Artwork with a purpose

As soon as I posted my conclusion to 2016 post, I realized that I wanted to post one more project that I completed this year. This was perhaps the largest project that I have completed and one that I am immensely proud of.

The whole process was amazing. I went to discuss Creekside's website design but ended up leaving with a new job. Over the course of one week, every hour I could spare was spent painting our mission/vision statement on our sanctuary wall. It was somewhat scary for a number of reasons...

I'm not great with heights and this job required me to be up on a lift and very tall ladder.

The act of committing to painting on a wall that was not my own also made me nervous...

In spite of my nervousness, it was exciting to complete this. Here are the rest of my progress photos:

The completed project is about 9 ft by 5 ft (I think...) and I am immensely proud to have used my artistic gifts to complete this project for my church family!

A Final Look at School

This semester was a great end to six years of undergraduate work. I can't believe where I started and where I am now.

This is one of the first pieces I completed after graduating high school:

This is one of the last pieces I've completed as an undergraduate:

This is a good thing for every artist to remember: it really doesn't seem like you're improving in the day to day grind of being an artist. And in reality, maybe the improvements you make each day are pretty small, but the important thing is to continue working so that you can continue to make progress.

Anyway, what do my final projects look like? I've finished the first 50 pages of a screenplay (and I hope to finish it this summer) for one thing. I also...

Finished a portfolio for my printmaking class...

...made three rings out of bronze, one out of thread, pins and paperclips, a bell, and a brace...

And spent the entire semester trying to learn and enjoy where I'm at as much as I can. This is definitely not where I set out to be when I graduated high school with dreams of working at Pixar, yet I don't think I would trade where I am and where I'm going (even though I'm still not quite sure where that is...) I hope I continue to grow as an artist throughout my life.

I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who's been reading my blog! I've reached my 35th post since starting this blog back in 2011 and I've really enjoyed sharing my work with you! It's great to have an audience and I hope that my art has been bringing you joy. Please share my blog with others, I love showing people what my work means to me!

Making Up for Lost Time

I guess not making artwork or posting on my blog as often as I'd like to have done this year has sort of lit a fire under me. Thanks to my brand new smart phone (I've finally entered the 21st century...) I've been able to catalog my artwork right as I'm finishing it. Here's some more of the prints I've been making:


After I finished my series on my cultural heritage, I got kind of stuck for new ideas. I ended up making something that has the look of parchment...

 This one ended up looking like a microscope slide.

 I tried to go deeper into the histories of each country, but there is so much history, especially in certain countries, I didn't know where to begin. This represented the all reaching power of Rome, including the Italian word for almighty, "Altissimo"

 After that, I went back to my specific family names and crest, and let the design elements of my family crests inspire me.

 I wanted to take that idea and abstract it more.

And now for something completely different. I was listening to a song by Rend Collective and let the words inspire this piece.  I'm also excited about this piece because it was my first opportunity to work with actual tyesetting. May I say, thank goodness for computers!

Inktober - 31 Days of Solitude (Part 6)

Here's the final round of sketches. Overall, I'm really proud of the work that I accomplished. Not everything is perfect, some are definitely better than others, but the point is that I got in and sketched, no matter what I thought was going to be good or not. This helped build up my confidence in my drawing.

Not every line I make in drawing is going to be perfect, but that shouldn't stop me from continuing to draw

Enjoy!

Inktober - 31 Days of Solitude (Part 5)

This round of sketches is one that I'm particularly proud of. Enjoy!

Inktober - 31 Days of Solitude (Part 4)

Round four of sketches (onto the second half of the month!)

Enjoy!

Inktober - 31 Days of Solitude (Part 2)

Round 2 of my Inktober sketches. Enjoy!

Inktober - 31 Days of Solitude (Part 1)

In an effort to get back to filling sketchbook pages (which I'm still really inconsistent with...I got this sketchbook as a Christmas gift last year), I decided to participate in Inktober 2014.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, Inktober takes place each year in October - it's a time where artists take a little time each day in October to complete a drawing in ink. It's a chance to improve our skills and (for me at least) get drawing on a regular basis.

I was hoping to start posting my drawings on November 1st but, then again, life happens (and I get lazy). Still, this is really the first time that I'm posting things from my sketchbook. Usually, I'm so concerned with whether or not the things in it look good (especially compared to some of the other artists I know). But I'm tired of letting insecurities dictate how and when I make art, so here they are.

Why the title? "31 Days of Solitude" refers to the direction the work that I created seemed to take. Because of where I am in life right now (not really busy) and where a great majority of my friends are (super busy), I'm spending a lot of time by myself. While it's not always perfect, I feel like solitude is a blessing in many ways. There is a difference between being alone and being lonely, and I have experienced both lately, so I supposed they both end up in these pages.

Anyway, enough talk, here's the first batch of sketches:

(I wasn't going to comment on any of my work, but I have to say, this sketch is one of the ones I'm most proud of in my sketchbook. I'm thinking of turning it into a digital painting to work on those skills).

Look for more from my Inktober efforts tomorrow!

