REFLECTIONS ON FAITH & ART

I'm so excited about the group of people who have joined in the art and faith conversation. Some from our church, a couple of Vineyard representatives and my favorite new person from Crossroads. Even before our first meeting face to face (and in Emily and Teresa's case, not yet face to face) I felt a familiarity with them. It's got to do with the art. Not the drawing/painting/sculpting stuff. I mean, for example, Brent's a musician but I have a very basic music knowledge, enough to pound out a tune on a piano if the music is written in a beginner's song book. There appears to be little in common on the very surface. But it's a way of thinking and seeing things. That's one reason why I enjoy reading Emily's blog ( http://www.emmuses.blogspot.com ) Because she reminds me of Sherri, my friend from Cedar Ridge who was constantly seeing the God in unusual yet everyday scenarios. And once you see the God, you see the beauty. Sherri had this complete...

In other news, I did this last week. It's a mural. On the kitchen wall by the doorway to the dining room (the dining room is that blue room through the doorway in the first shot. It still needs a poly coat but otherwise it's finished. This is one of those projects that took two days from painting the base coat, drawing the design then finishing it. Why? Because when I bought the sign that was the inspiration, I bought it with that wall in mind. You know that quote by Michaelangelo? About sculpture being the image escaping the marble? Well this wall has had this image on it since I saw the sign. I just finally let it show, I guess. My next project is the dining room and I'm thinking of using an image from one of the pieces of antique sheet music currently hanging in the family room and doing a mural on the upper half the walls. The image is navy blue and off white so it would be easy to keep the current color on the bottom and touch it up where needed. I...

I'm just warning you, and apologizing all at the same time. So this art group idea has me excited and a little worried. Excited because I've been part of a church in the past where the arts were a major thing (insert sniffly sigh of longing for Cedar Ridge right here.) We were technically in the suburbs when we lived in Maryland, but the suburbs of the metro Washington DC area are a long way from the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio, midwestern U.S. of A. Please don't misunderstand or get all insulted. There is much to be loved about Cincinnati. I just feel like most of it is in Cincinnati and not much of it trickles out to the farthest suburban suburbs where we currently reside. I see the sameness of our neighborhood and rationalize that it's no different than our Levitt house in Bowie (where every third house is the same with matching neighborhoods in Pennsylvania and Jersey!) But down deep I honestly wish we were closer in, closer to town. In the city or o...

Yeah, so we're doing this thing . On December 8th at 2:00. At my house. Seriously, what makes me think I'm qualified to lead this? I mean, I'm interested. And I was just thinking I'd really like to live in Arizona so I could work outside and make two-story tall metal sculptures. Strictly for the welding aspect of it (who cares what you make, as long as you get to use fire to join metal to metal! ) Though I'm not sure what that has to do with anything at all. So pray for this. For me. And for us, as artists and as believers. I'm not sure how many "us" there will be but even if it's just Jodi and me, we're ready to get this thing going. I'm honestly afraid once I start talking art and God I won't be able to stop.

When I first started this blog I had posted a few challenges to make people try to think outside of their own little frame of reference as well as to help get your mind going. Things were hectic, like I said in that last post. I didn't give this as much attention as it deserved because I was just thinking of it as a hobby or an interest that didn't require much more than the extra few minutes I had after living my real life (a.k.a. doing laundry, feeding kids, cleaning bathrooms...) But over the last few weeks I've been questioning some of why I believe what I believe. And I've come to the conclusion that God was hitting me with those questions to help me realize some things about myself and how I see Him and the world he created. I can't really explain it so I'll use a very generalized illustration: say you have a real estate agent, an accountant and an artist looking at a house. The real estate agent would note things like the location, the square foota...

A lot of you have heard me talking or read my rambling about this Faith & Art idea. The store and teaching classes and whatever. It sounds great and I've been praying about it and I've come to the conclusion that God doesn't want me to start big. He wants me to just start where I am. So here's the deal. Anyone who's interested in getting together and making a mess, talking, hanging out and figuring out how this works is more than welcome. Our basement is as good a place as any and if we move the couches and the foosball table and fold up the treadmill we can get a decent number of people down there. What would we do? Well, I have an idea that's come together over the last week of praying about this. It would kind of be a "class" I guess, but more open. I'll lead it but I don't want to teach - I want to bounce ideas off of you and get ideas back. I'm in it to learn just like everyone else. The premise is this: Art is a for...

