The World Is Opening Up For You: Surreal Art Contest

@sethlinson started a new contest for artists to create a piece of surreal art, and I'm so excited I was able to carve out enough time to get something pulled together. We have been so busy on the homestead (then again, when are we not busy?) But one thing I like about the winter is that the dark comes early. There's only so much that can happen in the course of the daylight, and once dinner is cleaned up, children are in bed, and the quiet has settled over the house, there's this crazy blessing of having an extra hour or two to create something.

It was a unique challenge, trying to thing of something for this contest. You see, when I was in college, Surreal art both intrigued and unsettled me. Entering into the dreamscape of so many artists who were in varying states of sanity was like being surrounded by their minds for a moment, and sometimes I wanted to get out of there ASAP! At the same time, the limitless visual opportunities available in a world where anything could happen was appealing. I did a lot of surrealistic art as a student, exploring what I thought was a more exciting world than the one I was physically living in.

But now, almost a decade later, I have (thankfully) changed my mind quite a bit. After creating a family, watching our children start to grow, moving into the countryside, starting up our homestead, and being daily surrounded by some of the most amazing, unique, and beautiful living things, I can't imagine that my dreamed-up scenarios could be any more fantastic or inexplicable than what I see in the 12 acres that surround me. You want to find some incredible color-shifts and patterns? Take a long, hard look at the beautiful feathers on my Sussex hen (she'll let you pick her up!) Or look into the weird, sideways-pupil of our goat, and see a pulsing, black island in an icy sea of blue. Hold a leaf from our oak tree up to the midwinter sun, and see the uncharted pathways of vein and cell wall that defy a map. I spent so much time in college, trying to dream up bizarre and beautiful things, but I didn't realize that if I took the time to look at creation, there were exponentially more intricate and dreamlike things that surrounded me daily.

So when I tried to think of what sort of surrealistic image I could create, ironically, the only place I wanted to go was into the real world. My son has been exploring lots of books lately, and most of them feature animals. Nothing makes you start to appreciate the world more than watching it open up to a small little human. Everything is amazing. Everything is new. Everything is worth asking about and learning about. I had forgotten what it was like to see a zebra for the first time (he enthusiastically calls them ZAHZEEEEZZ!!), or the alien-like shape of a giraffe, but I'm remembering as he ventures into it for the first time, and it's like dreaming awake.

So here's my entry. The world starting to open up to a new mind, the incredible Reality so much more complex, awe-inducing, and full of potential than anything that could be dreamed up by a college student, alone in the group studio. I love learning about the Father's amazing designs and creations all over again as my kids start to explore it with me.

This was drawn with my FAVORITE of drawing tools, the humble, indispensable Bic Cristal Ballpoint Pen. Yes, those super-cheap, 10-to-a package pens are surprisingly versatile. I love how they can create a gradient and respond to pressure just like a graphite pencil. They're my favorite sketching tool, and I always feel a little underprepared when I don't have one with me somewhere!