FAITH ROCKS

Wouldn't it be nice if to remember this promise all the time?

FAITH ROCKS

FAITH ROCKS!

Here's another.

sacred rocks

Here's a terrific article I found when googling FAITH ROCKS

http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/12481/edition_id/241/

Here's an excerpt:

The sacred rocks of faith offer platforms for dreams

by Rabbi Stephen Pearce

Vayetze

Genesis 28:10-32:3

Hosea 12:13-14:10

"Psalm 118:22 utilizes stone as a metaphor indicating that the meek will become the mighty: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone.' This sentiment was adopted in Christian Scriptures as well. But in Parashat Vayetze, Jacob slept on a stone pillow and dreamt of a ladder that reached to heaven with angels ascending and descending to his headrest.

What is it about stone that provides people with a sense of the sacred? Rocks speak in a powerfully moving way... It was a rock that provided Jacob with a platform for his hopes and dreams."

Well said!

FAITH ROCKS!

This is a series of small postcards of rocks with special verses on them. I've done them for a long time- at least ten years. Over the years I've sent one a week to some families that were traveling through tough times. I'm doing some a little more carefully and having them printed. The first cards were done with permanent marker and water based marker and a watery brush on pre-stamped postcards from the post office. The last two were done with permanent marker and watercolor on watercolor paper. Those are the ones I'm having printed.

VINEYARD ON MISSION POINT (2)

Hot off the easel and framed for entry into the GR Festival of the Arts this weekend. Because the GR Art Museum is moving to its new home on Monroe this summer, they are devoting the last show to Festival and instead of having only a side gallery, they are handing over the whole museum for this year's Festival. In honor of that, they are allowing 4 entries instead of the usual 2. Should be interesting to see how the show comes together.

this just in

I found this on Danny Gregory's blog - very cool song about painting!

http://www.dannygregory.com/2007/04/this_just_in.php

....and he had this great quote by Phil Ochs, so I thought I'd borrow the whole darn thing!

"It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the act of struggle itself, not what you win. Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make the attempt. That's morality, that's religion, that's art, that's life."
-- P. Ochs

more closeups

tweaks

I tweaked the painting somewhat and I think it's stronger.

Closeups

A couple of closeups to
show the brushwork.
I was trying not to get
too lost in the details.

FIELD OF POPPIES

I've been painting on this for a few weeks. I think it's finished, but it will have to sit in the living room for a few days before I sign it. It's based on a scene we saw along a roadside in West Virginia a few years back.

Vonnegut quote

"The arts are a very human way of making life more bearable.
Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to
make your soul grow." (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1923-2007)

I spent many a happy hour with his books. And what a nice thought, that even practicing an art badly can make your soul grow! YES!

Happy Easter

Happy and blessed Easter to all. Blessings on you on this wonderful day of celebration of the completion of Christ's work of redemption with His resurrection.

I've posted CRUCIFORM JAZZ before (actually April 6 of last year), but it seems fitting for today. I've been blogging for a little more than year now. Circumstances prevent me from posting more often. I have some art in the works that I'll post as I get some completed.

GATE ON MILLER ROAD

There are gates like this all over Northern and rural Michigan. I find them intriguing. Portals to what? I'm reading a book about icons called Sacred Doorways that calls them doorways between the temporal and eternal. Passages, divisions, entries, exits,beginnings, endings. All part of the sacred mystery. I'll post some of the icons I'm working on soon.

I would love to put myself in this spot right now. It's on Miller Road near Manistee, Michigan above Camp Tosebo halfway through a challenging uphill walk. Beautiful country. Also, I love the looseness I acheived in brush strokes.

showing in April in Grand Rapids

I'll have 20 pieces at FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH at 227 East Fulton. I’m honored to still have my mixed media art work featured at the EYEKONS GALLERY right across the street from FUMC at 210 East Fulton and I also have a variety of work at the FIRE AND WATER ART! Showroom at 219 West Main in Lowell. Also during April I have a 6 landscapes at the GATHERING GROUNDS Coffeehouse in Alger Heights at 2404 Eastern SE.

I like the edges on these nonobjective boxes almost as much as the front of the paintings! The colors are richer in person.

Jan Buurma

An old friend of mine passed away on Friday. Jan Buurma and I were teenaged friends. She was a statueseque blonde and people always thought she was older than she was- I, on the other hand, always looked like a kid compared to her. We had way too much fun (back in the day). I would post a picture of us, but we didn't do photos in the 60's quite as readily as people do today. So there's not a visual record, just footprints on my heart. Good to hear by email from many of the old gang from back then. God bless her soul and all those who loved her.

kid's art

Robert Genn wrote about children's art in the Friday letter of Painter's Keys. That got me looking through my archives collected during many years of teaching and parenting. I included these two in a response to his letter. There were many to choose from!

Above is a family portrait drawn by my daughter Lizz in 1987. That's me holding the dog leash! Am I important or what?!

The one on the left is "Nicole with ice cream hair and bird feet" drawn by my grandson Nate in 2001.

I love kid's art!

PORTRAIT OF FRED'S MOM

Fred's mom has had some medical challenges in the last few months and we have been quite busy in visiting and assisting. Her difficulties are ongoing and in the last few weeks, my mom's health has faltered, too. Blogging has taken a pretty low priority as has art, but I thought I'd share this sketch I did of his mom as she was watching 'I Love Lucy" in the hospital. She is such a sweet lady. It's hard to watch her health diminish.

Marrianne Williamson quote

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

All shall be well

Today is the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war. I'm filled with incredible sadness at the death and destruction that have resulted on bopth sides from what I think is a misguided foreign policy.

I wonder about this world, but I leave it in God's hands. I am reading the writings of Julian of Norwich, who was a Christian mystic born in 1342. One of her phrases is: "All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well." It's beyond my human understanding of how that will be in this troubled world, but I have faith that God can make it so. The book I'm reading isdevotional readings that are paraphrases of her writings by David Hazard called I Promise you a Crown.