behind the scenes: jeremiah 29:11

when i began this blog, my original intent was to let you into the "behind the scenes" process of my art which i get asked about so often.

here is the history of jeremiah 29:11: the above piece is the original art i created for this passage, using other people's photography (with their permission, of course). as i meditated on the verse, i thought about how God know the direction of our life, even when we do not see it, and so the compass represents the direction He is giving us collaged onto a scroll, as our life or story is being rolled out or revealed. the other idea behind the compass is the fact that if you want to go in the right direction, you must obey it or follow it.

i then wanted to change the art to utilize my own photography, so i did the following:

as i meditated on the verse again, i thought about how we go through life and sometimes it just feels as though we are in a maze, not being able to see the future, the outcome, or even knowing which direction to turn. but GOD sees from above: the overall picture! the beginning and ending of our life, and He knows which direction we should go as He sees the big picture. so, as we walk by faith, it is so comforting to know that He truly does have good plans for our life.
i then take the artwork, convert it to sepia tone and add textures and layers to come up with the final art.

this summer, Demdaco asked me to revisit my visual interpretation of the maze and suggested a compass (even though they had never seen my original art!)
i borrowed an antique compass from a friend, as i wanted the compass to have more character and beauty than the modern one i had previously used and i bought an antique map (on ebay :) looking for interesting shapes, line work, and open spaces for my text and shot the above image with a macro lens.

below is the final art, soon to be in my etsy shop, and being produced by Demdaco for next summer.