zài jiàn

Saying goodbye to China was difficult.  It was a sweet time in my life, and I hope to go back.
Here are some photos I took my last week there that I wanted to share with you all.

我很想念你，中国

(I miss you China)

grasping the infinite

Hiking Cui Hua Shan

My surroundings in China have a hazy grey filter over them.

Everything is clothed in dust.  Leaves are dull and the sky is murky most days. 

The exception to this is usually the day after it rains.  Things come alive, and I feel like I’ve entered wonderland.  The colors are bursting once again and I remember that this is what life should look like.

We drove an hour out of Xi'an into the Qinling Mountains the day after a great downpour.  The further away we get from the city, the less modest the trees become.  They are beginning to shake off their dust cloaks, and show their real selves.   As our van trudges up into the mountains and drops us off, we are seated in a valley, looking up to the sky at the places we’ll climb. There are some subtle hints of grey rock but overall a forest paints these mountains.   You can’t even see all of them, in the distance they begin to get foggy-like.  The sky is bright blue once again, there are pure white clouds stretching their skinny fingers trying to hold hands with the forest-covered mountains. My eyes are confused because all of the trees are naked now, allowed to show off their green.  The grass is undone and natural. 

In China, they don’t allow these places to remain as they are, but insist on creating an obvious way of how one should get there.  Their best assessment of this is a ladder of stone.  Steps, thousands and thousands of steps become our leader until we reach a small village where we’ll spend the night.  

After a few minutes of climbing stone upon stone, we all find out just how much of a city girl Jade really is.  We’re in nature now, and of course there are spiders and mosquitoes and bees.   None of them go unnoticed from her shrieks.  But I am simply in a trance, listening to the predictable patterned sound of my team’s steps in conjunction with the beauty that my eyes have been suppressed from. 

When it comes to finding beauty, I am pacified fairly easily.  I can find beauty in most places, most things.  When it’s just there for me without having to try or work at it, it’s a sort of gratuity.  Being in nature feels like God coming down and lending me his sight.

Cui Hua Shan

The village we stayed in

Ready to hike

A vendor selling beans & dried fruit

Anna

Made it to the top!

These guys were just hanging out on the dam.

      

gone fishing.

I have had some artistic frustrations as of late, so I took a break from the projects I was trying too hard on and found a friend in this lovely fish.

Marker & Charcoal

Birds of a feather

Below is another experiment with watercolor.  

I know that peacocks are like really cool right now, but maybe that's because they're just really cool.  

giraffe

In my new adventures with watercolor, I met this giraffe.

She has quite the attitude.

This is what we do.

I've been experimenting with watercolor lately.  

As spring nears I am filled with so much hope for the future.  

The seasons reflect us and what we do so deeply.

Psalm 46

The last couple years, I have been on a pretty long art hiatus.
Well that time is over and art is back in my life.

One of my newest ventures is illustrating Psalms.

(acrylic, sewing patterns, glue, wood)

Psalm 46

Erik + Moriah

This past weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Erik + Moriah!  It was probably one of the most low maintenance weddings I have ever been a part of.  

With a laid back bridal party and family, what more could a photographer ask for? 

 

I was all about this lighting.  Gorgeous!

Graduation Announcements

Nope, not my graduation announcement! 
But I did get the opportunity to design one for a good friend, Laura Robards who is graduating in December.  I really love how it turned out.  It's the perfect balance of classic and simple design with the feel of Flagstaff.

So proud of her!

falling in love with China

I just got back from China, and I fell in love with everything there. 
Here are some photos of the beauty that I saw.