Background in Art and Style

My life and art is not perfectly documented.
There is a period of time that I was offline and a time where I felt like I lost my sense of creativity altogether, but I wanted to kind of map out my mind with the photos I could keep intact. This isn't necessarily my best work, it really is just random pieces that I still have somehow. I was always a creative person, like I got in trouble for drawing on the wall with crayons and I was the kid in class that would always draw things for you if you asked nicely. I liked drawing cartoons and anime at first, but as a teenager, I became influenced by fashion magazines and an editorial flair for art and style. I studied printing in Oakland, CA and turned my final project into a textiles and fashion piece. Then during my senior year, I landed a spot on the prom committee of a popular teen magazine and wrote a few pieces for the fashion section.

I developed parts of my style by being influenced by fashion magazines, but my style is more influenced by how I grew up as a creative misfit stuck in the quiet outskirts of town doing what I can with what I have. I didn't stick with fashion and chose to follow the art route to challenge myself to design what I needed to. I continued my studies in San Diego, CA and spent a lot of my free time painting in my dorm room. I drew and painted a lot over the years and explored other creative practices like metal and ceramics during my design studies, but I don't have everything perfectly documented. Here's a glimpse into what I still have from my college art photos.  

After these photos, it took me a few years to get back into the flow again to create what I currently have in my portfolio and in progress page. Sometimes I think that's a few years lost from making art and adding to my portfolio, but with what I experienced, I can also see that time period as a critical journey in my growing faith which is very important to me as an artist and writer. My inspiration found me again when I took another look at an old painting. I have tried three different painting ideas that did not work out on my horizontal canvas (in my first post), maybe it felt forced or unnatural, until one fine day, I just drew the layout for an artsy woman and I don't know how those lines came to me and worked out so perfectly.

In a way, I really do feel like God gave me that stroke of creativity and He inspired me to paint once again. I see Him really working in my life because God led me to a job working with plants and He encouraged me create painted planters. It might not seem like a big deal, like hey this girl only paints pots, but that process took years for me to come to and I might have missed this endeavor without God's guidance in my life. This is all still fairly new to me, but I can explore this idea of both an art journey and a faith journey in another post. Until then, please ask yourself these questions:

1. How have you grown on your art journey? Medias? Styles? Influences?
2. How have you grown on your faith journey? Beliefs? Revelations? Changed attitudes or ideas?
3. In your experience, how have these affected the other?