Final watercolor painting

Many of you may not realize that I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Animation back when few schools offered it. I graduated at the top of my class, not because I had the greatest animations but because I integrated my watercolor paintings within a 3D environment. My work was different and bold and was demonstrative of a wee bit of creative rebellion. I did not follow any portfolio model, but rather I set out to create my own. The result was winning “Best Digital AND Print Awards” and subsequent work in production as a conceptual designer. Those years forced me to work fast and furious—I had to crank out 2 concepts a day and did it with great enthusiasm. I haven’t thought much about animation in the decade since, but then one day I had a hankering to play around with stop-motion.

These are not well planned—as a matter of fact, they’re not planned at all. The stop-motion antics just kind of evolved in a stream of consciousness, somewhat like the painting. It has been a matter of playing around with a kneaded eraser and a skull in between paint strokes. I never want my stop-motion play to interfere with the intensity of the painting process. But at the same time, they serve to help balance my fever-pitch (and potentially emotionally draining) applications—giving me pause, a breath and a little comic relief to lean on. This was especially helpful while painting Battlefield Ghosts, given the dark nature of the subject matter. I hope you enjoy watching the video as much as I did creating it. My mother is very happy to see me animating again having sent the following note: “Saw your clip on facebook. What a painting–I got a big charge out of your animation. Great Lisi, are you rediscovering those talents? I hope so. You were good, remember?”

Thanks, Mom.
And a big thank you to my talented husband Kort, who came up with the idea of time-lapse photography and the final video animation.

And for those of you who haven’t seen this, U.S. Games Systems Inc. who is supporting the Ghost & Spirits Tarot deck’s publication, just posted a lovely (sneaky) word association/interview. I had no idea that Kort was answering questions about me behind my back. haha! But his answers are fascinating because they allow me to see my own artistic process through objective eyes (I’ve also learned a thing or two about the dynamics of our relationship). And yes, that is the latest photo of me on my new wheels–trying to do my part by driving less and biking more. My friend/fellow author Celeste Heldstab suggested I name my bike “Gaea”.  I kind of like that.

Lisa on her new TREK

Here’s the link to the U.S. Games’  interview:

The Fool’s Blog “Lisa Hunt Off the Canvas”

Thank you for your continued support, friends!

~Lisa

Here’s the finished painting

The final Psychopomp painting

The final outcome of a painting is always a mystery. But that’s what makes the whole process continually fresh and exciting, even after so many years of tireless creative exploration.

~Lisa

I hope my demonstration helps to shed light on my process. These days, I do not over-plan an image. During my early years when I was an insecure artist just learning my craft I would plan out every facet and detail. But these days I know my voice and feel rather confident as a technician (though, one can never stop learning!). I draw from heart and soul and just let the art take over.  With that said, I do some anatomical studies (I am a self-proclaimed anatomy geek) and sometimes will draft a good drawing on tracing paper to trace down. But the majority of the art is done with a spontaneous vigor that allows sequences from within the depths of my psyche to help determine an image’s outcome. It is raw creativity that channels through my being without interference and it is the perfect method to employ while working on a project like Ghosts and Spirits Tarot! I’ve opened the chambers of my mind wide open and am enjoying meeting all the spirits milling about there.

~Lisa

Here I am with a foolish young heart (and thin figure!). This is 1995 while working on my first tarot deck: the Shapeshifter Tarot

This is the painting that determined my artistic path. The Sorceress was the sample I painted before landing my first tarot contract with Llewellyn Publications.

Here's a Shapeshifter portrait I did for 60's rock icon, Donovan. I flew to San Francisco and presented the framed painting to him in person at a 1997 Whole Life Expo (my apologies for the poor photo quality--I know I have more somewhere).

Here I am in 1998 at an Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale graduation. At the time I was working on Celtic Dragon Tarot, I was also earning a degree in Computer Animation (very new at the time). I face-mapped the Shapeshifter Tarot images on 3D runes and had them spin around in space. No one ever saw anything like that before and it earned me the top prize in my graduating class (and a subsequent job as a conceptual designer and later, college teacher).

Here's my studio. On the wall is a framed Celtic Dragon Tarot press sheet. As my biggest seller, it holds a place of honor in my workspace.

After Celtic Dragon Tarot, my book Celestial Goddesses was published. I met fabulous people along the way, including my dear friend Pam (professional singer/art educator extraordinaire). This was taken during the Spring of 2002.

I also met my future husband at the one and only Celestial Goddesses book signing. It was destiny!

During the past 15 years, I've nurtured an extraordinary friendship with the brilliant and soulful Kris Waldherr.

While I was earning my Masters Degree in Interdisplinary Studies, Animals Divine Tarot was published. It earned a COVR award the following year (2006).

After Animals Divine Tarot, there was Fantastical Creatures Tarot published by US Games. Here I am at a 2007 INATS East signing/reading. I was busy!

