Encouragement Post – Day #26 (Good Friday) I could sit and listen to
Phil Keaggy play his guitar for hours.He is such a gifted musician. But
as you listen, meditate on these lyrics if you will; this is a simple
hymn with rich and meaningful lyrics.
"What language shall I
borrow to thank Thee dearest Friend for this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity
without end. O make me Thine forever! And should I fainting be, Lord let
me never, never outlive my love for Thee."
O Sacred Head attributed to Bernard of Clairveaux
O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down; now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown; O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss 'til now was thine! Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine.
What thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners' gain: mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my Savior! 'Tis I deserve thy place; look on me with thy favor, vouchsafe to me thy grace.
What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest Friend, for this, thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end? O make me thine forever; and should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to thee.
Encouragement Post #12: (Friday... at least for a few more minutes ;) ) It's late, and it has been a busy day. Work still has to happen, even in quarantine. So, I have been pretty hard at it for most of today. I was thinking about work and its meaning just the other day... have you ever wondered if the work you are doing really matters? I imagine if you're a teacher, doctor, nurse, firefighter, military, etc. you might not question that. But, what about other things like creating music, growing a garden, sewing your children's clothes, writing poetry, making food for a needy neighbor, taking care of an elderly parent, taking care of your grandchild(ren), teaching others "how to", praying for those you love, or even leaving an encouraging word on Facebook, etc. The list goes on and on.
Whatever the work might be, what you are doing right this minute, today, has purpose, value, and meaning. How can you be sure of this? This may sound like an oversimplification, but if that were not the case you would not be here. Until the Lord takes us home, He has a purpose for the work we do. So, during these days at home, when it seems like your days, hours, and minutes feel a bit purposeless at times, be assured they are not. You are God's poem... a unique, original, one-of-a-kind work of art. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Did you know that the Greek word for "workmanship" in this verse is *poeima* ...we are His poem, His masterpiece, His one of a kind work of art. Let that sink in...
The Poem of Your Life by Michael Card
Life is a song we must sing with our days A poem with meaning more than words can say A painting with colors no rainbow can tell A lyric that rhymes either Heaven or Hell
We are living letters that doubt desecrates We're the notes of the song of the chorus of faith God shapes every second of our little lives And minds every minute as the universe waits by
CHORUS: The pain and the longing The joy and the moments of light Are the rhythm and rhyme The free verse of the poem of life
So look in the mirror and pray for the grace To tear off the mask, see the art of your face And open your ear lids to hear the sweet song Of each moment that passes and pray to prolong
Your time in the ball of the dance of your days Your canvas of colors of moments ablaze With all that is holy With the joy and the strife With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life
So, I have been as busy as a bee with "birthing" a new website for a dear friend and fellow fine artist. She is an amazing person, and I am thrilled that she wanted me to design a website to showcase her art. She and I worked together in the corporate world MANY moons ago, briefly. Her beautiful given name is Leonora, but her friends and family call her "Nono" and it was only appropriate that her site be titled "Art by Nono."
When I am designing a site, I become immersed in the process and barely come up for air until everything is JUST as I want it to be. With this particular site, that meant hours of scanning artwork and getting the right images in the right spots. She has also written a devotional book, which integrates her artwork interspersed with some of her inspirational writing, that I included on its own page.
I absolutely love the design process and the immersive nature of tweaking and coding and tweaking and coding, in order to get everything to behave just as I want it to. This requires patience with the structures that I must work within, as well as knowledge of how to tweak those structures to get the look and feel that I want. It is always a challenge, but that is where my design juices and determination come to life. Launching a new site is always exciting, and it is especially rewarding when the client is so thrilled with the result.
Now that I am up for air, I will be visiting in your neighborhoods! :)
Today is a day of LUXURY! Why luxury, you ask? I have the LUXURY of sitting on my couch and having time to visit and catch up with all my blog friends. I cannot wait to catch up with what all of you have been doing over these past couple of weeks. I plan to read and read and read... (HUGE smiling, contented sigh)!
Here are a few photos from our two week art show... a wonderful time for our art association and so much beautiful art. I am so proud of all the artists.
