Transcript
Speaker: So I think that having some of those dark shadows and stuff really helps the rest of it glow in some ways.
Speaker: And I think that can be true, that theme can be true in our lives too.
Speaker: Where the hard things that we experience, God can use to create character in us.
Speaker: I think everybody knows the stars are beautiful and
Speaker: Same with like Christmas lights and stuff.
Speaker: I really enjoy trying to imitate that just because I think that there is such a beautiful, just a beautiful lesson to be learned from it.
Speaker: Hello everybody, welcome back to Artists of the Way.
Speaker: I'm John, your host, and I'm excited to be joined by Alexis Noel today.
Speaker: Alexis is a painter we met doing the Division Arts Festival.
Speaker: My wife was doing that, and I walked by Alexis's stand, and it was super cool, and we got talking about art and faith and stuff like that.
Speaker: So I wanted to invite her on the podcast.
Speaker: How are you doing today?
Speaker: I'm good.
Speaker: I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A little background on Alexis.
Speaker: So Alexis has a bachelor's in art and a minor in youth ministry from Grace College.
Speaker: Is that Grace University now or did they switch to Grace College?
Speaker: It's actually a different college.
Speaker: It's not the Grace in Wyoming.
Speaker: It's the Grace in Indiana.
Speaker: So people get that mixed up a lot.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So not the Grace that most of you are probably thinking of.
Speaker: And then obviously you've been doing a lot of painting work.
Speaker: I've seen you at The Stray.
Speaker: You say you work mostly with watercolor and oil paint and then mixed media.
Speaker: So is that like...
Speaker: cutting something out and putting it on the painting and then painting over it or like how does that work?
Speaker: I just don't know.
Speaker: So I mean mixed media can be whatever you make it.
Speaker: What I've been working on, one of my mixed media pieces I've been working on recently has been like an acrylic painting that I'm doing on a window and I'm integrating resin into that.
Speaker: So I'm trying to layer it up a lot.
Speaker: So like the resin is a different media, but like sometimes when I'm working with watercolors too, I'll integrate like colored pencil, watercolor pencil.
Speaker: Maybe I'll do some ink.
Speaker: So it's still has a very traditional look to it in the way that I do it, but I don't.
Speaker: keep to just one medium with all of my pieces cool awesome sweet um so I have a couple questions that I ask all my guests at the start the first question is how is God or no sorry I got my questions mixed up um what uh project are you working on right now
Speaker: So right now is actually a pretty busy season.
Speaker: For those of you who have seen me at the Stray, you know I'm working on this big painting of my bridal bouquet.
Speaker: And that's going to be an art prize this year at Second Dance Bridal.
Speaker: So it's kind of perfect.
Speaker: I actually got my wedding dress there.
Speaker: And so it's just like very, just well suited to...
Speaker: the piece.
Speaker: I'm very excited about it.
Speaker: So I'm finishing that up and I'm also trying to work on a series of florals to go with it to just I have other businesses that are interested in showing the work and I want to
Speaker: get my name out there for commissions for other floral work if people want to commission me for that or for painting their bridal bouquet as a way to remember their special day.
Speaker: I've also that that's also entailed like some graphic design work and like because I handle my site and everything on my own.
Speaker: But there's always side projects too.
Speaker: You know, I have to have the projects that I am not required to do to keep me going with the projects that I have to be more disciplined in.
Speaker: So, um, I do a lot of crochet.
Speaker: I'm trying to make an Afghan right now.
Speaker: Um, that's very therapeutic for me.
Speaker: Um, this will be the third time you've done art prize.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: That is correct.
Speaker: So I think the first time I did ArtPrize, I did it like right when I turned 18, which is the youngest you can be to enter because I had made a project in my mixed media class in high school that my teachers recommended I enter.
Speaker: So after I got old enough,
Speaker: I guess that was, I would have already been into school.
Speaker: I think I applied when I was 18.
Speaker: I didn't end up finding a venue until the next year.
Speaker: So if you don't find a venue, then they'll waive the entry fee for the next year and give you another shot at it.
Speaker: So it was 2017 and I redid the whole project that I had done from high school to make sure that all my content was copyright safe and so on and so forth.
Speaker: So that was a really cool project.
Speaker: That project was called Love is a Verb, and you can still find pictures of that on my Instagram.
Speaker: It's one of the bigger projects I've done, and I haven't done anything like it since.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, it was just all focused on like ways to show love or ways that love can be lacking in the world around us.
Speaker: Um, and just very centered on like the cross and like what God did for us to kind of, um, hopefully give people a chance to just like contemplate what that means and like what, um, what ways that
Speaker: they could be showing love or what ways they need love in their own life and what role God could play in filling that need too.
Speaker: That's super cool.
Speaker: Was there, I don't know, I've never talked to anybody who's entered in ArtPrize.
