Another year's submission to the Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search

At this time in 2013, I was on a family vacation, and I remember waking up extremely early one morning to check my email. The 50 short-listed artists for Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search were being announced, and I was a teensy bit hopeful. The piece that I'd created for last year's Global Talent Search was a new direction for me. I used unfamiliar techniques that intrigued me, and I pulled from a more personal place than I usually had in the past. I'd made a different kind of art for me, and I felt great about it. I was not short-listed, but I was still excited. I knew there was much to look forward to.

This year, I entered the GTS again, ready for a challenge, ready to conceptualize and create and take another step. Our assignment was to make wall art, 7 inches x 9 inches (portrait), with the theme of terrariums. After researching for a bit, I began to draw and watercolor the elements of a terrarium — stones, dirt, leaves and organic, flowering shapes. From there, I thought about what a terrarium is to me — a little, contained world filled with life. I then drew various terrarium worlds that were more about fantasy, filling the space with plants, cats and birds. I made oil pastel paintings and smeared and scratched into them for hours. But I soon realized that I wanted a simpler world. Quieter and more personal. I simplified my idea into a few key shapes that I'd been drawn to in all of the terrariums I'd found. I wrote some personal notes to myself on the scratch paper that I'd been using for my oil pastels, and I scanned it in for my texture. To make this little world feel even more dear to me, I used one of my favorites of my son's paintings to digitally create the leaves, rock and stem.

Below is my submitted piece, followed by its runner-up and more sketches and ideas. I did not get short-listed this year either, but again, I feel there is much to look forward to.