The show was held in a wonderful retail space in a local mall that just happened to be empty. The space faced the main thoroughfare of the mall with a large window across the busiest part. The mall was happy to have us filling this space during the holiday season, and we were happy to have such a visible location for our art show. We had over 70 artists of all kinds from extreme realism to abstract to whimsical and everything in between. And it is all 2-dimensional art... no sculpture, no jewelry, no crafts... only paintings and drawings on traditional 2-d mediums.
We donated 10% of our sales to a local organization, Hand-in-Paw, which is an organization of therapy dogs. There were a number of these amazing animals at
our opening reception, a Schnauzer, a Great Dane, a Pekingese, a Spaniel, and many more. The photos are all from our opening reception, which could hardly have gone better.
I am very thankful that on the year that I happened to be president, the show turned out this well. I also did a few commissioned pieces over the holidays, one of them for a friend who was in our wedding 30 years ago, and one of them for someone who picked up my card at this show. I will wait to post those here until I am sure they have been gifted. For the the 8th year, I am thanking God for another wonderful year of allowing me to do something I love so much!
My first foray in the social media world was Facebook. Ahhh... what a great tool for connecting with all those friends from different eras of my past. I really do love that aspect of it. And, now that I have a 3 month-old nephew whom I never get to see in person (seriously, have you ever seen a baseball that cute???), it is a great way for me to "virtually" watch him grow. But, Facebook really is so here today and gone tomorrow... and even though it saves my things, I have a hard time going back and finding something my friends have posted. When I check Facebook, one minute something is there and the next it is gone. I think to myself, "Wait, I wanted to read that." Have you had a conversation with someone you wish you could go back and reread? I sure have... but, the posts just keep on scrolling ...and scrolling ...and scrolling by.
Then Twitter came along, the place where you can say whatever you want to for the world to see -- or at least your followers -- in 140 characters or less. I think we can all plainly see why this one didn't work out for me...
Next there was Pinterest... what a great concept: a great visual
representation of a link that I want to save. And, I am such a visual
person that it was perfect for me. You know, the instant recipe keeper
for all those delicious looking recipes you see in images all over the
internet.
It was also a great tool for organizationally challenged people looking to improve their organizing skills (me!) And it was the perfect spot for curating a whole bunch of loveliness in one place. However, three years down the road half of my image links no longer work. So that recipe I put off trying for so long still looks great in the image, I just have no idea where the recipe is. And the organizational site went "poof!" just like my organizational skills.
And then there was Instagram. Visual instant gratification... "Hey family and friends, look at me doing this or that right now!" ...but with no real conversation (unless you count hashtags... don't even get me started on twentyhashtagsononepicturethaticannotreadbecausetheyallruntogether!!) And again, the images just keep scrolling and scrolling. If I want to see something from 3 weeks ago I have to 1. remember who posted it, 2. find that person's username, and 3. go look through all their images until I see it. Too much trouble... I'd rather just move on.
Which brings me right back to where I started ever having conversations online. I am back here hoping for some meaningful dialogue (or even monologue, should no one care to read it!) interspersed with images and links that hopefully will be more (or less) permanent. And I am thankful that there are still a number of you who feel the same way!
So, has it really been three and a half years since I last posted? It's just hard to believe that, but in some ways it seems even longer. With my children grown but not gone, I am still in a very busy stage of life. Yet, I miss the blog world, my friends made here, and the writing and photos that go along with storytelling. So, I am going to make a renewed effort and try to not be hard on myself when I go for (what seems like) ages between posts. I can hardly believe that when I started this blog over eight years ago, I posted every day! Whoa, I don't know how I managed that and everything else. But, realistically I know that I have too many things going on right now to post everyday... but I can post sometimes.
Since that first blog post in May 2008, so much has happened in our lives as well as in the world of technology. We have a lot of visual "instant gratification" these days through Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and all the other social media sites. Yet, my writer's heart longs for a space like this to just ramble on about whatever is on my heart... and for something that's not here today and gone tomorrow. I love being able to look back at the old posts here and see what God was doing in our lives then and how far He has brought us and our families. I am using the word "our" because as I look back at the comments, I was not doing this alone. I have tried to stay connected to a number of you by popping in every now and then to read your posts and comment (sparsely, I know.) I am thankful that some of you faithful ones are still at this blogging thing! It just makes my world feel that it is spinning right on its axis to be able to go visit your beautiful blog homes on the web.
