REFLECTIONS ON FAITH & ART

I'd actually post more often. Huh. So as I sit here typing, drinking my coffee, the smell of burning wood fills the air. Am I enjoying a fire in the fireplace? No. Am I sitting in the backyard amidst the glory of nature as a fire glows in the firepit? Um, no. Am I camped out on my bed while the floor guy cuts into my hardwood floors downstairs using some sort of process that makes my house smell like a bonfire? Yes! "Hardwood floor fire" for the win! I'm really craving smores right now. He's actually cutting out the vents and installing new recessed vents before the refinishing starts on Monday. Yay! Refinishing! Monday! Exclamation points! Woo! "Eek!" So, life in the Sapper household. Yeah. Involves a lot of paint, tripping over shop vacs, cabinet doors and cans of paint and eating meals in the family room, living room and/or basement. It's a finished basement with Rusty's stupid big TV*. Not like I make the boys sit o...

Wow. So much had happened and changed in the last year. It's hard to know whether to take the time and write it all down or to just enjoy it and go on from here. I have stopped writing on the Art Chick blog because I feel like I have nothing left to say from that part of me anymore. I'm leaving it up for a bit because there are some posts there that were my way of working through our family struggles and life in general. Our life in Maryland seems like a million miles away now; Liam had yet to be diagnosed, I was still the mother of young children and very confused about who I was and how I was supposed to live my life. It's been a bit more than three years since our move to Ohio and though I miss our friends and miss the East Coast in general, I cannot honestly say I miss that time of my life personally. Our first year or so here was interesting. At the time I didn't realize it but looking back I can see definite lines God drew in the sand saying, "I dar...

I'm telling you, if you're a believer and you're struggling with something with deep roots, trying like crazy to dig to the bottom of it, worship will do it every time. My dad was saying yesterday that it's like a prayer language that totally intimidates the enemy and he has to flee when it begins. And I think it's also like fire and the enemy, like sin, is completely flammable. When we walk into the presence of the Lord-- whether we dance, crawl or limp in, singing-- the consuming fire that is His holy presence begins to burn away the dross in us. And the enemy, who would press my face into my navel, not looking for the Lord, cannot stand that holy presence. I think that's a big part of the whole mystery. It shows up in the psalms all the time-- start off with "OH, woe is me..." and end with "You alone are perfect in all Your ways! Praise You!" Anyway, I'm standing there with suds and water all over my hands and somehow all over my arm...

Back in 2003 I purchased my first set of unmounted rubber stamps. I was immediately a fan as they are usually quite a bit less expensive than the wood mounted stamps and they take up a lot less storage space. As I started using them more often I had friends asking me about them. I created this photo tutorial. It was originally on my old website but I moved it to Flickr then kind of forgot about it when we moved to Ohio and we bought my new laptop. After stumbling upon it this morning I figured it's always good to post practical advice on a Faith & Art related site. So here it is! And please let me know if there is anything you'd like to see specifically - tutorials on materials, techniques, etc. If I don't know how to do it, I'm sure someone else does and we'll get them to help! So here it is, the "Using unmounted rubber stamps" tutorial photo set on Flickr! http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chick/sets/463224/

So here are some photos of the mess at our house right now. The first three are my workroom as it is today. I filled holes left by wall anchors and tried out little swatches of the new paint (similar color but lighter - it's either khaki or yellow depending on the light. I like it.) So the next photo shows an old door I bought at Building Value down in Walnut Hills (architectural salvage store. LOVE. IT.) I am planning to use it as a desktop on that wall for my laptop. Notice the doorknob hole? Will use it as access for the cords. I KNOW! Genius! And I painted my wooden office chair. By the time we're finished it'll have a slip-covered cushion. Too cute. And this? This is my dining room. Nice. That's all the stuff we cleared out of my work room this week*. Mmm, paper rack. How I adore my printed papers. And my Sharpies (in the lazy susan in the foreground to the right.) OK. So... there it is, in all it's unkempt glory. I'll post more as we go....

I'm hoping to renovate this blog later this fall - new look, new posts on a more regular basis. God is working on me and I need to talk about it (regardless of whether anyone is reading this.) In the meantime, if you've just tuned in, I'd suggest going back and reading some of the posts that got me to this particular point in my life. Instead of you having to sort through the archives, I'll make a list below of the posts that made the most sense (I might include the Mail Art cow. Because I can.) Let's start from the very beginning. It's a very good place to start... Art In Which I Tell it Like it is. For Me at Least. Cosmos from Chaos Art as Remembering Clarification Faith Icons of the True What You Need See What's Out There Today's Post (I'm including this one because it's the reality of my life. It's not always paint and glitter and "Oh, I'm so inspired and creative!") ...

I burned out my third tip trying to do this with a way under-powered soldering iron (a 35 watt dinky thing with no reostat. Boo.) Hopefully I will be getting this * for my birthday next month and all my soldering dreams will come true! I messed around with a few stained glass scraps along with a 1960's/70's brooch I bought at St. Vincent DePaul last week and a rock that's been sittig in the dining room for months. Anything that sits in my line of sight for months is in danger of being soldered to something or glued to something or painted with something. This is about an inch square scrap of stained glass with irregular random yellow, white, and red stripes. The "live" charm and is attached with a jump ring which also has a little turquoise bead at the connection. The next two are of the same piece, a larger bit of the same scrap I used for the "live" square. This one has two vintage beads attached by jump rings at the top. You can definitely see th...