A House is Built

This painting is completed on a 12″x16″ wood panel with acrylics, ink, and pencil. I began by laying down a drawing in pencil and working back into it with a neutral palette of acrylics. I used water to dilute the paint to the point where it worked more like watercolor rather than acrylic. The pencil is laid on top of the acrylics, in order to bring out various details. As you can see, my process is a merging of drafting, drawing, and painting. The piece was then sprayed with an archival, kamar varnish in order to seal it.

I chose Proverbs 24 as a catalyst for this mixed-media painting. I loved what verses 3 and 4 had to say, “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.”

I built the narrative of my painting around these verses. The image I worked from is of a neighborhood in Milwaukee, which is where I currently live and have my home. The extension lines that are coming off of the houses, highlight Proverbs 24’s message of applying the wisdom that is grown at home to the communities that we are a part of. As the chapter outlines our home is where our characters are formed.

Our characters will either have a positive or negative impact on our communities. As Proverbs 24:28-29 states, “Do not testify against your neighbor without cause— would you use your lips to mislead? Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me; I’ll pay them back for what they did.” This is the wisdom that I want to fill the rooms of my home with. It is my belief that this kind of wisdom will help to form more vibrant and healthy shared collective spaces. I am grateful for the opportunity to have created a painting for Spark and Echo Arts that will forever remind me of this message.