While working on tarot decks and books, I had kids! Here I am with my artistic son Connor in 2009.

Here's Kyra in the studio in (early 2009?). My kids love to draw too!

Here's a bookcover-in-progress I did last year.

I also had a 10 year stint as a Collectible Card Game artist, but after over 100 images I retired from the industry.

I also studied martial arts and earned my Black Belt in TKD as a means of getting healthy and feeling more balanced while in the studio. It's easy to neglect oneself when one is so consumed by one's artistic passions! (2008)

I loved writing this book!

Here's a framed press sheet of The Fairy Tale Tarot that hung at a local gallery in 2009.

Here I am at work in the studio. I use the TP for painting--just in case you were confused. (2010)

Here's what I'm working on now...

and here's what I'll be working on next.

It has been a wonderful journey so far. I can honestly say that I feel a deep sense of gratitude for my life. Yes, I did make things happen, but I also feel I’m a blessed person to be able to live my passion and know who I am. Who knows what will be? But for now, I’m perfectly content with the here and now. But sometimes it’s good to reflect back and take pause. I don’t take anything for granted!

~ Lisa

YES!
During a recent trip to an historical little bed & breakfast near Savannah, the “most haunted city in America”, my husband and I saw a ghost. And it wasn’t during a ghost tour or walk through a haunted cemetery or during a seance. The encounter happened while unassumingly relaxing out on the inn’s back porch. If we would have thought we might see a ghost, we would have had our cameras on standby. If we thought we would see a ghost, we wouldn’t have been chatting away. But this ghost sighting came out of nowhere and surprised us with its uncanny, inexplicable appearance.

Here’s a sketch of what we saw–the experience left an indelible impression in my brain and I just had to get it down on paper!

sketch of the eyewitness account of what we saw

And here is my husband’s account of what happened:
“It looked like smoke or mist. It appeared to come from a window at the opposite end of the porch. It exited the window area and swirled around in a a very cohesive manner, much like the vortex of a flushing toilet, and then dissipated in the space of a second or two. We thought it might be someone smoking in that room, but when we checked the window, we found it closed and there was no obvious source of its origination.”~Kort

It was like nothing I’ve seen before and it was every bit captivating! No, there was no fog in the air, or smoke, or exhaust or any other potential explanation for the ecto mist’s appearance. It was a rather clear late Tuesday afternoon, with activity at the inn being nearly non-existent that time of day. Well, except for the ghosts.  My husband asked a paranormal investigator-friend about the incident and he congratulated us for having witnessed “quantum fog”. I’m not sure if it was a “quantum fog” or an ectoplasmic mist or another anomaly with a scientific term attached to it. It almost seemed like the mist was trying to communicate or manifest into something, but then quickly disappeared leaving no trace of its visitation.

The inn used to be a hospital day-room for Fort Screven on Tybee Island, GA. People with battle wounds were brought in by a train that ran behind the structure. Those that died were transferred to the basement, serving as a temporary morgue. The inn had an odd vibe–hard to describe. It wasn’t a scary or uncomfortable place, but it did feel endowed with an inexplicable energy. There were other strange happenings like our porch door blowing open when there wasn’t any wind, or our phone having receiving strange garbled, cryptic messages on it (we hardly ever get cell phone messages because we only use it for emergency purposes and never give out our number), or things that went thump on the roof.

Another ghost sighting happened at The Pirates’ House in Savannah. The Pirates’ House is an 18th century seafarer’s inn, where pirates and sailors gathered, drank and exchanged tales of the high seas. Captain Flint of Treasure Island fame is said to have died in one of the rooms with Billy Bones by his side. The inn was converted to a restaurant, but much of the basic structure remains intact.

Why did we choose to dine there? We’re not sure. We saw it and felt compelled to go inside. Out of all the restaurants that populate the great historic city, here we decided to patron a wooden structure that stood in a rather unglamorous section of town. As soon as we walked in, we could feel a pervading heaviness. Pockets of decay assaulted our olfactory lobes as we weaved our way around the restaurant. The strange smell/air was especially concentrated near thresholds to other levels. Kort took some pictures and we left feeling sated and relieved to be back outside in the fresh, rain soaked air.
It wasn’t until Kort uploaded photos to Facebook that another ghost enthusiast (thank you, Nefer!) spotted the face in the window. Take a look for yourself. This is the actual photo–no touching up or special effects (we couldn’t make it look that real if we tried). We ourselves didn’t even realize this ghost was looking right at us when the photo was taken. To me, while we were there, the glass appeared completely transparent and void of any ecto fog. There was also a face in the seat in front of us, but it might have just been part of the wood grain. What do you think?

This trip is not my first ghost encounter but it certainly reinforces what I believe about multiple dimensions and that fine veil between what we perceive as “real” and what is real. If you’re a paranormal investigator, I would appreciate any help/assistance regarding these events.