Speaker: Was that experience like,
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Did you find like any like connections or community with other people in ArtPrize or was it just kind of like you put it out there and then it was just there for a couple months and then it was over?
Speaker: Yeah, it's all what you make it.
Speaker: That year it was like I was still living in Indiana.
Speaker: I had to drive back to Michigan to enter it.
Speaker: I had one day to see whatever I wanted of ArtPrize while I was back up here or like maybe a weekend or something before going back to school.
Speaker: So I would say the really special part about that probably was in the community I was connected in academically.
Speaker: Like in high school when I made it the first time and then in college when I made it the second time, like I had my professors helping me.
Speaker: I had my classmates helping me.
Speaker: They were like being a part of the project.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And that was really special, especially because it wasn't like for what I was doing in school at all.
Speaker: You know, it wasn't a graded project.
Speaker: But I think the second time I did ArtPrize, I had a little bit more time to connect with people.
Speaker: So that piece was in 2021 called Holy Embrace.
Speaker: And that was an oil painting project.
Speaker: um I actually started that one in college too so I didn't have like a very premeditated idea for that but that one took me a couple years and I worked on it in quarantine um and I think I my venue that time was a little more like in a better trafficked area I would say um and that was like it was um something I had to really work out to find those venues because that's
Speaker: like half of your you can have a completely different experience every time dependent on where your venue is but I met a lot more artists when I was like already into my career trying to be an artist and had time to like try to go to some of those events um so that's always special like to do networking there and just meet people it's like
Speaker: Kind of like other festivals, but way bigger.
Speaker: If you can imagine the Division Art Street Festival on steroids, then... Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: What are some ways in your projects, in the art that you're working on right now, that you feel like God's kind of working in you or using that art to work in you?
Speaker: So I guess in the art, it's always...
Speaker: It's very consistent of like, I can't make things happen by myself the way I want them to all the time.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like that has to, I have to consistently pray like, God, please help me do this because I can't do it on my own all the time.
Speaker: I think he reminds me of that frequently when I get to like a frustrating painting day where I've had the discipline to sit down and do it.
Speaker: And sometimes the painting looks worse than when I started.
Speaker: That happens plenty, you know, and I have to redo everything I just did.
Speaker: And it's not always something that can be helped, but like being an artist and the capacity I'm trying to make it, like trying to make it into a career requires that you...
Speaker: paint when you don't feel like painting sometimes.
Speaker: And I think in a similar way, God's also been just teaching me like,
Speaker: like just a ton of trust because I've never taken the leap of like going full time with my art.
Speaker: Um, and I'm coming into a season where my day jobs are, um, coming kind of to a close.
Speaker: I've, I've been a nanny for a long time and some of my families no longer are in need of my services.
Speaker: Um, so it's kind of becoming apparent that like, even though I've looked for other jobs that,
Speaker: until ArtPrize for these next couple of months, like I really should just be focusing on my art only.
Speaker: And it's kind of been an emotional process getting there because it's like a little bit of...
Speaker: um, I guess a pride thing where it's like, well, I want to be making the money and I want to be contributing to like my household and like, um, my business isn't all the way there yet.
Speaker: I've definitely seen a lot of growth this year, but I've never felt confident enough.
Speaker: Um, and I think that's hopefully healthy because, um,
Speaker: If I was able to make it full-time, I'd be the exception to a rule.
Speaker: Lots of people don't get to see that happen.
Speaker: And I know it does happen for some people.
Speaker: So I'm just trusting that God has this season in his hands.
Speaker: And if this is what he wants me to be doing right now, then...
Speaker: I guess I need to come around to it and let go of all those emotions of fear or my business isn't doing well enough for this and so on and so forth and just set it in his hands.
Speaker: Yeah, I get that.
Speaker: I feel like I'm kind of being led in a similar season too.
Speaker: So that trust is hard.
Speaker: And I think it's such a weird emotional...
Speaker: mess because sometimes on one hand you're like, well, this is the thing that I love.
Speaker: So it's like, cool that like, that's the main thing that God kind of is leading me to doing.
Speaker: But then you're like, Oh,
Speaker: At least for me, I'm like, oh, am I just doing this because I want to and God doesn't really want me to?
Speaker: And then there's the big scary piece of money.
Speaker: Yeah, practicality.
Speaker: And I think there's just so many people over the years, they're definitely always trying to help.
Speaker: But everybody knows that it's really hard to make it as an artist.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: like it's just hard to reorient myself again and be like, no, this is what I'm going to do and I'm going to make it work.
Speaker: And like, um, trying to like tell myself that I'm not lying to myself when I say that, like having different business skills or building my business skills will help.
Speaker: Like, um, I think that's just been, yeah.
Speaker: What I, what I've been learning for a long time, pretty much,
Speaker: This whole past year probably.
Speaker: Just because I've been making a big push too on a lot of other fronts.