Suddenly there was a great burst of light through the Darkness. The light spread out and where it touched the Darkness the Darkness disappeared. The light spread until the patch of Dark Thing had vanished, and there was only a gentle shining, and through the shining came the stars, clear and pure. Then, slowly, the shining dwindled until it, too, was gone, and there was nothing but stars and starlight. No shadows. No fear. Only the stars and the clear darkness of space, quite different from the fearful darkness of the Thing. - A Wrinkle In Time Madeleine L'Engle November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007

*Edited to add this comment from my mom: "The photo doesn't do this justice, especially the wings!" (thanks, Mom!) And I agree, the photo is horrible. The silver is shinier in real life and the wings are definitely more cool in person too. Also? This is not something to be worn! It's just to hang in a window or on the wall (probably should have mentioned that before!) So I am all about the soldering this week. I made this using a special photo, 2" glass pieces, some vintage glass beads and some brass angel wings soldered over and texturized (is that a word?) I've been waiting to use the gold crown charm forever and it was totally perfect for the size of the piece. P.S. Sorry about the photo - it's hanging from the chandelier in my workroom and the lighting is kind of wonky. But now I'm in love with the possibilities of what I can do with glass and solder and anything metal I can stick on to them!

* X-posted to Art Chick blog as well. So I have been obsessed with soldering lately. Actually, I've been obsessed with figuring out how to solder correctly. Apparently you need a soldering iron that actually gets hot enough (seriously?) I ordered some one inch square glass pieces online and they are a great thickness (2 mm) and give a lot more weight to the pendant. These two photos are the same pendant, front and back. Notice the lumpy soldering job (I'll call it an artistic decision and pretend it's supposed to be lumpy. We'll call it "texture", thanks.) One side is cut from the queen of hearts card from a very old deck of bicycle cards and the "S" on the other side is from a vintage dominos advertisement. It think the vintage ad sheet came from Marco's? Or maybe The Queen's Ink. Not sure. I've been wanting to try this because I have all kinds of ideas for it - I'm going to make Christmas ornaments using vintage ...

*This is a X-post with the Art Chick Blog So these are some photos I meant to post earlier. They're samples from the Stamper's Anonymous booth at this year's Stampaway. Some of these are cards. Some of them are covers to art or travel journals. All of them are three dimensional (and are in plastic covers which is why there is a weird glare on them in some shots.) This is only one of the booths that just about made me swoon at Stampaway. The inspiration was overwhelming and the ideas and samples were beautiful. I'm planning on making some more handmade/hand-bound books this fall. I'd love to add some of these three-dimensional elements to them along the spine and on the covers and even some inside cut out or niches in the book itself (so you'd have to write around a hole housing a little bead or charm.) I love the weight the three dimensional objects give the pieces overall - they go from flat cards to mini works of art that could e...

Posting will resume on a regular basis when school starts for the boys in late August. I cannot wait. Bring your friends and tell your neighbors, people. We're going to be making a big mess over here.

Oooooh, crap. Seriously. You know when you get this idea in your head? And, when it's in your head it seems so great and noble and cool? But then you put it in words and try to share what you're thinking with someone else and it just seems so flat? I hate that. Stephen King put it best when he wrote, "The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings - words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out." (I think that's from The Body ... I'll have to check.) So, anyway. I had this idea. Kind of a physical embodiement of the whole "Faith & Art" thing. It started with a random comment from my mom (my mom is a great source of inspiration!) There is a building I'm obsessed with. It's in St. Bernard ( see this post to catch up on that whole thing. ) It's the building w...

Rusty and I caught part of the Narnia movie on tv the other night. It was the part where Edmund is starting to understand that the witch really does suck and he's made a terrible mistake. I so identify with Edmund. I always have. When I first read the Narnia books, when I was nine years old, I wanted to be like Lucy. I wanted to be the one who went in with everything to believe in, just happy to be there getting to experience it all. But I knew that Edmund felt more familiar. I hated that. He just seemed like such a whiner and so unhappy for himself and everyone around him! But as I've gotten older I realized I had come to like Edmund. He's just so human and when he finally is saved he is so thankful. In the book, as well as the movie, there is a small scene when Edmund and Aslan are talking. Edmund's brother and sisters come running up, having just found out he is alive and back in their camp. Aslan tells them not to speak of what had happened becaus...

Before this blog could be revived, it had to go through "The Change" - from the old Blogger template (which was nicely personalized with the graphics and pretty whatnot) to the new "Blogger Beta-that's-no-longer-beta." We are officially switched and good to go. But if you notice any quirks? Let me know, ok? "Quirks" = the layout... not my writing. Sorry.

This blog is not dead. Oh no. It was just taking a break because its author couldn't give it the full attention it deserved while packing, selling one house, moving halfway across country, making an offer on two new houses before finally buying the third that didn't have any problems with no-longer-relocating sellers or failed inspections, moving, decorating for Christmas, un-decorating for Christmas (mostly), suffering a bout of bronchitus and finally watching her body revolt and decide it's going to secede from the union and run things its own way ( see PCOS post, here. ) Aiming to re-launch in March. I unpacked my book...