Much of what I do as an artist is to try and make sense of the world. The images come from dreams, they encompass feelings, and derive from the unconscious–perhaps a place that is receiving messages from “the other side”. Much of my fascination and compulsion to depict and explore “fantasy” is not to provide myself with escapism but to help find my way through a tangle of persistent mystery. This painting depicts creatures I have been seeing in my dreams all of my life. I can’t figure them out, but they do fit a profile found in spirit lore. The only difference is that the ones I see in my dreams always emit a reverberating hum, like they’re alerting me to something profoundly important. Maybe someday I will be able to decode their message, but for now, I will have to be satisfied with exploring them further through paint and brush.

~Lisa

The other day, we found a shivering baby bird on our front step. We looked up at the nest built over one of our hurricane shutters and assumed the worst. We gently picked up the fragile creature and examined it for injuries. Miraculously, other than being half-scared-to-death, it looked fine! Putting it back into the impossibly high nest was out of the question, so we decided to bring it inside for the night in fear that a predator would see it as a convenient meal.

Our family felt such sadness because we honestly didn’t think it would survive, but there is something about a distressed animal that brings out kindness and hope in most people. We had to try and save it.

“Birdie” was panting and shaking, but soon warmed up to us. She reacted positively to my 5 year old cooing at it and seemed content to be snug and dry in a makeshift nest that we made with whatever we had on hand.  Feeling helpless, we called a wildlife specialist and were instructed to return it to the same area where the  parents would be looking for it. At first I felt skeptical assuming the parents would have given up on its baby.

We put it in one of our planters, where it would have some shelter from the elements. As distracting as it was, I kept peeking out at Birdie, praying and hoping for that imminent reunion. Sure enough, the wildlife specialist was right! We spied two doves looking down at Birdie from the rooftop next door (at least now we knew what kind of bird it was).

I checked on Birdie and saw that it was pooping up a storm, so it must have been getting the parental attention it needed. But by nightfall it was still in the planter. Even though it was sprier, preening and trying to spread its tiny wings, we felt it prudent to bring her back inside for the night (where we live, the night creatures rule the land). The next morning, it almost seemed as if Birdie had grown overnight. It was wide eyed and respondent and no longer panted in our presence. We put it back into the planter while mom and dad were waiting nearby. Then we happily saw one of the doves feeding the baby. I cannot even begin to describe the joy I felt when I finally heard it chirping—it felt wonderful knowing that this precious life had a chance (and a voice) despite all the odds against it.

While caring for Birdie, I couldn’t help but reflect on Thumbelina and her desire to help the dying swallow in the tunnel. Everyone around her was dismissive of the creature, but Thumbelina was determined to nurse it back to health. She carefully gave it water and covered it with a straw blanket, tending to her new friend until it was well enough to fly again. Thumbelina saved the swallow and in turn the swallow saved Thumbelina.

Princess of Swords from The Fairy Tale Tarot

What can we learn from this? Birdie gave us a gift. It reminded us how precious every single life is and how much each creature contributes to our fragile ego system. The doves that we hear cooing around our house are nothing short of nature’s own brand of music. They add something to our every day and are reminders of the simple joys in life. Birdie didn’t give up hope on itself. Instead of languishing and dying like we feared it would, it survived and thrived and now has a chance to spread its wings and fly!

For me, this experience was an auspicious one as well. The next project I’m working on after Ghosts & Spirits Tarot will be focusing on birds. Birdie’s spirit will definitely be part of my creative process as I honor these creatures with pencil and paintbrush.

~ Lisa

The end of winter is not too far away and Lisa is celebrating the coming of spring with another spectacular giveaway. Until April 15th, you can enter to win a FREE signed copy of the Premier Edition of the beautifully illustrated Fantastical Creatures Tarot. There are three ways to win – you can follow and re-tweet LisaHuntArt on Twitter — “RT and follow @LisaHuntArt to win a signed copy of the Fantastical Creatures Tarot http://bit.ly/x6jCj”, mention and link to this blog entry on Facebook, and/or purchase something from the Lisa Hunt Art website.

Each method counts as a separate entry. The winner will be randomly chosen from the entries. Thank you for your participation and good luck!

~ Lisa

What can I say? He’s got the art bug and his current goals include an application to a special Middle School of the Arts program in West Palm Beach. It would be an arduous journey via car, rail and bus, but it is his “dream” to go to art school and engage himself in drawing intensives.  He has a list of portfolio requirements he has to meet before the big interview day and it’s serving as a powerful force of optimism. I hope to chronicle is portfolio journey in subsequent postings. So stay tuned!

*And yes, he still has his padawan braid. It is something that will be ceremonially cut when he takes (and hopefully passes) his Tae Kwon Do black belt test in December 2010. His school classmates tease him incessantly about it, but he doesn’t care! He knows who he is and what he wants and I’m proud of him for that.

