Face #27

2.5X4"
Mechanical pencil on scrap paper

It's official: I am in LOVE with the mechanical pencil as a drawing tool.

It was another incredibly slow day at my "real" job (the one that pays the bills), so I grabbed a piece of scrap paper and started sketching. About a half-hour later, I had this lovely portrait...with a mechanical pencil! Outside of the lines on the back side of the paper that showed through on the scan, I am very happy with it. Amazed, actually.

Consider the Lilies

"Flower"
9X12"
soft pastel on Colorfix paper

I was getting quite bogged down with the cares of this world this week and neglecting my spiritual life. By the time Friday rolled around, I was feeling pretty down and tired. I didn't want to waste the entire evening watching television, but I felt like I needed to do something to take my mind off of everything for awhile. So I sat down to do some drawing/painting practice (yes, artists, like musicians, need to practice if they want to improve their skills). I painted this flower and then did another drawing and then went to bed.

I woke up the next morning still feeling run down on all fronts. I started to pray and was too distracted. I was feeling restless, so I decided to go for an early morning stroll. While I was out, I felt my mood brighten with the sunshine. I kept seeing all these wildflowers all around, and it cheered me up. I stopped to look at one particular flower, and then God spoke to me. He started reminding me about Matthew 6:28-30:

• "...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" (NKJV)

Wow. God puts so much beauty and detail into something that is so temporary, and I am so much more valuable to Him. So what am I doing, worrying about all this craziness going on in my life right now? My burdens were lifted away at that point, and I walked the rest of the way home praising God. And thanks to my "practice" the night before, I now have a visual reminder of this entire experience.