There is an undeniable spark in Iris Wanders’ eyes when you talk to her about art. When she looks at the world around her, she sees it through light, shadow, colours, and shapes. She sees the world like it’s a glorious and awe-striking painting—all by the brush of the greatest Master of all time. This is what drives her to keep creating.
“God gave me this ability,” she said, “so I am going to use it for His glory.”
At age 16 and in Grade 11, Iris has been surrounded by art her entire life and has been drawing longer than she can remember. Her mother and sisters are all artists, and art feels like second nature to her. When the opportunity of drawing the Rural Route magazine cover came up, she used it as an opportunity to embrace new challenges. It was the first time Iris did a completely original piece without using other art as a reference. To add to the challenge, she was illustrating and combining nine different stories written by nine different authors—all into one picture. This was also her first time using alcohol markers.
Iris approaches her art with the words, just do it. Growing up with two older sisters, one of whom is a professional artist, Iris knows it would be easy to feel like she’s living in someone else’s shadow and that she’ll never be good enough. Instead, Iris uses those who are better than her as inspiration to keep going and excel even further—to pick up the paint brush, the pencil, or even the alcohol marker, and go for it! She knows there will be failures, but the important part is how she will learn from those.
“I’m good, but I could be better,” Iris said.
This year’s beautiful magazine cover is a prime example of this. Iris’s passion brings to life the nine stories of the annual Rural Route writing contest, just as these stories bring to life the old fairytales.
To read these stories and see Iris’s accompanying art, go to her Instagram page.
