I am honored to have been invited by the Marketing Director at Patience Brewster to participate in an interview about my story and my life as an artist, in honor of the recent Artist Appreciation Month.
Patience Brewster is an artist and designer of handmade and handcrafted unique gifts and ornaments. Please see Patience Brewster’s Blog to learn more about her work, and I especially encourage you to visit Patience Brewster’s Christmas Ornaments Page for some wonderful holiday inspiration.
Following is my response to the interview questions.
1 – As a child, do you recall a significant moment when you felt truly affected or inspired by any particular artwork or artist?
Truthfully, the closest thing to “art” that was part of my history was loving to see my grandmother’s needle handiwork (crocheting, knitting and quilting) and my mother’s skill as a seamstress. Other than that, the only response I ever had to anyone’s “art” work was to wish I could be artistic.
I have several of my grandmother’s quilts. This is a Friendship Quilt that she hand stitched.
I accepted the “fact” for almost 60 years that I was not creative. Art was something for people who were creative, and that was definitely not me. I was the school teacher who always asked the students to decorate the bulletin boards, because anything they could come up with would be better than my poor attempts. (I used to say that, while I did not know what heaven would be like for sure, I did know that it would not include playground duty or bulletin boards.)
An avid family memory keeper, in 2004, I began scrapbooking, my priority hobby to this day.
I was amazed when people began to comment on my pages as being “creative.” Me? Then, my interest in scrapbooking grew into an avid and prolific hobby of mixed media, starting with tag-making with Tim Holtz. The tag-making began with Christmas tags, as I am crazy about Christmas arts and crafts (one reason I am drawn to Patience Brewster’s ornaments).
From there, I moved into Art Journaling and began to sketch and paint just a bit.
I then began to add more work that I call Faith Art.
I recently added Bible Art Journaling, where I use mixed media on my Bible pages (including stamps, inks, and paints, along with my own sketches).
Today I still scrapbook, art journal and Bible art journal. I also dabble in sketching and painting, mainly as a part of the mixed media journey. It still shocks me to hear someone refer to me as an “artist,” but at least I have begun to think of myself as being “creative.”
2 – As an artist, what do you hope to convey with your work?
Because my life centers around being a Christ-follower, I always hope that my “art” (see, I still have to put it in quotes) conveys the message of the Gospel: God loved us and sent His Son so that we might have salvation from the penalty of sin. So, most of my work these days is either Bible Art (doing art in my Bible) or art journals filled with Faith Art. For me, when I create (yes, me!), I always default to what is on my heart that day. It almost always has a spiritual theme.
3 – What memorable responses have you had to your work?
Well, since my children grew up thinking of their mother the same way she thought of herself (certainly not associated with the tag “artist”), their responses are sometimes, “Who are you, and what have you done with our mother?”
But I have had some wonderfully heartwarming responses to my art, on my blog and on Facebook and Instagram. Sometimes I am told that a particular art project blog post has made a huge difference in someone’s life. That is very affirming. The comment, “I want to be you when I grow up” certainly brought a smile and was meaningful! A few years ago, using some of my scrapbooking techniques, I created a bulletin board for our church Vacation Bible School. Recently, I was contacted by a large (and well-known) resort in Colorado to inquire if I would be willing to create a similar bulletin board for their resort (they had seen it on the internet). That was pretty humbling! Odd, isn’t it, that the “thing” I didn’t think I could do while I was a teacher (bulletin boards) was now, in retirement, a part of a newly-discovered “skill” that is even recognized on a near-professional level. Amazing.
4 – What is your dream project?
I do not have a particular project that I dream of doing, but I do desire to become more skilled at “real art,” getting better at sketching and painting. That would involve some professional training, as I have had none to this point. I think I would enjoy that (as opposed to dreading “Art Day” when I was in elementary school)!
5 – What artists, of any medium, do you admire? (Famous or not!)
I admire most of the art that I see in my mixed media groups, but especially that done by folks who are so good at sketching and painting.
Thank you to the folks at Patience Brewster for inviting my participation.
#PatienceBrewster #mixedmediaart #BibleArtJournaling #FaithArt #IllustratedFaith