Speaker: Like I got more coaching and like that led to a lot more of like investing more time in Instagram, trying to grow a following.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And sometimes when those things didn't pan out, it was, like, hard to not feel, like, the same, similar things I'm feeling now.
Speaker: But, like, the business is failing or, like, when I'm stretched too thin.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's definitely been great to see the ways that God's working, too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: I mean, even just being on the podcast is one way that I've seen lots of good things come out of it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's always a sweet part of the season to be in when he's just providing those little things.
Speaker: So I want to kind of shift and talk about, I guess, theme, because I think there's theme present in all art.
Speaker: Everybody's like...
Speaker: has like a thing or several things that they're like excited to work on.
Speaker: I don't know what I'm doing with my hands here.
Speaker: They're flapping around like dead fish for anybody who is not watching.
Speaker: But yeah, are there like common themes or ideas that you really like to explore and unpack in your painting?
Speaker: So it's taken me a long time to commit to like one subject matter.
Speaker: I think I've had concepts behind what I painted for a long time.
Speaker: Like, I mean, even the last two pieces that I talked about, um, putting an art prize, like they were both pretty gospel centric.
Speaker: Um, and obviously not all of my work is going to be like that.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I think that with Holy Embraced, that kind of, that painting was a very unique experience where, like, I...
Speaker: I was painting very emotionally when I painted it and not, like I said, it wasn't premeditated.
Speaker: I just kind of like went into the zone and like stepped away and it's like, who did that?
Speaker: I don't really know.
Speaker: And, um, so I, I think that like became something that I started, started to strive for in my other paintings as like my voice.
Speaker: So like, if you look at my college work, it's very, um, kind of sporadic.
Speaker: Like I,
Speaker: haven't committed to one subject matter you can see like um plenty of like high contrast is pretty consistent lots of color but um with holy embraced i i'm trying to transfer the concept of like those waves of color into my other works now and um
Speaker: I would say I am doing that intentionally as like those waves of color representing like God's presence or hand at work.
Speaker: Um, so in like my floral pieces, like as that, that's like a background I use frequently or like sometimes it is eating into the foreground.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: That, for me, is like saying, like, God made this, you know, like God is here.
Speaker: Any person who maybe isn't a believer who's experiencing my peace and is coming to it and seeing the beauty in it, like, that's...
Speaker: At them, I would say also experiencing what God has done and what God has given me to work with, with the colors and stuff.
Speaker: Like I, I didn't make color.
Speaker: God made color.
Speaker: I'm only using the tools that he gave me and the gifts that he gave me to create what I create.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: As I said earlier, I am focusing on florals right now, but I also think that could stem to anything in creation.
Speaker: It could be a landscape.
Speaker: It could be portraits.
Speaker: God has made everything that we see around us, and there's nothing beautiful or good that we experience in the world without it.
Speaker: his hand in it.
Speaker: Um, so it took me a long time to get there because I don't like to commit to one thing.
Speaker: I don't like to be in a box.
Speaker: Um, so I think that like, um,
Speaker: It took me a very long time to refine how do I make other people understand that this is a niche, but it's also extended to so many different areas.
Speaker: Because it could look just as chaotic or...
Speaker: unspecific if I were to try to do all of those things at the same time.
Speaker: So trying to focus on one at a time has been a long journey.
Speaker: And I think up until recently, I didn't realize that I could be happy painting just one thing.
Speaker: Um, that was kind of like a revelation moment that it was like, yeah, even if somebody gave me a bad picture of a flower to paint, I could probably still enjoy painting it.
Speaker: Um, so, um, does that answer the question sufficiently?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, that does.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um, I know that you mentioned when we were, we were kind of talking through this, the idea of like light as like a,
Speaker: a metaphor for like good and evil and for God and that's something I resonate with a lot that's present I'm writing a novel and that's definitely a thematic thing there and I um
Speaker: I got to play Jesus in a musical once, which was amazing.
Speaker: But it started a lot.
Speaker: Like, I connected it to my faith a lot there because there was like a specific light I would look at because he would connect with God a lot because he's Jesus.
Speaker: So that was like my like God light.
Speaker: But that's just like permeated itself throughout.
Speaker: I guess why?
Speaker: And I mean, what I've looked at your paintings, I think there's definitely a lot of light.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: present in that.
Speaker: Like it just, it kind of glows.
Speaker: Yeah, it glows.
Speaker: It's present.
Speaker: It like reaches out and touches everything in it.
Speaker: Why, what for you is important about, about light in that way?
Speaker: Like, just unpack that for me a little bit.
Speaker: So I think the thing about light is like, that goes back to just me working with what God's given me and like what he created.
Speaker: Um, if you like in school, I thought something that was really interesting was that they differentiated
Speaker: subtractive color from additive color.
Speaker: Subtractive color is all I can work with.
Speaker: Like where you take all the colors away and you get white.
