creative

3 Reasons to Art; A Brief Overview

| Whitt’s End Art

I have delved into creating art for most of life. The reasons I started to create art are various. Here are three.

  1. I returned to my love of art over three decades ago. One of the reasons is it helps me to relax. At one point in my life I dealt with anxiety issues. One of my doctors suggested I take up a quiet hobby. I used to doodle so I figured I would try my hand at cartooning. One thing led to another and I started to create more fine art projects. Art still helps me to relax.
  2. The second reason I love to art is the challenge. I am a self taught artist. A lot of what I know comes from books and lately YouTube videos. Trying to become a better artist is not only restful but it also challenging. I also look for drawing projects which are hard for me to draw. This I feel helps me grow as a person as wells as an artist.
  3. The last reason I art is because I love sharing with others what I create. I know I will probably never become rich off of my art but it doesn’t matter. My goal for creating art, other than it relaxing nature and the mental challenge it brings, is to maybe bring a smile to someones face. Art by it’s very nature is a participation media. Artists create so others can see or hear the fruits of our labors.

These are the three maim reasons I create art. Maybe you can add your reasons as comments to this article.

Doodle #130, Takin’ Your Life for a Stroll

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It is a simple law of physics which states, “a body in motion tends to stay in motion unless something acts on it to stop it.” My wife and I love to go for strolls. At times we walk through our local neighborhood. If it is cold outside we will walk at our local mall. One of our favorite places to walk is out in Amish Country around some of the local landmarks and villages which is the inspiration for today’s doodle, “Strolling among the Shops.”

Life is also a stroll once set in motion will not stop until in reaches the end. There is also no slowing down life, no matter how hard we try. Billions of dollars each year are spent trying to regain a youthful look or lifestyle. My question is why? Since we have no control over time why not regal in fact we are aging?  We could the wisdom and knowledge we have gained over the years to help those who are younger to try and understand how to live their lives more fully. This is what Solomon did for his son and others in the Book of Proverbs.

Wisdom after all is best used when it is shared. So take your life on a stroll and use your past experiences to write a blog, volunteer in your local community or do what I do and create some art and add a few words to each drawing.

Doodle #125, Yellow, The Color of All Things Bright

| Whitt’s End Art

Today is yellow day. No it is not a National Holiday is it on the list for the May 5th drawing prompt. I could have went in a lot of directions with this prompt like a piece of lemon meringue pie, a banana, a yellow flower, a sunset among many other yellow items.. In fact I actually drew a lemon but switched to the more, “Whimsical Girl with Kitten,” for today’s drawing instead.

Yellow has always been one of my favorite colors to paint or color with because it exudes warmth, brightness and happiness. Yellow has also been associated, in our society, with cowardliness. Hence the phrase, “You’re yeller because you won’t fight me.” I added a little Southern in there due to my heritage. Whatever way you choose to look at the color yellow remember this there are a lot of colors which would not exist without this primary color.

Life is kind of like the primary color yellow. It is filled with a lot of happiness and warmth and maybe a little cowardice but when you add other colors to it, life can be so much more. As a young man I had a lot of friends come and go in my life most of whom I didn’t stay in contact. Still those friends who I left behind are important to me because they mixed into my life and added something to my primary color which helped me be who I am today. So the next time you are with your friends thank them for mixing into your life and helping you paint a beautiful portrait. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

Doodle #123, Plowing the Still Hard Soil

| Whitt’s End Art

The drawing prompt for today is the word plow. The task was to draw something with a lot of shadow. I live near Lancaster, PA so I thought of a plow. The title of my primarily pen and ink drawing is “This Old Plow.” The Amish in Lancaster still use horse drawn plows to till the soil. It is interesting to watch as the farmer urges his team up and down  the fields. As the team moves along the plow digs deep gouges in the field,  The farmer can then go back and plant the seeds, which will spout into this years crop.

Today’s message is a simple one. As Christians we need to remember that God does the plowing of the heart. Our responsibility is to plant the seeds into the fertile soil then leaves the rest up to God to take care of. The sad thing for me as with all farming some seeds never sprout, others sprout but are not firmly planted so they do get the nutrients they need to grow and still others miss the mark and have soil to latch onto. Sound familiar it should. It is a paraphrase of the Parable of the Sower, Matthew 13:1-23.

 

Doodle #121, Let Your Flashlight Be Your Guide

| Whitt’s End Art

When we were kids we couldn’t wait until it got dark outside. The reason, we couldn’t wait to play flashlight tag. Our versions of flashlight tag went something like this. The person who was it got the flashlight. His or her job was to find the people who were hiding and illuminate them with the light. The first person found was it in the next round. The only problem with wandering in the dark is you tend to run into things. No matter the dangers, flashlight tag still ranks up there as one of my favorite things to do in the summer.

