Inspiration fuels creativity for chaplain, artist

As an artist, Don Russell works in many fields, finding inspiration in the world around him. As a chaplain, Russell gives inspiration to those around him, finding potential everywhere he looks.

When he sculpts, he uses vintage window frames, antiques, carved pieces, and a paint that hardens after it is molded. He incorporates mirror, glass and other objects found in and out of nature. As he speaks, he carves a large piece of a tree into a castle.

“There is something in everything,” said Russell. “Things are rarely trash, but a history of mankind.”

Russell is fascinated by almost everything that he gazes on and has a hard time leaving the dump empty handed.

His portraits are done in graphite pencil and are his favorite things to do. Though he’s had no formal training in portrait drawing, his work is amazingly lifelike. He started creating the portraits while on a mission in Mexico. As his students were studying, he began to draw them. He realized that, in doing so, the kids became more productive.

“They felt cared about,” he says, “because someone cared enough to draw them, and perhaps, to really see them.”

He brought that concept home and began sketching at-risk children in the West Valley School District while serving as a behavior intervention specialist. “Doing portraits,” says Russell, “has helped me to look closer, see better, and focus.”

A University High School graduate, Russell also expresses himself as a singer and songwriter. In 1969, a war protest song of his. “Soft Impressions,” went to No. 99 in the charts. He also sang to patients at Deaconess Medical Center to aid in their recovery. He sings in church every Sunday.

Russell has 17 years of college under his belt. This includes a degree in commercial art, a master’s degree in Old Testament biblical literature, and a degree in chemical dependency counseling. His studies have earned him a place in the ministry. “Now, I have to use my training and knowledge to give back.”

Russell has a strong desire to make the world an environment that God would want and is doing all he can to make that a reality. For years he has followed a self-imposed rule and done a daily devotional.

His devotions turned into e-mails in the form of a commentary on the Bible. Another of his artistic outlets, his writing, became the Arrow Epistle. Eight years strong, the Arrow Epistle has 1,350 subscribers and is growing. Many readers are from other countries, 10 of whom were lost during the recent tsunami.