Speaker: Additive color is where you put all the colors together and you get white.
Speaker: So if you look at like, sorry, I'm going like way around and about to answer your question.
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: If you look at like a sunset, like God is working with the light as his medium.
Speaker: He's not working with paint.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: Um, that's why like I won't even try to paint sunsets.
Speaker: That's like God's trump card.
Speaker: It's never gonna be what he's made.
Speaker: It's never gonna add up.
Speaker: Subtractive color cannot be additive or additive color or vice versa.
Speaker: Um, but I think that like in my paintings, it is just like a matter of like observing like sometimes it's a really good, um, reference photo.
Speaker: With Holy Embraced, I didn't have a reference photo.
Speaker: So it was kind of playing with like
Speaker: I do want things to glow.
Speaker: I like bought gold oil paint and like in addition like adding varnish and stuff to it and like making sure I integrate the whites but those don't show up in the same way if I don't also have like that high contrast of the darks behind it too.
Speaker: So I think that
Speaker: having, um, some of those dark shadows and stuff really helps like the rest of it glow in some ways.
Speaker: Um, and I think that can be true.
Speaker: Like that theme can be true in our lives too.
Speaker: Um, where like the hard things that we experience can, God can use to create character in us.
Speaker: And like, um, I think everybody knows like the stars are beautiful and, um,
Speaker: same with like Christmas lights and stuff.
Speaker: I really enjoy, um, trying to imitate that just because I think that there is such a beautiful, um, just a beautiful lesson to be learned from it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, especially when you consider like, um, how people would like to think of there being no pain in life.
Speaker: And that's not what we have in this world.
Speaker: That's what we have in heaven.
Speaker: But I think that there's still a purpose in God allowing us to experience darkness and experience what a broken world looks like because he's teaching us just how beautiful light is.
Speaker: We wouldn't have a comprehension for that without also knowing what darkness is.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: And I think even if you take that to different disciplines too or different forms of art, you always need some contrast between joy and pain or good and bad.
Speaker: music has, like, sweet moments and loud moments and quiet moments, but if it were just all flat or peaceful, then there's nothing rich to the music.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And a story where there's no conflict or pain for the characters, then it's just boring.
Speaker: It's just a dude eating breakfast, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And being like, ah, the sunset's nice.
Speaker: And you're like, well, that's nice for him, but, like, there's nothing... It's lacking some richness, you know?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And yeah, I feel like, because obviously evil is from the fall and evil is not a good thing.
Speaker: But there is, I guess there's a beauty in the fact that
Speaker: were it not for evil, we maybe wouldn't know the love of God quite so much.
Speaker: Like I was thinking about this on Good Friday.
Speaker: Like if Jesus didn't have to come and die, would we like know how much God loves us?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: And I feel like Lewis talked about that too.
Speaker: Like when he was, I don't remember the exact quote, but I think he talked about that when he was thinking through the problem of evil of like,
Speaker: I don't remember the quote for the life of me, but the idea of evil is present because we need it to contrast with God and to know the good.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And if we don't, that extends to even the fact that we're guilty.
Speaker: It's not just that we experience pain and God is alleviating that pain.
Speaker: But we're culpable.
Speaker: But we deserve God's wrath.
Speaker: And instead of giving us wrath, he gave us his love and his sacrifice.
Speaker: And if you shy away from recognizing that God has wrath and from recognizing that we deserve his wrath,
Speaker: then you are missing just how far of a jump he went from here we're meant to be punished he didn't just come clean and say like okay you can just live on earth the rest of your life and it'll be mediocre because that's like you know he he went as far as to like bring us all the way back to him yeah so that's super cool yeah um
Speaker: Creation is cool.
Speaker: And I think there's something about paintings that can capture, and this probably connects to the light thing we just talked about too.
Speaker: But I don't know.
Speaker: I feel like there's something in painting that when I'm like, I feel like my sentence is falling apart.
Speaker: So I'm just going to start over.
Speaker: I love nature, but I feel like a lot of times when I see photography, I'm like, that's a great like,
Speaker: still image of nature, but I feel like it doesn't always capture the essence of nature.
Speaker: There's some that do, but it's rarer for me to see photography that I'm like, oh, that captures this moment.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: As well as a painting that I see.
Speaker: Like even talking about sunsets, like you just talked about.
Speaker: Like I think that...
Speaker: I love sunsets.
Speaker: My favorite thing to do is to go camping and go watch the sunset over the lake every night.
Speaker: But I don't think that I've ever seen a picture that captures the sunset quite as well as some paintings of sunsets that I've seen.
Speaker: Okay, yeah.
Speaker: What, for you, like what's special about engaging with God's creation through paint?
Speaker: And what do you think is unique about engaging with it that way as opposed to something like photography or some other medium that seeks to kind of explore that or reflect God through that?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker: So I would say...