Our Abilities and Insecurities

“It matters not what my abilities may be then, provided that I possess you, Lord. Do what you will with this insignificant creature. Whether it be that I should work, or become inspired, or be the recipient of your impressions, it is all the same. Everything is yours, everything is from you and for you … Mine is to be satisfied with your work and not to demand the choice of action or condition, but to leave everything to your good pleasure.”

Jean-Pierre deCaussade, The Joy of Full Surrender

   This is one of my favorite quotes, because it speaks about the way that I want to live as an artist. As an artist, it's really easy to become drained and discouraged if my heart isn't in the right place. There have been many times where I have considered my artistic efforts to be unsuccessful because all I can focus on is how much I feel like I'm failing. The funny thing is, many times my worries don't have any basis in reality. But unless I focus on something other than my failures, the reality of my work will never be noticed by me.

   Here's one way that we can focus on something other than our failures: focus on what a blessing it is to have the artistic abilities that we do. To think, even though there are millions of people in the world, God has given each artist unique abilities. There's a key word in that: unique. It's not going to help us if we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. Each of those people who we compare ourselves to is at a different stage in their artistic development. Considering that, it's pretty foolish to compare ourselves to others.

   Whatever our abilities are, they mean nothing if we do not use them to glorify the one who gave them to us. Focusing on making my work perfect, or being as good as those as those around me, is no way to use my abilities. The only thing it's "good" for is to distract me from what a blessing all the abilities that God has given me are.

   Looking at the quote from The Joy of Full Surrender, I think that Jean-Pierre deCaussade understood the importance of putting God before insecurities. When we possess God, when He is first in our lives, we have something greater than praise from the people around us. Whether or not we are praised for our abilities, we know that we are honoring God with them. That gives us more strength than confidence in our abilites ever could.

   What can we do to make sure that we are not bogged down by our "lack of" abilities, or our insecurities? Allowing ourselves to take some time each day to spend time in the Word and in prayer really allows our minds and hearts to get in to the right place. 

One of the other things that I've been doing is printing out my favorite verses and placing them in places where I'm definitely going to see them. One of the best places I have decided to place a verse was on my pencil case.

 I hope that others find this quote as encouraging as I do. I end with a verse that I came across this morning:

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans."- Psalm 118:8

Pencil Mileage

"You just need more mileage"

I confess, for a time last semester I came to resent that phrase.

I guess I should clarify what mileage is (for those of you who don't know). When I talk about mileage, I'm not talking about car mileage; I'm talking about pencil mileage. It's a pretty simple concept when you think about it; the more you draw the better your skills get.

But for me that concept hasn't been as simple as I thought it would be. I would get to a point in the day where I wanted to draw, but then there would always be something stopping me. I was too afraid of making a mistake, even if it was in my private sketchbook. I was also afraid of what people would think about my work, even if I knew they'd never see it.

That insecurity extended beyond my private sketching and into my schoolwork. It was almost like I didn't want to do any sketching because I figured that I'd never really improve as much as I wanted to, or as much as I thought I was.

It wasn't until the end of last semester that I really came to terms with the importance of mileage. I have heard some people say that we all have 200,000 bad drawings in us. The important thing is having the discipline and courage to get passed those 200,000 bad drawings.

I know that there are other people who are facing the same problems that I still struggle with. It's almost like we suffer for our art, because there seems to be a constant internal struggle going on. Always wondering if what we're doing is correct or if people will like our work; it's not a fun way to spend time.

But the thing I had to realize is that you have to move on, not dwell on your insecurities. Honestly, there are only two possibilities from sketching more.
       1) You get better.
       2) You stay the same.
Your drawing can't get worse if you keep at it; you can't fall off the first floor.

So now I see that as difficult as it can be to conquer the blank page. If you really want to produce better art, then yes, you need more mileage.

My New Blog

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a couple of months now and why not? It gives me a great place for me to let my artwork be seen by everyone. So, here it is, the first post of Ealaín Anam. I get it, the title of this blog is probably a little unexpected (and unpronounceable).  Actually,  Ealaín Anam (pronounced ya-lin AH-nem) is Gaelic for "art soul". For a while now, I have been interested in titling things with Gaelic names (never mind that I don't speak a word of it...) in tribute to my Irish heritage.

So why choose this particular phrase for a title? I spent a while pouring over Gaelic translations to find something poetic, but 'art' and soul' always seemed to fit the best.

I think art soul says something about me. Since I'm a really shy person, my art is one of the only ways that I can really express myself without hindrance (yeah, I know that's an old cliche but it really is true). I think that if you really consider yourself to be an artist, there's something that has to come from the deepest part of you. For me, I believe that God has put a fire in me to create art; it's a bit like what Eric Lidell said:

"I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I can feel his presence."

Well, I don't pretend that I'm fast, or even that I like to run...but I've always thought that quote says something about other things. All I have to do is say "he also made me an artist. And when I create I can feel his presence".

That's the force that drives me to create. When I really get in to a project, I feel great, like I'm doing the thing that I was meant to do. My art and my soul are two things that become intertwined. I don't think I could separate one from the other, and I think that's how it should be.