DVIDS – News – Aviation employee shares unique art style

RICHMOND, Va. – As a window into one’s soul, art allows its practitioners to use a variety of mediums to share their life experiences with others.

The medium of choice for Natalie Skelton, Defense Logistics Agency Aviation public affairs specialist, involves the technique known as “sawdust painting” – but with a twist.

While the traditional method includes mixing sawdust with paint to make textured artwork, Skelton has created a style of her own by incorporating other various materials in her artwork that reflect her upbringing on the Ivory Coast, or Côte d’Ivoire, of West Africa.

Born in Atlanta to a pair of missionaries, Skelton and her family moved to West Africa when she was about six weeks old. During their work there, her family built more than 35 churches in the region, while Skelton attended the Yamoussoukro International School, Ivory Coast. In 2005, Skelton’s parents also founded the L’orphenelinat “Aime Ton Prochain” de Tiebissou, an orphanage in Central Ivory Coast.

Heavily involved in sports during her school years, Skelton said she didn’t even realize she could draw until the 10th grade.

“Our school didn’t have an art teacher, and a teacher there decided she would teach art and started recruiting students for the class,” she said. “She found me waiting on the sidelines of the soccer field, handed me a piece of paper and charcoal, and told me to draw the face of a nearby teacher. She was looking for talent. I was nonchalant about it and didn’t think it was that great.”

The teacher disagreed and recruited Skelton into her class, noting her advanced use of shadows. During a school-sponsored tour of an art studio, Skelton was amazed to see an artist there painting with sawdust.

“I fell back from the school group, and he taught me how to do it,” she said. “Most of the art you see from West Africa includes sand or insect pieces like butterfly wings to create the images. My art evolved from that.”

Skelton still remembers the first tactile artwork she produced in that class.

“Another one of my art professors in Africa gave us an assignment of ‘pop-up art,’” she said. “I didn’t know what it was other than 3D art, but I had no idea what to do. I saw this picture of an outdoor scene in an encyclopedia and was inspired. I went outside and collected grass and rocks to create the ground part of the scene. I used oil paints for the sky.

“That was my very first art piece,” Skelton continued. “My dad kept that piece and framed it, so I still have it today.”

After returning to Georgia, Skelton found her artistic niche, bringing bits and pieces of West Africa into her work. Her own gathered materials, and her close ties with staff from the orphanage her family helped set up, afford her access to authentic items from her childhood home: sawdust from Ivorian trees, Panya fabric, hair combs and jewelry, to name a few.

“When I came back to the States, I started doing more pop-up type pieces, but I also did a lot of lighthouses,” Skelton said. “I sold my first art piece for about $350 in a Georgia art gallery. I didn’t think it would sell, but they put it in the shop’s front window and sold it in two days.

“My family always said people would buy my art, but I didn’t think anything about it,” she continued. “My sister said she saw a gallery in the local area, and she took me and my art in. That’s how I got into the gallery.”

One of the framers at that gallery knew Skelton had promise, and he offered to frame more artwork for her, with her paying for the frame after the artwork sold. That same framer started a gallery and featured Skelton’s artwork there.

Skelton’s signature series, “Segments of Beauty,” blends her African experiences and American roots. Her works of art are featured in Georgia museums, private collections and even on display at DLA Aviation headquarters. Most recently, she displayed two pieces at DLA Aviation’s 2024 Black History Month observance: a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. and a child to represent a quote of his, “Every man is somebody because he is a child of God,” and “The Queen,” Skelton’s favorite piece.

“Every piece is authentic, from the sawdust from trees on the Ivory Coast of West Africa to local jewelry and hair picks,” she said. “All of it is 100% from the Ivory Coast.”

Each work of art can take hours to produce. Skelton said it’s meticulous, but worth it.

“I love the tactile feel of the pieces,” she said. “When I see something pretty, I want to touch it, so I wanted others to be able to touch the art as well.”

Skelton plans to dip her paintbrushes back into sawdust painting once she has the time to dedicate to it. She is brainstorming new materials to use from her current home on Virginia’s Northern Neck, such as sand, seashells or crab shells.