While working on this, I wrote down all kinds of words (as you can see on the paper hand rest in the video) that flooded my mind. Here is a list of the unedited stream of consciousness I jotted down between pencil strokes. These are unedited and reflect what I was feeling at the moment and not how I necessarily feel all of the time.

To be courageous in art, one should not censor the psyche

Don’t be afraid to expose the unseen

Art is part logic, part insanity

Some art requires courage to execute

Art reveals pain

Art speaks without verbalizing

Art is the unadorned soul

Art is menacing

Art reveals that which is not obvious

Art exposes the ineffable

It’s courageous to draw that which you fear

Art can be ugly

Art is 2% creativity, 98% intuitive impulse

Courage + Art= Penetrating

***
Thank you for watching.
~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 is another painting for Ghosts & Spirits Tarot. This is a water spirit who is a shapeshifting seducer. He offers a cool drink and a splash in the refreshing water. It felt great to paint this. Here’s an abbreviated journey through the painting process.

The finished watercolor painting

Some of my fans, friends and colleagues have expressed interest in me doing an art instruction book. Having been an art college teacher for several years (before settling into full time studio life), I’ve toyed around with the idea. It wasn’t until a recent lunch date with my old college buddy Pam (who is a charismatic high school art teacher) that I realized how exciting a project like this could be.  So after our riveting chat, I am giving the idea some serious consideration. I’ve always loved to teach–I love sharing my techniques and enthusiasm for the drawing and painting process with others. I hope this has been obvious on my blog, facebook and twitter pages. Creating a helpful art book is shaping up to be my next venture. What do you think?

*** In other news ***

Here’s Kyra painting animals. Recently, Kyra sent a picture to one of her favorite artists, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. Much to her delight, Stephanie posted her “Stephanie with Elephant” picture in her recent SF Zoo blog post.  This, of course, is a big deal to an aspiring 6 year old artist. Hmmm, I wonder how much this kind of validation from a professional artist can affect a young child–I suspect Kyra will be painting pictures for a long time. Thank you, Stephanie. It meant the world to Kyra.

~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

This drawing is for Rose Vanden Eynden, author extraordinaire

With that said, I must keep this short and sweet, my friends. Here are some images of the Ghosts & Spirits project in progress. And of course, I’ve included a few pictures created by my afternoon studio companions, Connor (9 years) & Kyra (5 years). Sorry, as amazing as Timmy-the-Cat is, he has yet to pick up a pencil. Instead, he has mastered the art of power napping.

"Black Dog" detail of pencil drawing in progress

Paintings in various stages of progress

Kyra loves to draw animals. There is so much joy in this piece!

New York in the future. Connor's drawings tend to have technical leanings.

And while we're working our tails off, whose been sleeping in Kyra's bed?

~ Lisa

ps. The Fantastical Creatures giveaway ends soon, see my previous blog entry for detail on how to enter!

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

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

Shapeshifter paintings in progress

final drawing for Crow-Shapeshifter on watercolor board

As some of you may know, after 20 years of publishing intensity, I’ve taken a break from contracted assignments to work on my own material, unhindered by deadlines, dimensions, or other technical considerations. This doesn’t mean I’m abandoning my identity as an illustrator/writer — I still have plenty more to do/explore in print publishing. I simply needed to refresh myself and flex some creative muscle that has been lying languid since the completion of the monumental Fairy Tale Tarot project. It’s like taking a dive into the ocean after counting grains of sand by the shoreline. I needed to pull away from the details of my daily repertoire and just let loose. This also came about after befriending a bird enthusiast from Canada (who is about to have her first book published) and watching some PBS Art 21 episodes, where varied fine artists discussed their fascinating and individual journeys.

Sketches

With this break I’m flying free through the mountainous terrain of self discovery and am enjoying every minute of this much needed recess. I haven’t felt this unfettered since my early youthful days, when I freely dabbled in the surrealistic vicissitude of the imagination; when swooping brush strokes and splattered paint were par for the course. I want to paint big, bold and textural, and get really physical with the process.

Early exploratory work as a teenager (1984-5)

I had recently read “Pictures Telling Stories: The Art of Robert Ingpen” and inside was this passage:

“When asked about the difference between a painter and an illustrator he often observes that a painter stands to work and an illustrator always sits.”

I wanted to debunk this idea for myself! Why abandon a sense of illustrative narrative when standing? Why label myself and settle in a seat of expectation? I was determined to break my own convention: I stretched a whole sheet of paper on the one oversized  board that I’ve had in storage for years and set out to work.  And yes, moving the board around was no easy task — nor was it easy to paint a large scale watercolor. What I thought might be a brief interlude turned out to be an obsession!  The spirit of the paintings took over — not only consuming my psyche and soul but assuming my full attention in the studio, with creative chaos being a mess inducing bi-product. Oh, my normally orderly surroundings now took on a life of their own as the desire to paint supplanted the necessity to maintain order.

But this is good, isn’t it? Sometimes as artists, we need to shake things up, deconstruct and build anew. For me being an artist is more than just interpreting story or conveying expression, it’s about diving deeper past barriers and depths that we may have ignored for way too long. I suppose this is my way of dismantling potential artist’s block and it has worked to great effect!

Please feel free to visit my purchase page for more information, thanks!

Final Shapeshifter Paintings - click to visit Lisa's online store

~ Lisa