Thomas Traherne Said...

"Your enjoyment of the world is never right, till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father's Palace; and look upon the skies and earth, and the air as Celestial Joys:  having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were among the Angels."

This may be my favorite quotation ever, or least one of my favorites.  I have tried to imagine how to present this thought in art.  Any ideas? 

Take Off Your Shoes (or whatever you like)

This nude study was painted in Photoshop with a mouse.  I have tried using a tablet, but it does not feel as pleasing as use of the mouse - it almost creates one too many barriers between me and the work.   I am still working on this image but decided to post it because it fits the first full day of spring.  Remember being allowed to pull off your shoes and socks and run through the grass on the first warm day of spring?  I do.  In fact, it is one of my fondest memories of childhood.  I realize that posting this nude study is an adult equivalent.  What could be more liberating than to image the warmth of human flesh reflecting in the radiance of light?  

I have always found the human body to be a most entertaining subject.  I remember art school when we first sketched nudes.  Some guys in the class were making jokes until the instructor gave them one of the best lectures I have ever heard about how the artist does not flinch or judge the subject and to do so is just immaturity.  I can't remember it all, but it certainly shut up the clowns.  After everyone got through squirming, we rather forgot an individual human being was posed before us with no clothing on.  The bodies were sometimes lovely and sometimes not so lovely as interesting, but, either way, the shame of nudity departed with the desire to reproduce or express the image.  I knew then that text would be created on computers in years to come, but it never crossed my mind that one day I would be painting digital skin. 

I found a Computer Arts tutorial on painting digital skin, but I have not yet worked with it.  I look forward to seeing the difference the technique used there will make.  The creative capacity of painting digital skin is rather liberating -  like taking off your shoes and feeling the warm grass beneath your cramped winter-worn feet. 

Below is a variation, more cyan, which I believe to be a most complimentary color for most shades of skin.

 

Holy Week/Easter Postcard

This is the postcard I designed for Emmanuel's Holy Week and Easter events.  This image was originally designed in more vibrant colors - dark turquoise and corals - but I changed the color scheme to more pastels for Easter. 

A New Exit Strategy

Comically sad, odd things happen in my church on a regular basis (what we call Dibley Moments named for a flavor similar to the English comedy "Vicar of Dibley").  One of my favorite memories is of a regularly attending new visitor who came dressed in a witch costume for the Sunday closest to Halloween and All Saints, complete with tall, black hat.  Some of the more conservative members pierced their lips, crossed their arms and acted as if Lucifer would appear at any moment to claim possession of the property.  I knew I loved our rector's wife when she smiled and admonished the judgmental to relax, saying she rather liked the flair with which the visitor pulled it off.

But despite all of our small church, small Southern town eccentric behavior I was shocked by a story that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times about a woman who told her friends at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church that she was dying of cancer just to get away from them.  This just beat all (as we say Down South).  

The woman had attended the church for two years and sang in the choir.  She fabricated an illness that  lasted 11 months, including hospice updates and a final report of death from her "sister" who planned to ship her body north for a funeral. 

It looks to me like she would have been home free but for the fact she attended her own memorial service at the church, identifying herself as her sister.   A suspicious choir member contacted the local sheriff who found the woman at home and quite alive.  She reported to the sheriff's department that she had attachment problems rooted in childhood trauma which caused her to fake her death to withdraw from the church.  

I don't know why - call me curious - but there is a "rest of the story" here we aren't getting.  I ponder what it might be as I hum "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover" and wonder why she didn't leave well enough alone and skip the memorial service.   

Remembering Mary Magdalene

In the March 2007 issue of Episcopal Life two of my favorite Episcopal women, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Phoebe Griswold, are interviewd in an article entitled "Faith, feminism and women's work". 

At the conclusion of the interview EL asks:

"Margaret Mead said, 'never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world.  Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.'  Was she right?"

GRISWOLD:  "Yes.  I think 12 men did a pretty fabulous job way back then under Jesus - the disciples - and I'd call that a small group of people.  Do I think that this small group of Episcopal women can affect change?  Yeah.  Along with others."

JEFFERTS SCHORI:  "It wasn't just 12 men.  Mary Magdalene started it."

GRISWOLD:  "Thank you!  Thank you, Katharine Jefferts Schori." 

Since I was a Baptist child I have been attached to Mary Magdalene like no other character in the Bible.  No one taught me to venerate this saint; it just accidentally (?) happened.  As I grew older and had similar spiritual experiences to those she had I grew to have a deeper desire to learn from her and seek her intercession.  I have longed to see her respected in the institutional church for the faithful and courageous disciple she was.  I never thought I'd see the day her contribution was acknowledged in the institutional church, but, then again, I never thought I would see a woman head a major denomination. 

Jefferts Schori's and Griswold's affirmation of Mary Magdalene would make me want to be an Episcopalian if I were not already. 

Altar Art

During this season of Lent when we use only greenery on the altar I find myself looking back at photos of flower arrangements from the past few years and remembering the events surrounding the creation of particular arrangements.  This altar art made of camellias and freesia was a joint venture between myself and my friend, Linda.  We enjoy doing things a little differently (to the consternation of those who want things to be predictable and in keeping with the way it has always been done), so we look for unexpected groupings, surprises for God on the altar.   

