches, acrylic on canvas, painted in 3 hours at one of my public live portrait demonstrations at Hollywood Feed.

Pet Portrait Commission Completed

10/20/2016

Completed and delivered this week: Pet portrait in acrylic on panel, measuring 11 x 14 inches.

Miscarriage Art

10/5/2016

This is a preview of a body of work I have been building for several months. My husband and I recently suffered a miscarriage, and I wrote poetry and began painting works that expressed my frustration and grief. I plan to do something that combines the two in the near future, but have only started brainstorming what I intend to do. I want to share my grief with others who have suffered from miscarriage, because that among other things has helped our family the most, and I want our society to grow past the stigma and taboo attitude we have surrounding the subject miscarriage. Finally, I intend for people to see the hypocrisy in mourning the death of a wanted unborn child, and recognizing his or her humanity, while we as a society still celebrate a person's "right" to purposefully end an unborn child's life. If we mourn for one, we should protect the other. They are the same. For now, since October is Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month, I am sharing a glimpse into my art about miscarriage.

"The Little Ones Along the Fence"
Depicting my husband digging the grave for our miscarried child

Right: "Miscarriage Still Life"

Below: "Portrait of Alex"

"Rainbow Baby No. 1" and "Rainbow Baby No. 2"
The worry and anxiousness of pregnancy following a miscarriage.
A baby born following a miscarriage is called a "rainbow baby."

Cosplay Art: Starfleet Captain Zach Summers

8/18/2016

Painted about a month ago with the other Cosplay Art series, this one was left still needing to be put together with a timelapse. This is my husband dressed as a Starfleet Captain.