Last week, I participated in a showcase of 25 artists' work in Nashville.

As interested people came by my booth and a few asked me questions that went beyond my studio workflow and into the area of the my art's meaning, I cited the example of iconography. Beginning in the 4th century, Byzantine artists began painting icons, in which biblical characters looked back at the paintings' viewers. The icons were thought of as "windows to heaven."

In a similar manner, my art invites the viewer into deeper connection with the natural world and into the holiness that is life. I celebrate wildlife, the human form, and the interconnections of the two. By my use of connected lines, which is the main way that I draw—crosshatched lines more than shading—I suggest stories of what's going on in the pictures.

In my own humble way, I seek to repair the disconnection that modern life has led us to: did you know that, according to DataReportal.com, Americans spend an average of 7 hours and 4 minutes every day looking at a screen? That's not an inherently bad thing—after all, you're looking at one right now, and I don't want you to look away until you're done here!

But 7 hours?

By reminding you of how you're a storytelling creature and that those stories often begin in looking at and interpreting the lines that make up a drawing, maybe I can steer you to a place we've left behind: filling our hours of boredom with stories that have to do with your dreams of what could be. And what you could be.

(Photo of Nashville Mayor John Cooper and me, © Kay Hereford)

Post © Stephen D. Wedan