A Month of Strings 2

I’m still trying to come to terms with the health scare.

Patience - unavailable
Patience – unavailable

I micromanaged every move for fear it would be my last. I thought about a journal I’ve lost touch with, a girl who wrote about the “indignity of death.” How is she? Where is she? I cleaned my room because no one should have to clean it up. I started to take out the trash but I was tired. Then I thought, if I won’t be here tomorrow I should turn off the heat, ya know? I thought about doing my hair then realized it wouldn’t matter. I never thought, I need to throw away this or that so no one finds it.

Continue reading “A Month of Strings 2”

Some Things Aren’t Easy to Look At

Ariel knew d1 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

il_570xN.790567381_6p5vI 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.

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What Remains – Surrealism and Recovery

What Remains fmaWhen I painted this piece I wasn’t necessarily thinking about natural disasters such as a hurricane, tsunami or an earthquake. I was thinking of the disasters of the mind. I was thinking about events that leave us feeling crippled and isolated.

What Remains is a painting with many brush strokes, strikes with a toothpick and with black ink. Everywhere you look there is something filling the space. It’s full, overwhelming the canvas with flowing color, splashing contrast and texture that digs at the heart of the matter.

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The Growing Process

Growing ProcessArt Title: The Growing Process
Art by: Faith M. Austin
Medium: Acrylic, ink on artist paper, size 8.5 x 5.5 , signed, sealed, unmounted.
The Growing Process is ready to ship today.

Monday afternoon I showed a friend this painting. He said,
“She looks sad”. I replied, “You would be too if you had the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

Yes, she does look sad, and yes great responsibilities are hers. There’s a lot riding on her actions or inaction. However, she has not given up, nor has she slowed the growing process. Continue reading “The Growing Process”

She waited as long as she could

She waited fma

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”

I might have been torn to pieces

Jung Art


To the extent that I managed to translate the emotions into images that is to say, to find the images which were concealed in the emotions I was inwardly calmed and reassured.

Had I left those images hidden in the emotions, I might have been torn to pieces by them.

There is a chance that I might have succeeded in splitting them off; but in that case I would inexorably have fallen into a neurosis and so been ultimately destroyed by them.

As a result of my experiment I learned how helpful it can be, from the therapeutic point of view, to find the particular images which lie behind the emotions.

Carl Jung

The bird flew in the window fma

A Bird Flew in the Window

I Release Her

I release her

fma

Ashes – Hesitant to Speak

AshI 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

Nala fmaArt 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”

Lakrysta – Lady in the Stars

Lakrysta fma
Art Title: Lakrysta – Lady in the Stars
Medium: Ink and acrylics on 5 x 7 paper, signed, dated
Original art by: Faith M. Austin SOLD