Speaker: like they're just a different experience i do enjoy photography too but it's like it takes so so little time to like take pictures obviously it can take more time to edit them um and there is photography is art in its own right but i think with painting um
Speaker: It's kind of like a little bit of a meditative process where you have to concentrate on one thing for a long time.
Speaker: You don't have the option to just move on from it very quickly.
Speaker: And the tools that you're working with are completely different because you have to...
Speaker: analyze what you're seeing.
Speaker: I work with color theory is one of my favorite things.
Speaker: And that, I would say, is probably why some of those paintings resonate with you is the amount of vibrance that can come out of putting complementary colors right next to each other.
Speaker: That really helps a piece pop.
Speaker: I would also say that
Speaker: Like when it comes to painting, there's just a lot more of, I mean, for me, like I don't stick to the picture.
Speaker: I know there are some artists who are more hyper realistic.
Speaker: I tend to take a lot of liberties when I'm depicting something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: if I'm painting something in shadow, I'm not going to paint it gray.
Speaker: I'm going to use blue or purple and I'm going to use the coolest blue possible to push it back in space as far as possible because cool colors recede.
Speaker: And when I'm painting something that I want to pop out, it's like, okay, where are my warm colors?
Speaker: Where are like my vibrant whites?
Speaker: And really helping it pop.
Speaker: But then
Speaker: It also comes down to composition.
Speaker: I'm working with this regularly and painting my bouquet right now where it's like, okay, I have the picture I'm going off of, but this isn't working in the composition and I have to change it on the painting.
Speaker: And so I'm repositioning things ever so slightly to try to get the golden spiral in there and draw people's eyes across.
Speaker: So I think that...
Speaker: In photography, you can adjust the colors to be elevated, but it usually has the feeling of being just not real.
Speaker: And in painting, everything's not necessarily... You don't expect it to look real.
Speaker: So it makes it easier to elevate those colors without having the appearance of falsehood, I guess, would be another...
Speaker: another reason why it can be harder to capture things in photography in a way that people might strongly identify with, or you specifically.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: You mentioned it being like a really meditative process, which I feel like all art can be to an extent, but I feel like some arts are more like
Speaker: collaborative and like energy filled.
Speaker: So like I do theater and that's like, there's a meditative aspect to it when I'm, when I'm figuring out the character, but the large majority of the work is like three hour rehearsals where things are crazy and emotions are on high and people are shouting on stage and things like that.
Speaker: Um, but painting is a lot more,
Speaker: still and like isolated and quiet and slow.
Speaker: And I think,
Speaker: There's a real value to that rhythm in one's relationship with God because I think a lot of times we can move too fast.
Speaker: At least I definitely can.
Speaker: Be like, okay, God, I'm going to go.
Speaker: And he's like, can we just slow down and be for a bit?
Speaker: Is there any special moment or project or something where that meditative slower process...
Speaker: kind of opened something up for you in your relationship with God or just allowed for a cool moment of his presence there with the work and trying to paint something?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I would say that, like, Holy Embrace was very much that piece for me.
Speaker: Like, when I started that piece, I honestly, like, I had gotten done with teaching 5th and 6th grade small group or co-leading 5th and 6th grade small group.
Speaker: I was in college.
Speaker: I was stressed.
Speaker: It was exam week.
Speaker: And I was, like...
Speaker: Just like, I can't work on schoolwork right now.
Speaker: I'm going to paint.
Speaker: And I put a bunch of random colors on my palette and started just like doing whatever came to me.
Speaker: You know, it was a very, you know, and it's crazy that like I was frustrated in the process, but it alleviated so much of that frustration and stress and like,
Speaker: really like when I stepped away from it it was I was just playing with the curves and the organic lines that I was working with and I was like okay it needs a central picture and like it kind of just came to me that like God holding somebody would fit perfectly right here and I loved it but then if you looked at the first iteration of that the first layer of that painting it was like
Speaker: You could tell that I hadn't thought it through.
Speaker: I wasn't thinking about composition.
Speaker: I asked my professor for help, and she's like, well, you put all of your warm colors back here, so nothing's receding in space.
Speaker: It's way flat.
Speaker: I'm like...
Speaker: Thank you, but also I want to give up now.
Speaker: So I think that I put that away for a long time, and I was actually working on a different project that I wanted to put in ArtPrize while I was in quarantine, and I was getting equally frustrated with that project.
Speaker: And I flopped down on my bed, and I was looking at wholly embraced art,
Speaker: upside down and all of a sudden it kind of like came to me like what that painting that I'd been afraid to touch for like a year and a half actually needed.
Speaker: And I think that
Speaker: Like, I would say, like, that painting, it's very abstract, but I'm trying to represent what it feels like to be in God's presence and painting that.
Speaker: And I did go to scripture and, like, look up, like, what does it say heaven will be like?
Speaker: What does it say it will be like to actually be in God's presence?
