JL Will started out life with a passion of creativity and awareness. She was able to draw in cursive at the age of four and when her kindergarten teacher showed her pictures of birds on flash cards she was able reproduce them so exactly that no one would believe that she had done the work. Less than six months after this she was given a paintbrush, three primary colors, and a blank canvas on which she proceeded to create her own rendition of three angels that showed expertise and understanding of classical work and technique. The painting was featured in a very famous art museum in southern California. She was also asked to sit in the museum and paint so others could watch her work.
She did not take the road of most artists by going to schools of art and getting degrees or by becoming a commercial artist. Instead she worked at a private art school in Los Angeles after getting married at the age of 18 and after her first child was born. She took her first classes in figure and still life drawing at that new school and proceeded to teach herself her craft through books and studies that interested her. She continued to have children and to immerse her artistic talents into many mediums that would please her family and friends; textiles, pastels, charcoal, and fabric painting to name a few. She worked to instill the love of being an artist into her children and encouraged them to create while never losing her perspective. Knowing she could not abandon her role as mother to go into full time production herself. Life continued and she was able to fit in a class here and there while raising her children. Her friends and family continued to encourage her to go back to school to take classes but with six children who she also home schooled she felt she didn’t have the time. But as the children became teenagers and then young adults her interests turned back to producing art on a more consistent basis.
Why Angels?
During her life JL has experienced both tragedy and circumvention of tragedy through what most would describe as ‘miracles’ and she has continued to feel a spiritual presence in her life. She felt that circumvention has thwarted potential disaster as well as help lay a salve when it could not be avoided. She developed a high empathy for those around her and a sensitivity to others emotions and certain occurrences in life. After the escape of death of herself, her husband and two of her children on Christmas eve (in a car accident that should have been fatal) and realizing that had it not been for intervention they would have perished she vowed she would create a work of 1000 angels all new and different. She would start right away and get them into the hands of the people she loved the most and friends she wanted to bring some love and understanding. Possibly some spiritual healing as well. She didn’t know how the angels would turn out or what style they would take, but she knew that if she bought sketchbooks and started carrying one around with her the ideas would come. What you see are seven years worth of ‘some’ of her angels. She now has 4 sketchbooks full and over 300 of her angels done and she continues to introduce new ones on a consistent basis.
