It is common for me to blast color on paper, edge to edge with twisting and twirling images. Sometimes though, I paint art for children. The showcase piece today is called “Becoming Me”. Two other pieces are included in this entry as children’s art. Continue reading “Becoming Me – Lullaby Collection”
Category: Mixed Media
Like Girls Do – My Face My Art
To combine art scribbled in black ink, inked in with deep blue, crimson and yellow can be sobering. To add these art pieces as a collage over the face they affect was to show that Lupus is more than what you read on a blog. It’s more than the art itself. It’s not pretty. What this collage says for me is: for many, Lupus isn’t written so clearly on the face.
The digital collage is made up of the following art pieces.
In the collage called “Like Girls Do” there is a piece of writing that says in part:
Years of laughter and chit-chat captured in cards and letters with flowers and smiley faces like girls do…… half cursive, half print promises that nothing…. under a cardboard lid with edges worn and weary of holding our secrets, the last….. “
While the original art pieces are available in my Etsy shop or via PayPal, the collage is not for use or sale. But, don’t worry, I’m getting there. The writing is on the back of work in progress.
Faith
Please respect the copyright and Please respect the art’s wishes.
Some Things Aren’t Easy to Look At
 They just aren’t, some issues are so frightening that even in the line of the sun they are still pitch black, still frightening.
When I painted this child, I did so with full knowledge that she may not sell. I have a problem though, I can’t paint gentle art if that’s not what’s inside. So I did what I do. I painted what I know.
Little Ariel knew it would rain. How does a person with Fibromyalgia and /or Lupus know it’ll rain even without turning on the weather report? Our bones tell us. The pain level shoots up high. Our eye sight is affected. Our fingers, lips and toes get cold. The pain level shoots up so high and so fast that it’ll double the body over. What’s interesting to me is that I’m caught off guard every time.
I hold my side. I’m bending down, seconds from loosing lunch, but it hasn’t clicked. I don’t understand what’s happening to my body. When I try to get to the car I see its sprinkling, raining or even light snow. Now it makes sense. Finally I realize the weather system has changed  and that has affected my pain, my complexion, fingers, lips, eyes and my ability to think rationally. It’s as if I’ve been sucked in and can’t see my way out….  but not so fast. I can see my way out. Continue reading “Some Things Aren’t Easy to Look At”
The Hide and A Little While Longer
I look at the drawing called “The Hide” and question how much I should reveal concerning it’s symbolism. I’m sure if viewed long enough it will interpret itself without me or anyone else having uttered a word. However, if one word were to wrap up how I felt as the ink crossed on paper, that word would be vulnerable. Vulnerable is the dominant emotion felt when I display art that expresses Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Dissociative Identity Disorder.
My heart sinks with each intricate line that builds a fortress from the inside out. Figure after figure emerges with each level of lines. Though the staircase would appear to lead down to the central black figure, in my mind it leads up. The figure is in a fortress of her own making, and that fortress is….. I’m not sure how to end the sentence.
Gloria – The Other Child
Art Title: Gloria
Art by: Faith Magdalene Austin
Size: 5.5 × 8.5
Medium artists paper, Crayola Crayon, ink
signed on the front and back, heat sealed but no acrylic seal.
NOTE: The watermark lines that go through her face are not on the original painting.
The character Éponine is my second favorite character in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. For me, she stands for every person who has fallen just a few inches short of glory. She’s the most obvious choice because she’s been there from the beginning but the other person can’t see. Her love is loyal yet silent. She is heroic, selfless and always second.
She waited as long as she could
Art details:  Orange rays and white beams meet in the red sky. Down the middle grows an old oak tree where two red birds (cardinals) and a raven swirl between the branches above a solid white figure. From the figure extends points of light. Her hands reach up to the branches and grow into them. Two blue figures have fallen from the sky; they’ve joined the merge as well. Continue reading “She waited as long as she could”
Ashes – Hesitant to Speak
I know what I want from this painting but who knows how long it’ll take to reach the finish line.
24 x 36 on watercolor paper.
This young girl is made of ashes. She’s wearing a dress made of bits and pieces of this and that. There is burlap and there are wood shavings, colored paper and ink ‘spills’. In her arms she will carry a bouquet of red roses but not bright red. The young girl’s hair will change slightly. You can be sure I’ll pull the wolf (in the top right corner) out in more detail. He’s just a cloud formed above her. At this time there is only one raven in the sky and a few solar flares in the sky. The final question is, will she be for sale? I have no idea. Continue reading “Ashes – Hesitant to Speak”
Nala Original Art
Art Title: Nala
Art by: Faith Magdalene Austin
Medium: Acrylic, ink, acrylic seal
11 x 14 Artist Board
I knew when I began this painting that I wanted a young girl to sit on the water’s edge with koi coming to meet her. I wanted a lot of texture with small details. To increase texture I added sand to her mahogany – rust colored pants. Her blouse is layer after layer of white paint and butter cream acrylic paint. This affect came together nicely to form a tunic top. Continue reading “Nala Original Art”
I Am, Still
I am uncertain what to say about these pieces of art. For much of the winter I was all but bed bound. I am better but somewhat in a depressed state.
There was very little I was able to do. My pain levels were off the charts. I usually turn to art to express emotions that are difficult to deal with or that linger. I can’t believe how many black pens I went through. At first I thought I was losing my pens because they were gone so quickly. I started to keep the dead pen bodies so I could make sure I wasn’t losing them and that in fact I was going through one pen a day. I really did go through a pen a day, sometimes more. That’s a lot of art. Much of it will never see the light of day but some of it will. I hope to get them posted over the next few days as my body allows.
Each pieces presented is 5 x 7 inches. These original art pieces have been signed, dated and sealed. I’ll get them in the shop as soon as possible.
Summons One and Two
The Community  and Comic
Faith
Dorothy in the Meadow
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.