Introducing Artist Nick Gustafson!

Recently while I had my Purple Passion art contest going, I met an artist whose work I loved. It really caught my eye because of the bright colors and wonderful composition that he uses. So I contacted him and asked if he would like to be on my blog. I was very happy when he agreed! His name is Nick Gustafson and his work is amazing! He wrote a little about himself below:

Ever since I was little, I have always loved animals and creating artwork. I would spend hour after hour watching nature shows and drawing and coloring pictures of animals. I made up my own comics featuring frogs and other animals and illustrated my own nature books just for the joy of it. I would also spend hours and hours doing black and white ink drawings of animals using hundreds and hundreds of dots to create them. One day I visited an art gallery and I became fascinated with Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman. I loved his style of beautiful, realistic artwork, and how he had the animals hidden in his paintings, much like they would be in nature. I modeled my artwork after him, creating pieces with nature and wildlife themes. I used muted monochromatic earth tones with dark shadows in which the animals hid and blended into their surroundings. Now my work is about as different from that as can be.

Colorful Frogs and Mushrooms by Nick Gustafson

After moving to a small town in Oregon, where they just happen to have an annual chalk art festival, I was inspired by all the colors of chalk to evolve my style into something more colorful and bright. Now I use my imagination to create colorful, whimsical images of rainbow trees, colorful cats, and happy frogs. Acrylics are a perfect medium to use because the colors are vibrant, and they dry fast, so you can add a lot of layers, which I like to do. I also now use a digital drawing tablet and create digital art with many layers and colors. Sometimes I paint the image first and then recreate it digitally and other times I create it digitally first and then recreate it with acrylics on canvas. One thing I realized recently is that I’m on the autism spectrum, and that is why I tend to do a lot of repetition in my artwork: a lot of cats in a row, or frogs, and a lot of the same themes repeated throughout my work. However, I never tire of it! I can create art all day, every day, and never get bored! I get lost in my own world creating art and that is what makes me happy.

Swing Amongst The Stars by Nick Gustafson

I spent time printing t-shirts, framing artwork, creating stickers and temporary tattoos, designing fabric patterns, and other things, but just creating artwork for myself is really the greatest joy to me. If I am lucky enough to show my artwork in different businesses or galleries from time to time, it is a great honor. I am always grateful for those who have given me that opportunity.

I like to use my artwork to help causes that are important to me , donating time and artwork to create murals for elementary schools, Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, Triple L Horse Rescue, Forever Loved Pets, and Save The Frogs! If someone tells me that my artwork made them smile, or brightened their day in some way, then I have accomplished my goal!

If you would like to view Nick’s gallery, you can find it here: https://nick-gustafson.pixels.com/

Many thanks to you, Nick, for sharing your beautiful work!

Today's Spotlight and Interview: Author Lily McKenzie!

Today it is my pleasure to introduce author Lily McKenzie! She enjoys art, poetry and prose as well as fiction. A kindred spirit, to be sure! I was interested to interview her regarding her writing process and hobbies. Please find her interview below:

Freefall available here.

Freefall available here.

1. Please tell me how you got started with writing and what you enjoy writing most.

I was a high-school dropout, and while I’ve always read a lot, writing wasn’t something I thought about until my mid-twenties. At that time, I went through a year-long deep depression that pushed me into therapy, and that’s when I discovered I had a writing self I needed to midwife. Once I earned a GED, I was able to attend college and my BA was in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing. I later earned two masters’ degrees as well, one in the Humanities and the other in Creative Writing.

Poetry was my foundational genre, and continues to be my favorite one. But I was adventuresome and wanted to see if I could include fiction in my repertoire. As you can see I was successful. I now have published three novels, with another on its way, as well as many short stories.

2. What inspires you to write?  Do you have a favorite place to write?

Reading well-crafted poetry or prose motivates me to continue mastering those genres. But I also have an inner need to write daily. It’s as important to me as food! I have numerous drafts in process of poems, non-fiction, and fiction that I rotate among.

As for a favorite place to write, I use a laptop computer, and I settle in different places in our house. I can’t sit at a desk to write. I need a comfortable chair and a window to look out of.

3. Are you involved in any other creative types of work/hobbies?

Don’t I wish I had more time for dabbling in watercolors and acrylics! Playing with color gives me intense pleasure. I’m not trying to be a visual artist, so that frees me to just enjoy the process and not get hung up on the end product. Our home is filled with my creations. Unfortunately, the business of selling books has stolen my painting and collage time, but I will get back to it. My art table is set up in the study I share with my husband and is ready any time I am.

4. What would you like your readers to know about you?

I’m intensely interested in our inner lives. Jungian psychology intrigued me when I was in my late twenties. I read every book I could find by Carl Jung and Jungians. I also have been in Jungian analysis and find that we are continuously evolving. I’ve kept a dream journal all of these years and look to my dreams daily for glimpses into my inner world.

5. Tell me about your most recent book and what you hope your readers will appreciate most about it?

The seeds for Freefall: A Divine Comedy came from a two-day visit I had back in 1998 with two of the three friends I’d travelled from Calgary to Toronto with in my late teens. I wondered what would happen if these four women had a reunion. Would the old bonds still be there and what would they discover about themselves and each other from spending time together? Freefall is a result of trying to answer those questions, but, of course, much more entered the narrative as I watched the story unfold. While the surface narrative is about these four females, the sub-narrative focuses on art’s role in our lives (the main character, Tillie Bloom, is an installation artist), female power, death, religion, and sex. Freefall zeroes in on a fundamental truth: We’re all in freefall, and that’s the real divine comedy. No matter how old we are, we’re still trying to “find ourselves” and discover what we want out of life.


If you’d like to get in touch with Lily, you can find her at her website, Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you, Lily, for being a guest on my blog. It was a pleasure to meet you!