Speaker: Obviously, that's something I will never attempt to concretely depict.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: you know, for the sight of heaven, I really hope that for, like, believers who see it, they do, they're immediately drawn to it.
Speaker: I can tell you that people know what it's supposed to be without me saying a single word.
Speaker: So I don't normally even display it with a artist statement of any sort.
Speaker: And I think that on believers who see it, I hope that they...
Speaker: know that they want to feel what that painting is depicting and they want to experience that.
Speaker: And I think that, um, sometimes it confuses people, you know?
Speaker: Um, but I would say that's probably been one of the pieces that God's, um,
Speaker: used the most to just like help me decompress, you know, help me feel his peace.
Speaker: Like, and it's kind of crazy because like, like I said, I didn't know I was trying to paint a picture of that.
Speaker: And it ended up being like this, this really, I hope beautiful for other people, but I enjoy like looking at it myself too, just to like think about like,
Speaker: what it's like to be in God's presence, you know, to bring me back to that.
Speaker: Like, even if I'm in the middle of the day trying to do something completely different, you know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I definitely know it was for me when I saw it at the Divisions Art Festival when we met.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Like, I like immediately was like, that's what that is.
Speaker: And I don't know if this artist is a Christian or not, but I know that God made that, whatever it is, whether or not they meant it to be or not.
Speaker: But like, yeah, immediately, like it felt like that piece did connect with like that part of your heart that God fills.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and I do wonder if for people that don't believe, if that, like, connects to that longing that they don't know they have in some way.
Speaker: Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker: So I want to shift gears a little bit.
Speaker: Now kind of talking about, like, the...
Speaker: Boy, you can tell it's early and my words are not here yet.
Speaker: You and I both have similar passions of like ministry and art and like feeling kind of led in both directions.
Speaker: And we've talked very briefly about that.
Speaker: But you've mentioned youth ministry and obviously you have a minor in that as well.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I guess...
Speaker: Is there a reason that you felt at least in this season God's kind of led you more towards focusing primarily more on the, well, I guess maybe I shouldn't say this because I don't know what you're doing in youth ministry, so I don't know.
Speaker: But from the sounds of it, it sounds like it's a season to primarily focus on sort of the artistic side of the calling.
Speaker: Is there something that's kind of led you that way?
Speaker: So I would say that they've been operating on separate paths at the same time for a long time.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because like my nanny job isn't like in a church doing curriculum or programming or anything.
Speaker: But I would say that serving those families is actually...
Speaker: absolutely been part of like also what God called me to and there's a whole other story behind that that I won't get into of me fighting that really hard and wanting a different job for the beginning of it I fell in love with it very quickly and like really love the families that I work with um
Speaker: But obviously as that's coming to a close it is feeling like okay God is opening this door and something that would have been Inconceivable for me like a year or a year and a half ago.
Speaker: It's like You know my husband and I got married nine months ago and so I don't have to worry about like not being able to pay my bills completely if I take this plunge yeah and I think that
Speaker: Um, I'm trying to see where God's going with it, but I'm also hoping that it does come back around to working with people consistently.
Speaker: Cause I am a people person.
Speaker: I don't always do well with working by myself on my paintings.
Speaker: Um, that is like a challenge piece to committing to doing this more frequently.
Speaker: But I would say as far as like my vision for using youth ministry and art together, like
Speaker: I've always thought that working with art would be useful in that vein of work because this generation is so vision-oriented and emotionally oriented.
Speaker: And I think that there is definitely a place to use them together.
Speaker: I've had brief opportunities to do that too.
Speaker: Hey, friends, I hope you're enjoying today's episode.
Speaker: I just wanted to pause for a moment and let you guys know that if you want to stay up to date on everything that Artists of the Way is doing, the best way you can do that is by signing up for our email newsletter through our website.
Speaker: That newsletter is going to go out every two weeks with the podcast.
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Speaker: It's going to give you some thoughts that I've been having over the last couple weeks on theology or art or whatever God's working on me on.
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Speaker: God's been doing some really cool things, and I am super stoked for what they're going to be, but I can't share them just yet.
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Speaker: While I was at my church in Indiana, I did a workshop with 6th and 7th graders that was focused on the days of creation.
Speaker: And it was really fun to have our Bible study portion, and then after we'd finished, we'd go and do a project that related to what day of creation we were on.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: Um, so like for the day that we talked about God made the land, we also talked about like man coming from dust and we, um, used clay to make like pots and like lots of things from the earth.
Speaker: Um, so like that was also like a fun way to like, hopefully they attach like those ideas of what we learned to that, that project and makes it more concrete because I think, um,
Speaker: that that will really resonate with this next generation having something tactile having something they can see having something that's emotionally wired um and beyond that um i think that
Speaker: um sorry i'm losing my train that's okay there was another project that i was gonna mention that's okay okay we can circle back yeah let's circle back i am curious um about like so the solitariness of painting versus being a people person is that helped at all by like the live painting at the stray because i'm curious like
Speaker: Live painting was like a unique concept to me when Shay and I started going to the Stray.
