Design

"Where do good ideas come from? It’s a question that matters a great deal to designers, yet seems to be curiously discounted in the common perception of graphic design. Any time I talk with, say, an uncle at Thanksgiving about my work, I’m reminded that, in most people’s minds, the job of being a designer is mainly a matter of learning a set of computer applications — programs which, when properly operated, presumably do the work of generating ideas on their own." - Dan Mayer, Smashing Magazine, Examining The Design Process

Reconciliation: A response to God's yearning for our return

Several years ago I designed a symbol for The Episcopal Church to represent the sacrament of Reconciliation.  I received a request by Jenifer Gamber to use the symbol in a book she was writing.  I gave her permission to use it and promptly forgot about it.  Some time thereafter - about a year ago - while browsing Google Books I ran across Jenifer's published book.  There was synchronicity in this find; while searching for the meaning of forgiveness I bumped into my own self.  God does seem to work in mysterious ways.

This is a good book for anyone interested in learning more about the Episcopal faith, and I am honored to have my art included therein.  

Below is the original symbol, the cover of the book Your Faith Your Life, An Invitation To The Episcopal Church, and below that the page where my symbol was used in black and white. 

 

Flowers in Blind Light

Alstroemeria on dining room table.

Alstroemeria Black & White

This photo was taken with my Rebel, cropped and softened in Photoshop Express, e-mailed to a friend who likes B & W, uploaded to my online Adobe Photoshop Express library, shared at Facebook and posted here at Digital Art Advocate - all on my iPad before going to work, only getting out of bed to get a second cup of coffee. Alstroemeria is one of my favorite flowers, and I keep some fresh in my cottage at all times. I discovered their enduring nature while serving on the flower guild at church. This flower became even more meaningful after pink Alstroemeria were used on my mother's casket blanket with pink roses in November.

Centering

iPad Post

Favorite flowers...

Sweep

Summer Down South

It is Summer Down South again.  This is the first gardenia of the season, and it smells as heady as it looks floating in my pink depression glass. 

Vengence is not mine

"Now it is time that gods came walking out
of lived-in Things...
Time that they came and knocked down every wall
inside my house...

                                                       O gods, gods!
who used to come so often and are still
asleep in the Things around us, who serenely
rise and at wells that we can only guess at
splash icy water on your necks and faces...
once again let it be your morning, gods.
We keep repeating.  You alone are source.
With you the world arises, and your dawn
gleams on each crack and crevice of our failure."

~Rainer Maria Rilke

After all

"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

~Romans 12:19

And

"Surrounded by artifacts, by illusory and seductive sirens of popular culture, our task is to intuit the presence of the gods, to lift soul up and out of that delusory surface texture."

~James Hollis

Many of you who have experienced the desire for vengence know the significance of the words posted herein.  Some of us will pay a high price to get it.  Others will know that lived-in things rumble with the energy of the gods and will make a beautiful place to house their wrath. 

...blessed are those who stay put with the gods in beautiful lived-in Things?  Can you hear the rumble of their energy knocking down the walls? 

Beer Label

Compliments of Craig Gates.