Linsey Gray

Most people cringe at the thought of gesture drawing, but I immediately fell in love with the loose, flowing lines that layer to form a soft and rounded, fleshy figure that could reach out from the paper at any moment. I work from live models, photographs, and old sketches mixed with a bit of imagination in an effort to celebrate the human figure and seductive spirit of the female body.

Story time with my late grandfather revolved around the legend of the Kitsune. The Japanese tale describes a fox assuming the form of an elderly man possessing magical abilities and wisdom. In recent years, I began to research another myth of the Kitsune. This story depicts the fox embodying female spirits, morphing into a young seductive woman in an attempt to absorb powers from their human lovers and has heavily influenced my newer pieces.

Aside from my drawing board, I also provide creative services to others from graphic design, custom artwork and portaits, company branding, murals and more.

I work from the comfort of my home in Saxaphaw, North Carolina with a quiet field in by backyard and two furry mutts at my feet.

For as long as I can remember, I have offered my creativity to others while using the same skills, tools and knowledge to reveal personal ideas and feelings. The two roles seemed to blend perfectly until my first year of college. It only took a few days as a fine art student in the morning and a design student in the afternoon that there was more than the second floor of the art building separating each studio. The difference in my peers stood out first, I developed competely different connections with the art students verses those in my design classes. Our goals, processes and overall mentality varied from course to course. As 'artists', we aimed to express new ideas and evoke emotion in Intermediate Painting and Advanced Life Drawing; As "designers" we worked toward successfully communicating a specific idea in Digital Graphics. Although both are achieved by both artists and designers, and through similar skill, the reasons behind sharing that talent and the interpretations to follow provide a strong distinction.

Soon after understanding this difference, I made the choice to devote my career to design while keeping art a little closer to the heart. My sophmore year, I switched majors from Studio Art to Interior Architecture. A...