Speaker: I was like, wow, they just have somebody paint in front of people.
Speaker: That's interesting.
Speaker: What do you like get something out of that other than just a space to work on it?
Speaker: I mean, I would say I get lots of things out of that.
Speaker: I meet some really great people while I'm there and connect with some.
Speaker: I meet like at least one new person each week that, you know, they'll be really interested in my art.
Speaker: Maybe they'll join my emailing list or we'll connect on Instagram and like, yeah.
Speaker: I really value those connections and I value that time to talk to people.
Speaker: It's a very different way of being around people to do art because like I said, I do work better around people and I'm hoping to do more stuff like that.
Speaker: But I think that like part of what I hope to get around to later in life too is just like having a space where artists can work together.
Speaker: Because I would say that the experience that art students will have in the classroom is completely different than your career.
Speaker: And I figured that out very early on in life.
Speaker: Like at the end of high school, I got to do an art show at a shopper.
Speaker: in downtown Grand Rapids that I was working at.
Speaker: And it was like, wow, I thought I really liked art.
Speaker: And this whole project was actually very lonely.
Speaker: And it's the first like career oriented type thing I've done.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I feel like there has to be a solution to this.
Speaker: So, um, it's been a long-term goal of mine for a long time to try to have,
Speaker: like a coffee shop where artists can come and have like that space to work and kind of set it up like, I mean, part of my vision for it is related to like the way our studio was at school where like I, I always would have like a separate workspace.
Speaker: There were like workspaces that were designated.
Speaker: Um, if you went to the professor and like reserve them for yourself.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And I would like live in the art studio while I was in school.
Speaker: So I and I think that like my best friends came out of like whoever was in the studio, you know.
Speaker: So I really would like to eventually have like a co-working space where people can come like.
Speaker: either rent out larger spaces or have free spaces and lockers to work from and like have a space where like artists can actually show up to work because i think we don't have that we don't i've i've actually heard a couple other people like echo that desire oh really so that's interesting because i do think i feel like grand rapids is on like the verge of like really blowing up professionally artistically because we just have of all disciplines
Speaker: It's just, it's like really dense.
Speaker: It's kind of weird.
Speaker: Like even, especially in the theater world, we have like, we have like eight community theaters and most big cities have like three.
Speaker: So like there's just such a dense, uh, what's the word?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Collection of artists or something like that.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But we don't have a place for like... I mean, I think that Stray is doing some of that.
Speaker: I think there's one or two places downtown maybe that do something similar, but there's not a place that's just to be like, hey, show up and do your art here, and there's going to be other people doing art here.
Speaker: And a space for... Because a lot of people need that space but don't have that space.
Speaker: Right, exactly.
Speaker: And then, like you were saying, the collaborative...
Speaker: nature of that like I feel like a lot of artists thrive off of that oh for sure it's like you talk with your colleagues about like your ideas you critique you are like something's bothering me about this piece what is it because I can't put my finger on it and like people will give you that feedback but like yeah
Speaker: I think it's also... It's just really good to see what other people are doing, too.
Speaker: I love seeing what other artists are working on.
Speaker: And it inspires me, and it makes me want to create more.
Speaker: It's a cycle, a little bit.
Speaker: Yeah, that's super cool.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: We're probably getting close to drawing it to a close here.
Speaker: This has been awesome.
Speaker: I have one more question.
Speaker: What are some resources...
Speaker: Oh, wait, I had another question.
Speaker: I fooled you all.
Speaker: We're not ending.
Speaker: We're going to end in a minute.
Speaker: I had one more question, though, first.
Speaker: I'm curious about, because you're starting to do workshops now.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Has that been good?
Speaker: Has that been a cool thing to do?
Speaker: Workshops have been good.
Speaker: I'm in the very, very early stages of it.
Speaker: So I would say that I'm still exploring what types of workshops...
Speaker: Do I want to teach that people also want to learn?
Speaker: You know, none of the workshops I've done so far have ever been the same as the other ones.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm still working on just figuring out how.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How to help people do what I do, you know?
Speaker: Like, I think it's been really positive for me to have to break it down because there are some things that I do instinctually that it's like, okay, but hold up a second.
Speaker: Why did you do that?
Speaker: You know, how can you explain this to somebody else?
Speaker: And like, in turn, that helps me do those same things like...
Speaker: faster the next time I have to do them because I'm thinking more um more along the lines of like okay how do I paint by the book instead of what just feels right right like how do I paint a good composition with good color theory instead of just like putting something out there that like
Speaker: My instincts tells me are good and usually it ends up okay.
Speaker: But like there's definitely plenty of projects where I have to circle back and redo stuff if I can't apply those concepts well.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I'm still...
