40 under 40

“These are ordinary people making a difference.” My favorite line from this article in the Jan/Feb issue of the Covenant Companion Magazine.

Natalie Salminen Rude, Visual Artist, Natalie Salminen Fine Art nataliesalminen.com

Natalie used to think that she had to do something more “worthwhile” than being an artist—something that more tangibly contributed to the community. “Being an artist isn’t enough,” she would say. But she has come to understand that being an artist is what God created her to be. “Wrestling with vocation isn’t easy, but accepting our gifts and offering them back to the world is a blessing I don’t want to miss out on,” she says. She works mainly in oils and encaustic, an ancient medium of beeswax, resin and pigment.

Currently, she is creating artwork for The Commissions Project, which generates beauty and income for not-for-profit organizations and charities. When working on specific commissions, she talks to her clients, meditates on those conversations and Scriptures, working with them to help the imagery take shape. “I absolutely love what, how, and why something is revealed during the course of the work. It is truly mysterious God-work,” she says. “And then we celebrate! This is what I love most.”

Books on your nightstand/e-reader right now: The Evidential Power of Beauty, Thomas Dubay, S.M.; Living Things: Collected Poems, Anne Porter; A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman; my journal

Favorite way to waste time: There is a little counting game on my phone called 2048. Heard of it? I pray you never do.

Favorite TV show: I don’t watch the stuff.

Choose a superpower—fly or be invisible: Fly…but I already do in my dreams and IT. IS. AWESOME!

Source: Natalie Salminen Rude, 37 –  The Covenant Companion – Jan/Feb 2015