I am still doing art along with graphic and web design, all of which keeps me quite busy. I am currently in the midst of a very interesting commissioned piece of art for a young man who is about to get married... the piece will be a wedding present for his bride as a remembrance of the spot where he proposed to her. It is such fun getting to be in on secrets like that. I just rolled out a brand new website last week for a local small business in town. I also took on the role of president of one of our local art associations this year, which has added to my already long list of tasks. But, it has also given me the opportunity to become immersed in the local art community, to get to know some local artists whose works I have admired, and to learn many, many things about techniques, materials, shows, etc.
For those of you still connected here, THANK YOU for not giving up on me. I have always felt like our blog community was a bit of a "small town" on the internet, as those of us with common interests found one another early on. For now, I am jumping back into this blog with both feet! There is so much loveliness to be shared, and I want to be a part of the sharing. I hope to see you around this great big world (wide web)!
Popping in for a quick update from the art show...
We were blessed with an absolutely gorgeous day for our art show last weekend. The skies couldn't have been more blue and the weather was fairly mild. All in all it was a lovely show, although the art market seems not to have really rebounded yet. I did make some good contacts... I had a local hospital representative ask to put some of my work in the hospital. So, I am excited about that. And a local art association wants me to do a program for them about my architectural drawings. I did sell enough to cover my costs for the show. So it was a good day (despite the fact that I missed watching The Masters tournament, one of my favorite sporting events... thank goodness for DVR!)
Hope you're all doing well. Still not much time for blogging as we're gearing upfor a church conference all week next week. Hopefully, I will be back in full blogging mode after that! Please don't give up on me if I haven't visited in a while... I am not gone, just busy!!
Long, long ago... (last August, to be exact) I posted about redoing what was then my living room, in order to turn it into an art/office space. The room was more parlour than living room and was rarely ever used. The color of the walls was a dark burgundy... not the kind of space that would be conducive to doing detailed artwork.
With no overhead lighting and only one window, this space would need a serious overhaul. This has been a challeging and very, very busy fall and winter. I have had many commissions, health issues, and a lot of things going on with my children and their activities. But, finally last week I got an early birthday present.
I am moving from this space in the corner of my dining room...
...and with a generous helping of "Provence Cream"
and a little help from this...
...I now have this
and tomorrow I will celebrate by enjoying doing my artwork in a room of my very own!
Along with gearing up for the school year, I have been working on a few things this week. I am doing a series of pencil drawings inspired by...
...Victoria magazine.
hollyhocks and roses...
...and some other white flowers yet to come.
Then there is this picture (below) that I am doing for a friend. It's a sweet story which, if she gives her permission, I will tell you all about it once it is complete.
And then I threw in a little surprise... since I have never posted a picture of myself, I thought I would share my little workspace (with me actually in it this time.)
Yes, this is my little corner (literally) of the world... or make that my little corner of the dining room! This is where the elbow grease happens... the inspiration comes before and sometimes during the "elbow grease" process. Happy Fruitful Friday to all!
In an artist's workshop there are many tools used for so many different things. There are multitudes of papers, paintbrushes, pencils, paints, paintbrush holders, tape, paper towels, cups for holding water, and even a desk on which to paint. All these things are necessary to the artist who is creating something beautiful, something of worth.
I was thinking of the verses in 1 Corinthians this morning about wanting to be what you're not created to be. What if the tape wanted to be a paintbrush and said, "I will not serve the artist unless I can do what the paintbrush does." Or, the desk said, "I will not serve the artist unless I can do what the paint does, after all the paint has the most prestigious job." OK... it's absurd I know, but you get the idea. Here is how it reads in The Message:
I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.
1 Corinthians 12:14-27
I hope you see in this somewhere your own significance and the importance you have, whatever your gifts or talents or place, in the Artist's Hands.
