Hidden Talent

Had the coolest thing happen the other day. A friend shared a video with me of Akiane Kramarik. She is a young girl who has been painting amazing things inspired by God since she was about 5 years old. I had seen a video of her about a year ago and was interested to watch again after having grown so greatly in my own artistic abilities and passion since then.

I shared the video on Facebook, and the next day my best friend Shanna posted a slideshow of the girl's paintings on my wall. I watched it that night before leaving work and was blown away by the amount and quality of her work from such a young age.

The very next morning my friend Brian calls me. Haven't talked to him in well over a month. He tells me there's this girl you HAVE to check out. Her names Akiane and she does these amazing God-inspired paintings! He had not been on Facebook and seen any of the posts! Totally unrelated yet he callls me the very next morning after I had been inspired by her work!

So I go later to look her up again and google her and end up at her website. The very first thing my eye goes to out of a bunch of little thumbnails is this woman on a bench. It makes me think of my painting, but even moreso, the reference of myself I had Jason shoot for my painting. And my feet had been more like hers, but I stripped in those crossed feet because I like them better. If my head had been the other direction our posture would be identical. And that is the exact posture I had in mind before I started, couldn't find any reference online, so I had Jason take a picture of me!

And her description was so similar. A woman waiting for meaningful direction in her life. And she even talks about the candle and wind and that the flame's direction will move when the wind comes, and mine has wind as a huge part of it, in part symbolizing the harshness of where I was, but also symbolizing something new blowing in.

Check it out:

Then the next day Shanna keeps trying to call me at work. I texted her and told her I would call her on my lunch hour. She says I have to tell you something about that girl's paintings. So of course I go outside to call her!

She said she was so drawn to them and they gave her this warm feeling in her chest and inspired her. But then she was looking at peoples comments and they say its a hoax and the God thing ruins it, or the God things not true. It was disappointing to her. I told her there will always be those people. People say the God thing ruins it, but the work wouldn't even exist without this girl being inspired by God! And just go to youtube and look at any of the comments under anything. Sometimes even in the comments under Caillou people are saying awful things.

And there is a chance its a hoax I suppose. But what artist would spend all those years making beautiful artwork and not get the credit? And I found a video that in fast forward shows her doing a painting from start to finish.

But anyways, those are just my ramblings. Shanna still said she was inspired to want to paint herself. She said I know it sounds crazy but I want to try.

We made a date for Sunday after church. When I got there she showed me her sketchbook that had 4 drawings in it from 7 years ago. They were good! One was of a womans face with hair swept across it and it was really really good. I was like What???? Craziness. I remember her drawing some bunnies once years ago that I thought were pretty good but it was more cartoony and didn't think a whole lot about it. But she can really draw! All these years and never realized we had artistic abilities in common.

We both worked on painting a copy of a painting she has in her house. More of an abstract painting of a building front. It was a learning experience for me too, played with texture, lots of fun. And the kids played for like 4 and a half hours and pretty much left us alone!

We both used to be into video games years ago and would play them for hours, and after a long time you'd get this sick wasted feeling, like a numb, nasty why-did-I-just-waste-5-hours-doing-that feeling.

Shanna said I keep waiting for that feeling to come, but it doesn't! Not when you are doing something good, inspiring and not mind-numbing! : )  And I said whether or not that girl is a hoax, look at what we are doing as a result of her inspiring work!

It was so much fun and I am excited to do this every week!!! And Gianna had a ball. She might get a little rougher around the edges tearing through the house with 3 boys for hours on end on a regular basis, but whatever! Lol : )

And then the next day at work I go to start working on the chalkboard wall, doing a Christmas scene. We are having a weekend event where clients come in and get holiday photos taken and the whole place is being decorated really beautifully. I was thinking I still had 2 weeks, and come to find its this weekend and I got a little nervous.

An ACCOUNT guy at my work asked if I needed help and I kind of jokingly said sure, thinking he was maybe kidding. But he comes back and starts helping me with just a little guidance and he hasn't ever really done artistic work but he's doing an awesome job. He tells me how he's been thinking of trying to paint! And everyone keeps walking by saying Tony?! Didn't know you could do this! Kinda bizarre, 2 days in a row of this. I wonder if I am meant to be an art teacher and this is a tiny little preview or message or something! (And we finished it in 2 days and it looks really cool! And had lots of fun doing it.)

So I remembered the week before Jill's friend told me about a place in Ferndale where you can go and take a bottle of wine and everyone paints the same picture. Sometimes you copy a famous one. A class for people of all levels. Jill got me the web address and I looked it up and they have a calendar that shows what paintings for each day. I told Tony, Shanna, and my friend Lisa who wants to get back into painting after many years and everyone thought it sounded cool.

Last night Jason and I were at the coney island and a print of Van Gogh's cafe at night was hanging and I told him I love that painting so much and see it a lot lately. (Including in Jill's house) When we got home I went to the website for Painting with a Twist, to see if they had the December calendar up yet. They did, and on December 2nd they are doing that exact painting!!!! I'm so excited! Its this one and I LOVE love love it: (and I think I have a night/blue/yellow thing going on with most of my paintings!)

I hope everyone else likes this one as much and can go that night, still waiting to hear back. But I am really excited to paint this and have my own version hanging in my house! And it will be a really cool learning experience for us all I'm sure.

I am so thankful to God and so in love with this new direction in my life! And fun to see it may be a direction in some other lives too! : )