The analogy of the flashlight is a simple one, light illumines our way, while darkness hides what we do. God is often referred as light in the Bible. The reason for followers of Jesus is simple. If we follow God then his Word, “Is a light to my path,” which means He illuminates the path I need to follow. God is also, “lamp unto my feet.” Just like in flashlight tag the one with the light can see where they are going in the darkness, while the rest are left to stumble.

God’s light provides for me a clear path where I can see the obstacles that come along as I walk and help me to navigate around them. I hope you like my drawing inspired by the word flashlight, entitled, “The Light Brings Color.”

 

Doodle #116, A Basket Full of Memories

| Whitt’s End Art

The drawing prompt for today was basket. When I saw the prompt the first thing to pop in my head was all the years I spent delivering newspapers which was the inspiration for my drawing, “Bike and Basket.” I delivered newspapers as a kid with my friend and then for 26 years as an adult. The drawing prompt for today also invoked memories of these baskets my mom used to have filled with photographs of past memories. I think we all have a basket we fill with memories of each day.

Some of us have actual baskets or boxes where we keep physical photographs which in a lot of cases are never seen once they are put away, except for special occasions.  In theses modern times our baskets have been replaced with SD cards or space on the Cloud of your choice. Thousands of memories are stored each day some or most of them still long forgotten. It seems no matter where we put our memories they are forgotten except on the day by a sheer happenstance a lost memory is retrieved. Then the time for reminiscing begins.

What is my point in all this. While I love the idea of photographs because they helps us to remember good times past with loved ones long gone or moved away. I also know we can’t be too caught up in taking every moment of every event in our lives lest we miss the most important thing, the time spent with those we love. So fill your baskets with memories, those trapped in our hearts for a lifetime first and those we keep as reminders when the ones trapped in our hearts start to fade into the past.

Doodle #115, Nothing is Ever Ugly

| Whitt’s End Art

The drawing prompt for today was to draw something ugly but which you still really love. The result is my drawing “The Orange Thing.” I do not know where this object came from nor do I know if it was created by one of my children because the inscribed initials do no belong to one of them. However this object is still dear to my heart because it is a reminder to me that nothing is really ugly if you seek to look for the beauty first.

We are quick to label something or someone ugly just because they do not fit into a preconceived set of unwritten standards. In high school my friends and I were labeled as “ugly” and “inferior” simply because we did not meet the so called “in kids” set of standards for appearance, dress and behavior.  I thought things would change when I became an adult but they didn’t. I discovered that out in the world there are still all kinds of labels and if you don’t fit those labels then you are almost shunned by the so called “in crowd.”

I decided early in life,even before I accepted Jesus into my heart, to always look at a person’s heart instead of what I see. I was not going to be an imitator of past treatments. While some may see that as a weakness I however see it as a sign of strength. Proverbs 31:9 states to,” Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Judging righteously means to look at the heart and not the appearance because it is in the heart where the true person lies. 

Doodle #114, Looking Beyond the Fence

| Whitt’s End Art

The task for today was to draw or paint a fence. The end result is my drawing “Me, My Dog and a Fence.”  When I was younger one of my favorite songs was “Signs” by the Five Man Electric Band.  I loved the part of the sing where he complains about people putting up fences to keep people out. Well as a child a fence for me was an opportunity see what was beyond the fence. Peeking through holes,cracks any opening I could find I would try to spy what was beyond the fence. Sadly as an adult I still have a fondness for trying to see what lies behind any fences I come across.

In life I think we do the same. We try look beyond the fence of each day ahead to tomorrow. At times we get so concerned about what is behind the fence we forget to live the life we have on this side of the fence. I know I am going through that right now because of my bought with cancer.  Instead of, as the Bible states letting, “tomorrow worry about itself,” I let my mind wander ahead to the future beyond the fence instead of living in the here and now on this side of the fence. Each day I have to remind myself the fence is not only there to keep things out but to keep things in, as my life should be, kept in the here and now enjoying each day to the fullest.

Doodle #112, What’s In Your Bowl?

| Whitt’s End Art

The drawing prompt for today is the word, “bowl.” My doodle is lovingly entitled, “A Bowl Full of Flowers.” A lot of good things come in a bowl, soup, cereal, ice cream, flower and of course life. Yes, you heard me correctly. Most who read my blog know the old phrase, “my plate is too full,” meaning they are doing so much they can’t fit one more thing into their day. Well in years past my personal life as well as my church life felt so full at times that if I didn’t put it all into a bowl instead of on a plate many things would fall off and be forgotten.

Then a friend of mine gave me some good all purpose advice, “You don’t always have to say yes.” I was one of those people who loved and still love to do things for other people. My problem was I couldn’t say no because I felt I was letting the other person down. I would always say yes which meant I would burden myself down with commitments. This led to a full bowl of a life. I finally had to step back for a moment, take a deep breath, and say no to those requests I knew I could not throw into my bowl.

In the end my life became a little less full and a lot less stressed. So my advice to you today is do not over commit. Do what you can do and be satisfied. People will respect you more if explain why you can’t do something then if you commit to something and fail to get the job done. Matthew 5:37, “ Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”