These camellias came from the side yard of my office, and the terracotta pot (with a grape motif) seemed appropriate for the alter.  We put together the arrangement in the church kitchen and just swooned over the draping beauty of the flowers as they came together.  Even though either of us can do arrangements alone, we enjoy sharing the experience of placing one branch, then another and standing back to survey where another shape or color is needed.  Finally we stand back and say "perfect!" at the same time.  While often we swear the flowers have never been so lovely, some arrangements remain more vivid in our memories.  This is one of those, and it is full of good memories.  

Evil In Silk & Pearls

Albert Einstein said:

 "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."

Leonardo Da Vinci said:

"He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done."

Pascal said:

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."

And Cicero said:

"The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil."

So if people, especially in a religious setting, watch the perpetration of evil and do nothing, do they lack wisdom or integrity to act?  Either way they are in spiritual poverty immune from Wisdom's call. 

But Martin Luther King said:

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

I have pondered MLK's quotation many times to get through bitter times when I have seen evil win.  It helps me to remember that evil triumphant is still evil.  I don't care who dresses it in silk and pearls and takes it out for a thrill.  It is what it is, and if we have Wisdom we can recognize evil beneath the silk and pearls.  Proverbs describes Wisdom as the light of dawn growing ever brighter presenting a garland of grace and a crown of beauty.  I believe that MLK's words put the dilemma of evil triumphant in perspective.  Unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the "final words in reality" and that the strength of right is seen in grace and beauty, qualities eternal and indestructible, world without end. 

Lenten Sacrifices

It is time to consider Lent and what to take on or give up to observe the season.  I try very hard to understand this year after year, but I'm still not sure I get it.  It isn't because I don't understand that I should be conscious of the sacrifice of Christ.  I am.  But it somehow seems a bit artificial to give up chocolate when you live in America and can still have vanilla and caramel.  So what if we give up a meal?  I mean, this is the richest country in the world.  Compared to the rest of the world we live in paradise (even without our chocolate or three squares).  What have we really sacrificed; what have we learned?  Isn't this a bit of artificial piety?

Maybe the problem is food isn't important enough to make me get it.  What if I had to give up painting with blue during Lent?  Or wearing jeans or turquoise rings?  Imagine 40 days without wearing anything from Talbots, taking a photograph, visiting ebay, watching "Law & Order" or e-mailing my buddies?  Now THAT would be a sacrifice, even a bit of hell, but would it take my faith to a deeper place?  I don't know because I don't plan to try.

I do study Mary Magdelene every Lent.  I wear my MM medal and feel particularly close to her.  I pray that I will learn to have her loyalty, courage and love.  I want to see Christ like she did - the one who saved her from demons and showed her the meaning of life.  I want to feel the loss of that light on Good Friday and imagine a world where Christ is gone so that I can appreciate his presence.  Unlike MM I know he will rise on Easter.  She did not know that.  What joy she must have felt.  I cannot imagine.  If giving up chocolate for 40 days and reclaiming it on Easter could give me the joy MM felt when Christ rose from the dead, maybe I'd give it a try.

So as Lent looms and threatens to descend upon us with ashes and loss of chocolate, I will consider all of this yet again and see if there is some way to desire giving up anything besides church.  I'm not a complete barbarian; I do get observing Lent.  I just don't know that temporay abstinance makes as much sense as taking on contemplation.  To that end I will probably participate in stations of the cross on Friday nights during Lent, something I have always wanted to do.  So maybe I have found something to give up after all...Friday nights.  If it ends early enough I can run to the mall and get home in time to eat my caramels and watch "Law & Order".   No artificial piety here.   

Art Studies

I am not so disciplined with my art at times.  I go from one thing to another without finishing what I started.  I want to work on that, and I may have found a method to motivate myself.

I added to this site a feature entitled Art Studies.  Here I will be required to tell a story with art, to think through the art I am working on and be forced to articulate what it means and how my imagination was captured by a concept.  I hope the stories told will entertain, enlighten, but, most of all, make the viewer think about the concept being visually defined.  Have any of these concepts captured your imagination?  Have you created images around these themes or written about them.  If so, please feel free to share with me.  Let's collaborate.   Perhaps we can find some mutual inspiration and have some fun.

The image to the left is entitled "Slotha" which is the Aramaic term for prayer.  It implies setting a trap for one to catch God.  It will be part of an Art Study entitled "Creative Prayer' in which I hope to explore visual images associated with concepts of prayer.   

Lessons From The Lenten Rose

The Lenten Rose is such a symbol of this end of Winter/beginning of Spring time of year.  It fortells the beauty of Spring sure to come and the hardship of Winter still upon us in its subtle, shy colors and unobtrusive appearance hidden amidst leaves.  The arched over beauty faces downward requiring us to lift her head to see her little freckled face.   Looking directly in her face we understand that as pilgrims through the dark, we have far to go, but with honesty, simplicity and humility we will survive and arrive.  

PS  The dates on this card are incorrect.  The Pancake Dinner is 02/20, and Ash Wednesday is 02/21.

Enclosure