Picture portraits I’ve done for others
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This is Chloe.
An ever-dramatic soul. Lover of theatre.
She has more passion than she knows what to do with, is always in motion, and is always ten steps ahead in her mind.
Also, she likes Star Wars.
And dance shoes.
When I asked what color she wanted to represent her eyes, she said “Gold” instantly.
Perfect.
She always is seeing shining lights… Stay gold, Chloe. ❤
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Sometimes people ask me why I use “unrealistic” colors in my shading. Well, because it is a painting, and if I wanted it to look like a photograph, I would take a photograph.
But I digress. This is Lucy. I think she looks like a beautiful elfin princess. And watercolor suited her.
Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest there’s a hill just big enough to be called a mountain. On that mountain there’s an old abandoned barn with a loft and broken windows. In that abandoned barn theres a white porcelain bathtub. In that porcelain bathtub, there’s a pretty lady. I took her picture.
Day dreamer, head turner, lifelong friend.
When we were kids we used to play dress up, name trees, talk about boys and run away from home (until we felt like going home again of course).
Miranda Rae and I never really grew up. I don’t think we ever will.
…Alright so we grew up a little.
My face: I don’t like it. I dislike it almost as much as my height or my weight or my inability to say what I must when I must.
At least that used to be my mindset.
This is my face, a very artistically skewed representation… but still, my face.
My mother has always said that her teeth are too big. Obviously, this is not the case. Her teeth are the perfect size. If it weren’t for those teeth, her smile wouldn’t be quite so big. It wouldn’t reflect all the joy she carries inside.
And my mother isn’t the only one who is lovely when she doesn’t know it. Pretty much any person in front of me is bound to be observed and thought of as something remarkable.
That boy across from me at the coffee shop? One of his eyes squints ever-so-slightly more than the other when he smiles. That makes me smile too.
That little girl who just tumbled off of her spot during the christmas program? She was focusing really hard on trying to find her grandmother who is sitting in the third row. This thought makes me want to hug the little girl even more than when I first met her.
It is almost unavoidable for me to see that my mother and the brown-eyed boy at the coffee shop and the toppling girl at the Christmas program and so many others are irrevocably inarguably beautiful.
It is not that they are without fault. They are fallen. We live in a world that runs ramped with sin. There are mouths that lie, hearts that hate, minds that plot evil and hands that kill. But a gracious God offers redemption. And that perfect God created everything. Each rock. Each tree. Each field mouse. And each person.
This perfect God does not make mistakes. So when He formed the strands of DNA in any given individual, He did not make a single mistake. That person is flawless. That person bears the personality and physical traits that God intended.
People are fallen. But they are not flawed.
God does not make mistakes.
I am no exception. And neither are you.
These are the women I look to when I want to know what friendship is. What laughter is. What kindness is. What faith is. For years they have taught at the same Preschool week after week and shown countless children what joy looks like. They love endlessly and are loved endlessly.
Also, they happen to be very fun and very pretty. Which is why it took all of two minutes to take their picture.
Melissa Dow: teacher, reader, occasional rapper and Bohemian Rhapsody singer. The two of us embarked on our photo-shoot adventure on a surprisingly warm day for our little Northwestern town. I could tangent off into cliche observations of the brilliant dappled leaves (They really were beautiful) but I won’t. Instead I will make an observation about the lady making funny faces in the majestic autumn leaves. Put simply, Melissa Dow is hilarious. My camera could hardly keep up with her spontaneity. She read to me in Latin, rolled various accents off her tongue and the only legitimate instruction I had to give her was, “Stop talking! Your mouth is in weird shapes in all the pictures.” But what grand pictures they were. I’ve never had such ease getting shots that really showcase a person’s vibrance. Even with a book in front of her nose, Melissa could never be hidden. The more she reads, the more she knows, and the more she knows, the more she wants to tell everyone about it. As Melissa and so many other brilliant individuals before her have shown, reading is sexy. Case closed.
Some people just look like poetry…
where we will grow 