The Invisible Children is a haunting and surreal scene of sunflowers at night, a full moon, ravens flying and figures in the flowers at the base of a large, bare tree. It is a dark, fluid piece, full of small details.
The Invisible Children
Art Title: The Invisible Children Art by: Faith Magdalene Austin Media: Acrylic paint, ink, paper Size: 5.5 x 8.5, unmounted, raw art
Please visit me in my Etsy shop for original art, such as above, and handmade dolls.
www.Sundrip.etsy.com or contact me at SundripJournals@gmail.com for a PayPal invoice.
I’ve been updating the galleries here on Sundrip and ran across some art pieces I’ve not seen in a little bit. I thought I’d share some of them with you.
Honorable – Redbubble
Honorable is an art piece that started all the art therapy pieces. I can even remember the assignment and who gave it. I look at this art with the humble young woman and umbrella and feel a sense of peace.
Beckoning
Beckoning is a painting created close to the same time as Honorable. Beckoning shows a young girl either accepting gifts or freeing herself. I could never decide which I was trying to say with this piece.
I created her with a program that is no longer in existence, way back before digital drawing tablets were popular and before Photoshop was widely available. I used my computer mouse and painted each part of her, one stroke at a time.
Looking Forward
Looking Forward – a digital piece with a lot of detail but also a lot of sky and a huge star of hope. A hand comes out of the mountains and holds a young girl to looks forward and into her new life. She’s being given a new lease on life.
I love her butterfly wings and the graceful way she sits.
These three paintings are a glimpse into what you’ll find in the newly designed Digital Arts Gallery here on Sundrip – Art for Life. To see all available digital prints for your home please visit my Redbubble shop.
I’ve been working on a schedule for fitting my life together neatly. I need to wake early to get everything done in a day’s time.
I start all my Bible study, Christian reading and volunteer work around 7am to 9am daily. That 2 hours in the morning is strictly for Bible activities.
At 9am to 3pm the CNA is here. This time includes the basics of 2 meals, doctor appointments, grocery shopping, managing pets and so on. At 3pm I’m dead to the world and must sleep. I wake at 5pm, eat a little and have the rest of the evening to do as I please. I’m no longer one who stays awake all night which means the evening ends around 10:00pm, with my body telling me it should be sooner. Lol
One of the “do as I please” moments included finishing the first real painting in a year! The other painting on the table (with the blue face) is an art piece that waited 9 years for completion.
Once I got my new art table, painting became physically easier and is something I look forward to. I’ve also gotten back to more advertising and running the Etsy site.
I can’t say the table was my only reason for not painting. I know there were emotional factors that inhibited flow, but having the new table helps me tremendously. I just love it and wish I’d purchased it sooner. While I say that I realize I may not have been ready and that the table was replaced when my heart was again ready for creative freedom. That’s what it feels like to truly paint again, freedom.
I’m loving this and it couldn’t have come at a better time. February is hard for me with all its anniversaries. I’ve been fighting and kicking in my sleep, screaming out and having terrible dreams. It’s not been fun, but it has been safe for me because I have my art as a coping skill again. I’ve even painted when the physical pain got exceedingly high. The return of art has been healing on many fronts. Soon I will post the painting of the little girl l finished from 2011 and the one I started and finished two days ago.
In the hospital I felt guilty for putting my friends through worry for me. I felt bad that they worried for five long months, especially around surgeries. When things would get harry I felt horrible for putting people through tears and worry.
In this art piece that expresses the guilt, I put hanging people on the shoulders of a figure standing behind a smaller faceless figure. Both figures have an amputated foot with darkened skin around the amputation site. The figure with the sunflower crown is holding a star in her left hand.Â
In the hospital I worried that the doctors would realize that they were putting forth a lot of effort for a nobody, and when they found out they’d stop caring for me. This piece expresses the issue of low self worth.Â
The painting shows a split face which is typical in my art anymore. It shows two faceless figures and a large sunflower at the bottom. Also of note is the yellow hair and orange face of the faceless figure with spike hair. Again, yellow symbolizes disgusting things and there were plenty of gross things in the hospital. For her hair to be yellow is very significant for me.Â
Both works were created after the amputation and are in watercolor and ink.Â
The painting above, where I express myself as No One is interesting to me since I had an alter named No One who always painted herself as faceless. That alter changed her name to Jordan and is interestingly enough, the main personality in the group. She is in affect, my face.Â
The No One painting is also the inspiration for art where there are two faces as opposed to just a split face. I’ve been doing that in art therapy a lot lately. Dr. D and I talked about that last Friday.Â
In therapy we talked about the unfinished image “Both of Us”, drawn by Robert over a two day period. We spent a lot of time on it because it drew us into a discussion about being co-conscious and more integrated. My emotions are more integrated and more identifiable.
