Almost Twins, Popular Choice winner at the BRIT 

Mylinda received a Popular Choice award at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) in Fort Worth’s 2019 water media art show with her Almost Twins Bluebonnet painting in graphite and ink.  The bluebonnet creates one of the first and most vibrant bursts of color that Texans behold after the winter season which generates a celebration of spring’s new life. Additionally, the iconic bluebonnet symbolizes resiliency as it comes back year after year; it embodies hope as it returns to carpet our landscape in beautiful blue patches.

Big Baby Bluebonnet, sculpture installation at Coppell Arts Center and Farmers Market, Coppell, Texas

Mylinda’s new venture, making art for public spaces, fuels her imagination and sketch books. Mylinda creates outdoor sculptures, giving people a beautiful reason to be in nature more, to walk around, touch and photograph themselves amidst 3D metal art. She designed this sculpture, entitled Big Baby Bluebonnet of an individual bluebonnet blossom, which mimics her art of seizing an up-close botanical shape. Her ongoing intimate viewpoint of magnifying flowers presents them for others to view beyond a splash of floral color rapidly viewed off the highway or casually noticed in a neighbor’s garden. The Coppell Arts Council acquired this sculpture for their Old Town Farmers Market location across from the new Coppell Arts Center, currently on exhibit at 798 Main Street from July 2021-2023. Mylinda worked alongside 23 Design Company for its fabrication. 

At first, many may not identify the form of a bluebonnet in Mylinda’s art as she frequently presents it partially, with one or only a few blossoms (called florets) on a grand scale and without leaves. However, she feels that the arrangements created from the face of the bluebonnet evoke interest on their own merit offering a modern and unique perspective, and she has learned that when viewing nature-inspired art, there is a comforting subconscious recognition of patterns and shapes that everyone sees in their surrounding world. Please pull up a photo of a bluebonnet and view its petals for yourself! Interestingly, many of the white spots on the bluebonnet’s florets turn purple, sending out a signal to bees that this particular blossom has already been pollinated.

To describe my “Pencil Blooms” series of art, I begin by pressing graphite onto paper using quick, deliberate and short pencil strokes that dance in and out to form flowers that bloom large. Paper, to me, is a surface I relish with its crisp, clean and familiar feel. Pencil is nostalgic as it premiered in my elementary school art drawings. Inside this humble grayness, I proceed, finding a calmness while I aim my brush, filled with saturated ink colors, almost to the edge of each line. Grace is always embraced when the paint touches the line or even goes outside the line as I feel it adds movement and softness. I am always left surprised as my incidental paint strokes push out unique shapes of color while simultaneously revealing the negative space between the marks of graphite and color. Color now becomes the star as the penciled floral skeleton yields its supporting role. Through this series, I communicate a plant’s blossom as a delicate yet confident and modern beauty.

To describe my “Hard Pastel Flowers” collection, I draw using a hard pastel medium, usually in the form of a narrow stick, called Conté a Paris Carres Crayon invented in France in the late 1700s. This hard pastel is composed of clay, natural pigment and a binder which many famous artists have used in their preparation sketches usually using the Conté brown or dark red colors. I commence my drawing by pressing hard and fast to form a large floral outline, frequently referring to my own photographs. Next, I let my imagination run loose adding severe geometric shapes of lines and curves inside and outside my initial outline – with little forethought I savor pressing the chalky stick onto the toothy paper. The outcome celebrates the flower as a modern splendor, and my finishing touch concludes with hand rubbing the lines for either a softened, slightly distressed or linen-look.

To describe my “Inked Flora” series of monochromatic original art, I begin by drawing a flower or its individual blossoms with ink from pen or dripping off a wooden stick, palate knife or dropper. Paper to me is a surface I relish with its crisp, clean and familiar feel. I continue to add ink varying the thickness of the lines by decreasing or increasing the pressure and swiftness of my drawing movements. I choose to work on both smooth and rough papers as I enjoy seeing how the marks of ink vary with each paper’s texture. Some of my art in this series focuses only on the flower’s blossoms, leaving it deconstructed – without the attachment of leaves or any stems. The flower may not be recognizable at first or perhaps never; however, I feel this gives the composition a bit of mystery. My final manipulation of the ink comes before it dries, so I work quickly and closely observe where I want to smear and pull the ink – using wrinkled paper, card stock, a piece of wood or a palate knife. I am always intrigued by the incidental shapes that occur from pulling and streaking the ink in and out around my initial drawing. Through this series, I celebrate simple shapes of blossoms with few distractions while letting them shine in their glamorous contrast of midnight ink on a pale backdrop.

Mylinda’s historical art at the Dallas Heritage Village

These three charcoal pieces of Mylinda’s historical women’s suffrage art were displayed during the commemoration of the 19th Amendment centennial celebration in front of the Millermore home at the Dallas Heritage Village (DHV), Fall 2020. These were purchased as a permanent part of the home’s collection to retell the beginning of the victory story of Texas women’s right to vote. The Ballot and The Bluebonnet is dedicated to the state’s women of all ethnicities and their rise above suffrage opposition. Mylinda’s frequent choice to paint the bluebonnet, Texas’ state flower, commemorates women’s tenacity. Although Senator Barry Miller, owner of DHV’s Millermore home, authored and introduced the resolution for the bluebonnet to be the official flower of Texas in 1901, it was the determined women of the Texas branch of the Colonial Dames of America who helped the bluebonnet win over the cotton boll and prickly pear flower. They organized a female Austin artist, Mode Walker, to present her bluebonnet painting to politicians at the capitol, and thereafter the vote carried for the bluebonnet. Additionally, many feel its petals resemble the shape of sunbonnets worn by steadfast and resolute pioneer women, hence the name bluebonnet. And, as Dolly Parton’s Wildflowers song reveals, “When a flower grows wild it can always survive. Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.” For a closer view and historical descriptions on each artwork, please visit DHV’s website for The Ballot and The Bluebonnet, Victory! and 10,000 Dallas Women Want to Vote.

Original geometric graphite or pen and ink wildflower art available in various sizes by commission