Harm & Boon - and the face of a girl

"The incalculable winds of fantasy and music and poetry, the mere face of a girl, the song of a bird, or the sight of a horizon, are always blowing evil’s whole structure away."

— C.S. Lewis

What's heavy on my heart as of late...
Overwhelmed and blown away by beauty.

In a Still Small Voice - A film about art, culture, and the loss of transcendence

Makoto Fujimura has to be one of the most inspiring and influential artists in my life that I look up to as a young artist. He founded "IAM" aka International Arts Movement, which is a network of artists working to inspire Human renewal and the "de-humanization" that's happening in the post-modern secularism of the West today. It's a movement which I'm a member and supporter of.

In term's of medium and aesthetic style Makoto's work could not be more different from the type of work I'm doing, but I definitely feel I share the same inspirations, motivations, and underlying beliefs which drive his beautiful art.

When I stumbled across this documentary which he took part in I knew it had to be interesting, but I had no idea it would be as powerful as it turned out to be...

if your an artist, a creative person, an appreciator of art, believer, non believer, or just a human being who genuinely cares about humanity and the state of the human soul, then you need to do yourself a favor and consider purchasing this film...

I guarantee you it will go beyond a simple inspiring documentary and prove to be something much more profound. If you feel the same way I do I'm guessing you'll pass it on to friends, colleagues and loved ones...

- In a Still Small Voice -

IN A STILL SMALL VOICE from Steven Holloway on Vimeo.

***And be sure & watch this clip from the film here

Holding onto Childhood visions - Tolkiens Dwarves

The past few weeks/months have been a whirlwind of insane busyness for me...
I just finished a solid months worth of work crafting swords and Armour for an upcoming indie film based off of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress titled "the Narrow Road" soon to be shot is AZ. Its been awesome but exhausting, and the work is far from done. I have a short break from work on the film however, and my current project in the meantime isn't art related, but moving... Moving into a new house with some buddies on our nearby college campus, which I'm really looking forward to, but entails a lot of work in between my daily swordsmithing responsibilities.

But for the remainder of the week I have time to breathe... And it couldn't be more welcomed. Catching up on reading, helping some friends with art/music projects just for the joy of it. And diving back into my sketchbook...
One sketching-subject matter in particular I'm going back to once more... Last summer I re-read through the Hobbit, just so I could lock down all of my childhood memories and visions of the book before Jackson and his blasted band of fiends comes through and obliterates most peoples imagined ideas of what that book should look like... ;) Along with our friends and kind encouragers across the pond, Bladesmith's Peter Lyon and Richard van Dijk who are currently crafting all of the weapons for the film.

And the timing for me diving back into the Hobbit could not be more ironic, as a few friends have shared with me the fact that the Hobbit movie team are now apparently releasing photo's of their Dwarves as seen in the films. This is on the one hand cool to see, and on the other hand for a weird creative person like me a little bit conflicting, and just begs for a challenge... ;)
I scrounged up all of my past childhood sketches of how I imagined the dwarves and drew a few new ones.
And ironically the ones I like best (which I drew last summer) are sketches of Dwarves they've yet to reveal in the film version.
So... here be my challenge to those kaniving folks over in NZ... ;)
Let's see how much in common we have with envisioning how Tolkien's Dwarves should look:

My Thorin:

My Balin:

My Dwalin:

And my version of Gandalf, just for good measure... ;)

What do you think? Are my versions how you imaged the Dwarves? Jackson's? or do you have a vision all your own of how the raged Lonely Mountain bound troop should look?

Lemme know what you think and share your own art if you have any!

Speedpainting - Meeting Yeshua

Splintered Green & the Smells of Storms

Weather this time of year in rural Indiana can be fickle... It can't seem make its mind up, hesitant to take the leap into the rebirth of greenery & gold light. But bit by bit sprouts shoot up amidst the glooming drenched muddy landscape and fields. Growing up as a kid spring always had a distinct smell that sent the imagination running wild when the scent of fresh rains and storms rushing through the woods hit your face.

 God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars. - Martin Luther

~

I find myself trying to stand and take in the scenery a little bit more deliberately these days, attempting to re-attain that easily inspire-able mindset I had years ago.

Andy Davis & I are blessed (for the time being) to have our workshop located in one of the most beautiful parts of all of Indiana.

Working at the fire of the forge or noise and dust of the grinder for hours can take a toll, but always refreshing to take 5 minutes to do nothing but soak in the handiwork of the Creator in all of the damp greenery.

I've been by the forge more than usual lately to make up for lost time during the winter.

More than 10 swords in the works simultaneously at the moment, all very complex, some the most ornate and intimidating projects I've been commissioned to craft to date.

Five of these many swords in the works are composite twisted core early Iron Age and Germanic pattern welded swords. The time invested to achieve this pattern is long, and I am by no means a master at it, but the work is well worth the end result.

 

Amidst these commissioned projects I'm doing for kind folks around the globe I've snuck in a few projects of my own. My sketchbook and digital design album's fill up with ideas faster than my hands can craft. But many I'm sure will meet their day in due time...

Outside the forge, wedding plans happen for my brothers in life. One of which being none other than Mr. Davis's himself!

Friends from afar flying and driving in for a busy week of fellowship and rest. Ben Potter & his wife, & our brother at arms Jared Stier to name just a few...

In the short work hours I'll try to fit in; a long list of conceptual designs for the Pilgrim's Progress movie I've joined team with needs to get done. An amazing script and the classic book to re-read through once again. Not enough hours in the day.

And plans to finally share another silver screen related project we've worked on will at last arrive at the end of this week. And perfect timing to reveal this finished project amidst the spring thunder storms... ;)

And day by day, continually overwhelmed by the outpouring of grace and love that the Creator has ceaselessly placed my life, and the lives of those around me.

There's never enough time to feel fully accomplished in my own work and the undeserved gifts that have been given to me.

Praise God for a Savior who did the work for me so I dont have to.

Pilgrim's Progress...

Dreaming with passion & energy about the road ahead...

  

Digital photoshop sketch. 1 hour 36 minutes, Wacom Bamboo tablet.

flatsketchin - waiting on Spring...

I've been playing around with vector-ish speed sketching in PS. Made a weird composition scene of a knight, the design is one I made for a youth ministries logo/shirt design. Second pure randomness experimentation.

Dying for good weather to get back out in the woods to camp, essentially live of my shop, and get real work done on new commission swords.  But I'll focus on whats in front of me for now... ;)