Where I grew up (1971)

Lions, tigers and bears oh my! The mysterious forest is full of unknowns and teeming with mysterious life.  As a symbol of the unconscious, it is a place inhabited by wild things, often obscured by the shadows of tree branches and layered with the remnants of seasons gone by. When we walk into a forest, we step into a world full of adventure and trepidation. We leave the comfort of paths familiar and cross the threshold into a realm  full of challenges and unpredictability. Who knows what monsters lie in wait and who knows where the wayward path will lead. Myths and fairy tales often use the woods as a stage for the evolving protagonist. The character leaves the safety of home and wanders into the realm of the psyche, where growth is inevitable.

Drawing from the 80's

When I was in high school, I often sketched the forest using the wells of my imagination as reference. These forests were alive with spirits and elusive beings, there to provide me with messages. They dwelled  in a place that offered  temporary refuge from the province of a chaotic reality . I loved exploring the twisting tree limbs and fortifying roots that helped me to feel grounded in a world of teenage confusion.  I was wandering into the path of the unknown and these fantasy tree drawings helped me to manifest the deep-seated worries I was experiencing as I approached adulthood.

Pencil drawing done in my teenage years

My Mom as the Hermit (Fantastical Creatures Tarot)

Lisa as a teenager

Lisa in the snowy woods of northern New England, 1990s

Fairy tales often employ these settings as metaphors of the shadow. They are the wild, untamed symbols of our own inner landscapes, where creative thinking and intrinsic energies reside and beg to be released. It is here where we meet frog princes, wise old men, a golden goose, a ravenous wolf, imposing giants, spirit messengers and all manner of creatures that help us shed the constraints of a rational mind. It is here where we let go and become more self-aware. It is under the dappling light that we recognize our full potentials and find our way through the tangle of brush.  Through the darkness of paths unknown, we have the possibility of seeing the light.

Forest images from The Fairy Tale Tarot

Here is a neat “forest” video from friend and fellow artist Carisa Swenson:

The Forest

~ Lisa

It’s hard to believe that 2010 is here and my 43rd birthday is fast approaching. Yes, I too ask myself the perennial cliché question: where did the time go? If it wasn’t for my art, I’m quite sure I would have a hard time determining how I’ve spent the last year (or my life, for that matter). My paintings have always been my personal timeline—they document my own journey in a way that reflects my thoughts, feelings, observations, cognitive and soulful responses and evolution as an individual. I have been working professionally for over 20 years and have proudly amassed a nice collection of published works, with most efforts still being viable and “in print”. But I’ve also hit that midway point—wondering where my art is going to take me from here…

After finishing The Fairy Tale Tarot (read archives) and engaging in subsequent publicity efforts, I must admit that I felt depleted.  It was a long term project that had become part of my daily life (and it still is in some ways). I needed to move forward, but a stubborn wall of artistic fatigue stood in my way. I did work on 2 pivotal fine arts pieces that most certainly hinted at things to come. But after I finished, I was artistically dehydrated. I felt I needed to connect with something outside myself, but wasn’t sure what it was.

So at the spur of the moment, I decided to offer custom drawings through my LisaHuntArt purchase page. There have been many people who expressed interest in owning one of my originals, but felt purchases during a protracted recession was not feasible. And truthfully, I can totally understand this. My immediate solution was to offer unique drawings made to order at an affordable price. This gave my audience the power to determine the imagery and thus be part of the process, despite limited resources. Many of my friends and family questioned my offering—feeling as though I was undercharging people for time spent creating unique drawings for them. But my answer is a simple one. In the process of “undercharging” I was recharging. Not only have these drawings been greatly appreciated by the customer, but they have helped to nourish my artistic soul. And as a result, my palette has been refreshed with new piles of watercolor paint. By giving a little bit of myself to others, I in turn have received.  And creating and sharing has been a joyful experience! It’s one thing to be published and to have ones work distributed en masse, it’s quite another to know that one’s originals are out in the big world being loved and appreciated by those very people who may have purchased the publication. I now understand what it means to be a fine artist and to have originals pass from the creator’s hand to that of someone who loves the creation.

Here are some of the custom drawings I have done for people in the last 6 weeks.

I’m proud of this collection and am over the moon by all the positive responses that the recipients have expressed. There has been great feeling and meaning invested in these works. And in turn, my enthusiasm for painting has been renewed! I was practically explosive with creative energy as I tackled my first painting of 2010, The Bear-Spirit—all that pent up energy released onto the paper with glorious satiation. Thank you everyone! Thank you for helping me to feel the powerful allure of artistic expression. And if you too would like to order a drawing and be part of this growing gallery of these self-determined unique visions—check out my purchase page and let me know what you would like me to draw for YOU.

~Lisa