Paradise in the Grand Canyon

Michael and I love to adventure together.  One of our favorite trips was hiking down to Havasupai, deep in the Grand Canyon.  It's a beautiful oasis paradise in an unexpected setting.  It's been many years since our hike there, but we frequently talk about going back to such a memorable place.  I decided to try to catch one of the scenes from our hike on his special envelope.  I miss Michael and the adventures we've shared.

"Livering" the Dream!

This special envelope is for a great high school friend that has just received a liver transplant and is in the hospital recovering.  His story has been inspiring.  He is such a great family man who is always positive despite his health concerns.  He and I share a passion for bike riding.  I branched out and decided to try a cartoon-type illustration for him.  Took me a while to figure out how to draw a liver....especially when a liver rides a bike.  Anyway, I think about Joe frequently and hope that his recovery goes smoothly.

Cats and Dogs

I think my favorite things to put on these envelopes is animals.  I've had lots of fun with these next two envelopes.  Both for good friends that we met in Russia and are animal lovers.  These are pictures of their specific pets.  It seemed that as I painted these beautiful creatures, I somehow became acquainted with them (I've not met either animal).  I hope they are as nice as they were in my virtual sitting during our painting session!

Crawled out of my imagination and onto my paper...

This wicked looking scorpion has been crawling around in my head for a while and begging to be painted.  I loved the way it turned out on the envelope and decided that it would be perfect for a great friend that is posted in Germany.  Sevak is a good friend who has inspired me with his strong faith, great family values and dedication to his profession.  Reminds me of the tenacity, strength and precision of this desert scorpion.

A Dragonfly for a Mentor

I've been stressing about this envelope for a while and it's not the first time I've started one for this special friend.  Justin is the guy who inspired me to start mailing these envelopes.  He does them too, but on a much more skillful and beautiful level than I'm on.  He mailed me one to get me started and I've been trying to get up the courage to mail him one ever since.  He and I chatted about the process of these envelopes before I did my first few and he inspired me with wise counsel when he advised me to not forget that the letter of heartfelt friendship and love have just as much meaning as the art work.  

Justin likes to paint pictures of bugs, so I decided on this close up of a dragon fly.  I hope he enjoys it.  

Eagle's Eye and Scouting

This week, I've been thinking about a good friend, Sam Tennis who is the son of a mission companion - Peter Tennis.  Sam has earned his Eagle Scout and will be having his court of honor soon so I made him this special envelope.  As I painted this noble bird, I loved doing his eye.  The depth and color I achieved in the iris surprised me and I got thinking about an eagle's vision.  An eagle can spot a small rabbit from over 3 kilometers away!  Can you imagine having that kind of vision?!

As I painted, I thought about what a powerful young man Sam is and the man he is becoming.  I started to draw an analogy in my mind between the values of scouting and the power of an Eagle's vision.  There's some really interesting lessons for the young scout when thinking about the vision of the Eagle.  There are some special eyelids that keep the eagle's eye clean and a special chemical called Isozyme.  The eagle also has a very defined brow that keeps branches and debris out of the eye.  I started to compare these features to the power of repentance and how we need to keep spirits (our most powerful sense) clean from the world.   Pretty cool lessons to learn!  Anyway, I wish I could be to Sam's Eagle Court of Honor and discuss this in person, but this special envelope will have to do.  He lives in Saudi Arabia so he feels like he's in the neighborhood, but not likely that I can attend.  Congratulations Sam!