My name is Lindsay Faust, and I am fourteen years old. I was born here in Portland, Oregon and I love nature. When I was younger I would spend all of my time outdoors -- either sprawled out on the front lawn, reading with a cool glass of lemonade in my hand, or creating a hideout among the lush green trees and undergrowth of my backyard. I was always inspired by the colors I saw in the world, like the blue of the sky and the bright red berries that stood out against the dark leaves of nightshade they sprouted from. This inspiration made its way into my early artwork as a child, as well as my writing. In fact, I have written quite a few poems devoted to describing the way the grass and leaves rustled in the wind, beginning from the time I was in first grade and my teacher introduced me to the concept of poetry.
This year in my ceramics class at da Vinci Arts Middle School, I am creating artistic pieces and sculptures that represent some of the things I see in nature, as well as the ideas portrayed to me through the natural world in general. The overarching capstone theme this year is color, so in class I am continuing to play with how I can work vibrant colors and unique textures into my pieces. I am not necessarily following a direct, realistic path. Art is full of so many opportunities, and one of them is that it allows you to express your interpretations of the world around you in any way you like. I am constantly creating sculptures that come alive with the movement and breath I see in the natural world -- but my glazing styles range from very true to what my eyes perceive, all the way to an almost surreal, fantastical and abstract version of an object’s initial colors. Throughout my wide range of color and texture, however, there is one thing I would say my entire collection shares: the possession of a quality that is both natural and organic.