Sundrip Journals
This small painting shows a young girl with droopy eyes and blue hanging above them. Cardinals and birds of strange feathers hold her braids like ribbons. Together in the meadow of wildflowers they find quiet solace.
Dorothy is a multi-media collage art piece on heavy card stock. The birds are hand cut and placed in her hair. The painting is 4 inches by 3 inches and has been mounted on black board.
The Wanderer is a nature scene of a young black boy sitting on a tree stump. His shirt is the same color as the roots of the trees that continued to grow the day I wandered into the woods through a host of fallen trees. I couldn’t believe the color. I’d never seen anything like it, such a beautiful and vibrant orange roots coming right out of rich, black earth. WOW!
This scene with the African American boy is based on that moment, the moment when I wandered into the woods.
The boy is sitting on the stump in his orange shirt and navy blue jeans with a tiny button. Beside him is a small red bird (cardinal). The bird is also hand sculpted without a cast. Meticulously placed are curly twigs from grape vines and blackberry vines. As in the real life wooded area, large flowers stand nearly frozen in time, as if dried in a flash. Yellow flowers, two white bushes, small hand picked rocks as well as tiny hand painted flowers have been added to a carpet of reindeer moss. The scene is stationed on a ceramic tile with a felt bottom. Continue reading “The Wanderer – On Fallen Trees”
In a village or town somewhat far from here lives a mother and father who work hard and feed their family with food sufficient for each day. They go about sweeping, sewing, mending and patching, etching out life. They scurry here and there, rushing this one, readjusting that one, forgetting another. In this village or town far away from here there are the higher ups and those low on socially carved totem poles. Somewhere in the middle, growing up with sisters but no brothers is a little girl named Iesha.
I used my hands to work the oil pastel then added ink details. About 90% of this is a finger painting in oil pastels. Continue reading “Iesha – She who lives”
Paint has dripped down the canvas like rain, sheets and layers of bold rain. Every color of the rainbow can be found mixed in, behind, in front of and between two young girls who are opposites. Continue reading “Walk with Me”
Sunflowers Bless My Home was super fun. She’s bright and beautiful, dreamy and just fun! A young girl stands with her arm out stretched with a large sunflower winding around her arm until it comes to an arch over the house of music. Green leaves touch the deep blue and purple sky. The white moon shares the purple and blue.
You can see the young woman with black hair in the red dress, breath the night air in as she stands in the grass by the rocky walkway home. It is a magical, fantasy and cheerful collage that would do well in any home or business office such as children’s dentistry or the bedroom of your young child whose imagination will be indulged. Continue reading “Sunflowers Bless My Home”
This painting was even more simple before it’s final brush strokes. The 
young woman at first stood at the top of a hill and with courage looked down at what could be if only she had the courage to take the first few steps. This version, the final, shows her at the bottom of the hill in a flowery meadow, walking about the landscape of a Grand Artist.
When I first tried to upload the painting, the original version, I had the hardest time in the world getting the colors to translate. The grass was never yellow, there wasn’t that much white in the sky and there was more blue for certain. I couldn’t get it the colors to translate. I liked the painting though so I sat it aside. Continue reading “It’s a Good Day”
The young girl sits with her legs crossed by a large koi. One finger touches the water, the other hand lays on her bronze and copper painted pants. Sand has been added to the pants as a symbol of stone. Beautiful, bright pink flowers grow in the garden. Her shirt is shredded fabric, linen pieces. The water wall behind her begins to take her in.
Art Title: Inner Swim
Art by: Faith Magdalene Austin
Medium: Acrylic, Gel, Sand
Size: 11 × 14 inches on heavy board
Its difficult for me to post art therapy pieces here but awhile ago I decided I would. It’s still had though. This piece is art expressing multiple personality disorder. It is a painting showing the need for one of the figures to feel pure or relieved of her burden. The painting shows all the movement, the light, dark, play, rest and chaos inside my head.
In the painting called ‘Purify’ you’ll see hidden people, hidden faces and layer upon layer of color. Sprouting or perhaps bursting forth from the woman’s face is a large white flower. A body rests over her forehead and lays over her eye. The arm leads to the main figure in the middle who is almost in a state of mental rest. With her eyes closed it is as if she’s blocked out the worries of the world and taken a rest. The taller figure beside her is an odd little girl who wears another little girl in a red dress. She creates the Odd Girl’s eyes, nose and hair bow. There are faceless figures and one figure in a box. There are swirls, strikes, smearing and of course flowers. Continue reading “Purify”
I started this piece in 2010 but didn’t finish it until this 2014. I couldn’t figure out exactly where to go with it so I put it up. I pulled it out and returned it to a sleeve at least three times until one day it hit me, I know what to do.
Please let me first explain why she’s in the Ugly Girl Collection and why her name is Pamela.
This young girl, like my other Ugly Girls, is different. She’s not visually appealing. No one wants to be her. They look at her inquisitively, maybe even with fascination but they also pity her. That is the idea behind the collection, to paint those little girls thought to be ugly, the little girls who hear about their blotchy skin like Pamela has or have adults and children alike point out this and that imperfection within ear shot. Pamela used to hear the giggles, used to see the pointed fingers, but no more. She is strong within herself, but most of all she is kind. Continue reading “Pamela – Ugly Girl”
It’s a brutal war to fight one’s mind and body, but that is what I do with chronic pain and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. My body fights to keep going. I feel as if I’m losing that battle. My mind fights itself. I sometimes wish to wave the white flag.
But what if, suppose I could overcome some small part of this turmoil? Suppose I could learn even more coping skills, even more ways to overcome and have a better quality of life? Suppose I could.
This painting is the third and final piece from a series called Suppose I Could Fly. She’s a young girl with dreadlocks looking straight forward. Her eyes are tired but she’s determined to pull through. She holds on to the flowers beside her with strength and a vow, she will continue on, she will let her inner self fly.