I showed him 4 drawings total. Three of the drawings were done by Robert. When Robert draws himself in work, it is important to him for Dr. D to see the image of Robert. He doesn’t want to be overlooked or looked through. To be ignored and overlooked is painful for anyone.
We talked about the colors and why I use certain colors. We talked about how different it is that Robert used yellow on the face in his drawing. We don’t do yellow at all. Hate yellow. Of course he asked why and I just told him. My mother’s mattress had yellow flowers on it. There were too many times I had my face buried in that yellow and that’s all I could see. I hate that color to touch me now. I use it in art to mean negative things. For it to touch his face tells me there’s some sort of guilt or maybe flashbacks that he is dealing with. Yellow in art is explained on my art therapy page. It’s also interesting that the pants worn by the girl in the upper left corner is wearing yellow pants. This just doesn’t happen, not even in art.
The image to the side was drawn by Michelle in pencil. Dr. D noted that the people are in typical fashion from what I used to draw. He says the people have a look of despair and trauma on their faces. It’s funny, I don’t set out to make my images look this way. I just start drawing what I feel. I think its the same for others inside. Everyone just draws what they feel. The painting or coloring in is according to our color chart that we’ve had for who knows how long.
We discussed how it feels to have a 12 year old alter around who doesn’t want to be called anything but her own name and doesn’t want to be mistaken for Faith.
Dr. D called Michelle the last hold out, then laughed. Yeah. Everyone else is on board with knowing and understanding what it means to have DID. We know how we got here and why we have DID but this one kid ain’t havin’ it. She can’t accept that she is not separate. She hasn’t yet learned that what she does affects the rest of us and what we do affects her. We’re a system….. We take care of each other.
She wants her own sketchbook but we won’t let her do it. She draws and paints in the community book just like everyone else.
There’s guilt associated with ‘causing’ us to feel anxious whenever she’s around. Her anxiety is always very, very high.
Speaking of high, Dr. D and I discussed differences in artwork when I’m high. He asked if there’s a difference in noise level in my head when I’m high. Yes. I can hear the alter personalities clearer so it feels louder at times with pot, but there’s also a calm that covers us all. It works out well if I eat it. I had it in hot chocolate the other day. Turns out that homemade honey cake with weed is pretty good. That one was new for me.
Last but not least, Michelle got her snails in the mail today. How totally cool is that! All the way from Greece! She keeps saying, I would have been happy even if they’d been from across the street but no one had snails that they were selling locally. I think it’s totally cool that they’re from Greece. It just sort of happened that way and I’m glad it did.
Art by: Faith Magdalene Austin
Art Title: Girl Inside
Media: Watercolor and Acrylic on 98 lb paper
Style: Raw, African Americana, Folk Art, Black Art
Finish: Sealed, signed,
Here’s a close up look at this very emotional piece of a girl with someone else inside.
For a long time I thought to myself, I’m all out of art. I’ve got nothing creative left. I just scribble and block in the shapes with color. But after looking at these blocks of color I have to say, this is art, and I like it.
I started off drawing with a black gel pen then used watercolor. This particular piece was created to work with a new watercolor set of mine. I really liked how it turned out and love the watercolor set.
Below is a combination of Windsor Newton watercolors and a generic brand that I purchased. The generic brand has some colors that I really love that WN left out, so, I used both sets quite often.
I still use my bed at times as an art studio but somehow I’ve managed not to get any paint on my bed. Lets hope I can keep up the cleanliness.
Monday was one of the hardest days I’ve had in a while. It started off with nightmares that stayed with me for much of the day. I tried to go back to bed to start over but had yet another nightmare. Then as planned, I got myself together, got on my horse (wheelchair) and left the house despite mega pain. I went to the shoe store and cried my eyes out in the store unexpectedly. I had no idea the grief would hit me right there in DSW but it did and there I sat crying in my chair in front of people. I felt like a fool.
Later I went to the post office to send out art only to discover that it was Columbus Day, no mail. That would have been fine except I was already at my max of stress and physical pain. Then later the big worry happened, I fell. Continue reading “Surviving to Eke out Gratitude”
Here’s a quick look at some of the art that is still looking for a wall of it’s own.
The Young Violinist
Resilience Tree – Risen
Available
Where can I purchase original Sundrip art?
Original artwork can be purchased directly from this website Sundrip.com by using PayPal or from my Etsy shop. The Etsy shop no longer offers prints.
Where can I buy Sundrip prints?
You may purchase prints from my Redbubble shop. If there’s a print you want but it does not appear in the Redbubble shop please contact me and I’ll put it in there. At this time I only offer prints from my Redbubble shop.
Please click the Galleries link for Frequently Asked Questions and other information.
Thank you for visiting SUNDRIP – Art for Life
Faith