Speaker: um we're we're in the early stages at the stray of like talking about what that will look like and um we did have one recently at the stray that you and your wife came to it was out on the patio i painted something guys it wasn't as bad as my previous paint i've done some really bad i i've had to paint set stuff before and i am i would not be my first choice to paint set stuff because it's not good no but that was super cool to be a part of
Speaker: I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
Speaker: It was a lot of fun and we're trying to find out what works and brainstorming the next thing.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So adjacent to the topic of helping people grow in their art and such, what are some resources you would recommend to people who want to grow in their faith or grow in their art or who might want to explore painting as a discipline in an art form?
Speaker: So obviously I would say if you want to learn painting, like feel free to reach out because I'm happy to take on private lessons and stuff.
Speaker: And you'll see more of that popping up at the Stray.
Speaker: I don't know what the timeline will be right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It might take some time.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: I would say there's honestly lots of books out there.
Speaker: Like I go to Barnes and Noble and buy books, even though I already have gone to school for stuff like this.
Speaker: As far as growing in your faith goes, I really love the She Reads Truth reading plans.
Speaker: I have their Bible.
Speaker: They have lots of pretty pictures.
Speaker: It's all color coded.
Speaker: And like they have actual artists who help them make the studies.
Speaker: So it's like really beautiful stuff.
Speaker: um a really beautiful way to get into the word but it's also just very like the only frills to it is the imagery that they attach to it other than that it's like they're taking like passages that can be cross-referenced and putting them next to each other for you instead of you flipping through your bible but it's all scripture in there otherwise they might have some like maps or timelines integrated into it love a good map
Speaker: Yeah, that really helps me stay consistent in reading my Bible.
Speaker: And then they have a great podcast too.
Speaker: There was one more...
Speaker: I did have a list here.
Speaker: We're letting you in behind the scenes.
Speaker: Oh, your new Instagram that you're working on.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: I have set up a new account that's just solely to focus on how do we illustrate the vivid...
Speaker: some of the vivid imagery in the Bible.
Speaker: So that's called, um, the artistry of scripture.
Speaker: And there's very little there right now.
Speaker: Besides like, if I sit down and do a study and have something that God's laid on my heart, I might share that like in the story as like a small reading plan.
Speaker: Hey, this is the passage I'm looking at.
Speaker: These are the thoughts I have about it.
Speaker: Sometimes there's like a sermon that I just got out of that is tying into that.
Speaker: Um, but yeah,
Speaker: I'm really hoping that that can also be a collaborative project because there are some passages that I've gotten to as I'm like flipping through and deciding like, okay, where do I start?
Speaker: Which, which topic is going to be in my series?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That I'm like, well, I'm not the best artist to depict this, you know, but I know a friend who would really be able to
Speaker: depict this verse well yeah um so i would definitely if you're interested in that and you're like inspired by art and love the bible like go ahead and follow it and you'll start seeing stuff pop up yeah um as i'm getting that rolling um and i'm really i'm just excited for that um in my own study because i think that is also
Speaker: tying like my relationship with God to my art and like doing them in the same sitting I think will be really really special um I do plenty of those types of things for myself but I don't like to share my doodles as much um yeah they're not quite um the same level as my paintings so
Speaker: I get that.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: If people want to find out more about you or look into some of your work and stuff, where's a good place for them to go or places for them to go?
Speaker: Places.
Speaker: So I am on social media, both Facebook, Instagram, at Alexis Noel Studio is my handle there.
Speaker: And you can go to my site, AlexisNoelStudio.com.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I would say if you really, really want to be on the inside, go to my contact page and sign up for the newsletter and you'll get...
Speaker: you'll hear things first you'll hear when my new series that i'm working on is available for prints because they're not for sale right now um you'll hear like what events i'm going to be at how to get involved how to show up sometimes you'll get free stuff or hear about giveaways that are exclusively for my emailing list um
Speaker: And yeah, I think those are the best places.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: You're on Etsy too, right?
Speaker: I am.
Speaker: My Etsy shop is temporarily on vacation mode until I launch my next series.
Speaker: But definitely check out Alexis Noel Studio on Etsy too.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Fantastic.
Speaker: Thank you again.
Speaker: It's been really cool to have you on and talk about painting, which I'm just not really familiar with.
Speaker: So it's been cool to unpack that from the creator's standpoint with that.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker: I really enjoyed this.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, thank you all for listening again.
Speaker: Subscribe, like, rate, all those things.
Speaker: They do help.
Speaker: Share it with your friends if you love this discussion or if you want to be like, I found a cool painter and she talks about things on this podcast.
Speaker: Share it with people.
Speaker: That really does help.
Speaker: Thank you all again.
Speaker: We just pray that God blesses you as you continue to walk out your relationship with God and figure out this intersection between art and faith.
