Janelle Lile - drawing and mixed media artist

janellelile.com instagram.com/janellelile/ Seattle area artist. Mixed media art exploring the connection between humans and the semi-wild.

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Here’s something else I worked on for a while...these are alder branches just budding 🌱and a steller’s jay 💙 still procreate app on iPad

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I don’t know why I had so much trouble deciding how I wanted to finish this but I think I like how it turned out 😄 still messing around with some ideas and practicing painting skin colors + light ✨ so happy spring seems to finally be here 🌱

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Brand new featuring the first and so far only chickadee I’ve seen at my new feeder 😭😭😭 I like all the cute birbs but chickadees are my favorite so of course they are snubbing me. They’re out in the trees talking to each other so I know they’re close by...🥺 still streaming while I work on twitch, not sure if many people are really finding it or interested 😆

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I don’t know what it is about hummingbirds stretching their lil wings but I love it so much 💗😊 I got some cute pictures of this guy while his favorite shrub was half squashed under the snow and he perched right outside the window...watching him from three feet away is mesmerizing 😯 anyway this came out ok I think? I’m trying to refine my technique and process but also work out the ideas. I’m hoping that some idea comes through but it allows for some exploring? I guess my overall thought for these is about the relationship between humans and the natural world. We are so connected to everything but we can’t see it somehow. I’ve been having some recurring nightmares about things like animals disappearing and fires.

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Hey I finished something else, too! 🤯 still waiting for the snow to melt so I’ve been in the studio a lot.

This has a varied thrush - they’re so cute and I’ve had a lot of them hanging around since I decided to start feeding the birds because of the snow 😊 not sure I’m going to keep feeding them in the spring? But they’re very sweet and the (indoor) cats are THRILLED 😆 and the little pink branches are from a plant called here red huckleberry but that’s nonsense and I refuse to accept it 😑 #huckleberriesarepurple #imfromspokane

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I keep tweaking this but I think I’m happy with it now 🤔

I kept looking at the ice crystals everywhere and they must have gotten in my brain because the geometry on this one is very angular...❄️ the leaves are salal that’s growing in our yard and one of the few green things at the moment 🌿

Streamed on twitch mostly! My channel is janellelile (so creative)

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Here for your snow day viewing ☝️I finished this and started some new sketches. I’m still playing with the idea of separating the body in some way...I think this might be too subtle now? It’s hard to tell until I leave it for a while and come back to it. The collage bits are from old maps of Puget sound and the birb is a cheeky lady who lives in the woods next to our house.

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Ok this was so fun! I missed all the #drawthisinyourstyle challenges in the summer because I was too busy but they’ve been popping up again 😊 this is more stylized than what I’ve done lately but I hope you guys don’t hate it. This is my version of @chantalhoreis piece (last image) and I love her work 💗 thanks for the challenge! 💪✨ #chantalhoreisredraw

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It’s finished? Thoughts? Feelings? Connections? I feel like I’m explaining a lot about these lately 😆 and I want to leave some space for other interpretations ✨🌱💡🌧

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I can always tell I’m trying to work out some feeling or idea when I keep starting drawings and not finishing anything 😆 so I’m trying to actually finish some stuff ☝️this has a lot of similar ideas as the last one, just trying to explore in a different way. A lot of figuring out how to do the things I want is just make several versions and see what worked...I wish I could plan it all perfectly in little thought experiments but it always seems to go in its own direction once I get started. The nice thing about working digitally is that I can try the ideas right on the actual piece full size in full color on a different layer and just 💨 whoosh it away if I don’t like it 😊

I based the face loosely on a vintage photo of Evelyn Nesbit who had a really interesting and sad life story. It was a black and white photo so I wanted to see if I could fake the lighting and color because I could use more b&w photos for reference. Little shoutout to Madame X up there too 🌙

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I had some things to say about this but I hate feeling like I’m explaining art to death...so I’m diving in 😬

I’ve been thinking about dissociation as a metaphor (and a real thing too, sometimes I get a weird this-is-a-photo feeling when I have a migraine) and how I feel like people don’t recognize their connection to each other or the natural world. Like a lot of people can read the news and not see the humanity of a person trying to make a better life for their family, or not think “this is hurting me” when the climate change report came out recently, for example. This image just popped into my mind although you can see from the time lapse it took a while to work out what the rest of it should be 😆 I hope that makes sense and as always that’s just what I was thinking, I’m open to different interpretations. Just like, let’s keep trying to do better? I’m trying to do better for the environment and learn about racism and my part in the system a little bit every day 😭

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I helped a smol birb who bumped into a window 😊 I was going to pick it up and set it out of the rain to recover and leave it alone but it grabbed my fingers and didn’t want to let go 😭 so we hung out under the eaves until it gave me that excuse-me-what look and flew away.

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Who likes having the power on? ✋😆 ours was out yesterday from the storm for a very reasonable 8-9 hours I think? I was surprised it wasn’t longer. Anyway this is done or whatever state I’m calling done when I feel like I’m still practicing 😊 I used sword ferns I think? They stay green under the trees all year. And collage bits are from a photo envelope of my grandpa’s, and two diagrams from books - water turbines and electric meters. If that combination suggests hydroelectric power to you then 🕵️‍♀️😂

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Having a lot of feelings today I guess. I read the article about the killer whale captures for seaworld in the Seattle Times today 💔 but the governor also recommended a good chunk of the budget today to restore salmon runs and help save the remaining whales 😔 I haven’t tried to articulate this feeling but it’s related in my head: they just want to live their lives and eat their salmon and raise their families and be happy, you know? They’re beautiful and smart and they deserve to live. And I think this is how I feel about all these little birds and bunnies and snails and everything that lives here. It’s up to me to watch out for them and keep them safe, and they’re not here for me. The mindset of past generations has to change for all of us to survive 🌱 I don’t know if anything like that comes across in the paintings but that’s part of what I’m thinking.

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New camera appreciation post? Here’s some hummingbirds with a new camera and lens 😊 I waited ages to get a better setup but in the meantime I learned every perch that each of my overwintering birbs likes to use so on a nice day I can just go check if they’re in their spots 😆 obviously I needed it to take reference photos right??

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Another piece, not sure if I’ve totally settled on the look of these? I’m going to keep making them for now and have a think 🤔 The ferns are mostly silvery brown now but I thought they were still pretty so I used them anyway and the mushrooms are in one of my flowerpots 😊 we will have juncos flitting in and out of the barn and any dry or non-snowy corner all winter, they’re so cute 💗

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I worked on this and decided I hated it and then changed it probably three times? So it looks nothing like the original reference. I’m glad I kept going, normally I would have to abandon a piece just due to the paper getting too overworked but obviously not a factor in digital work. I got a new camera and big ol lens so expect more birbs because I have been taking a bunch of better reference photos 😊