Category: Reflections

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Roots

Did you ever wonder about where you came from. You could have been born anywhere but you were born to whom you were born to and grew up where you did for a reason. Those are your people. They formed you like it or not. I was pondering this after watching a documentary film on the people from  the Appalachian mountains.

They endured some really severe trials but had grit. You don’t get grit unless you endure something. Grit is good to have . Its better to have it than not.

So we have parents and a place that forms us specifically into who we will be. Run away all you want but you still will be from where you were born. I think it becomes something of a fingerprint.

We are infinitely lucky to have this fingerprint and I will tell you why  next blog.

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The greatest feeling in the world

I love to go into my studio to work. My little studio is just right for me. It has all the things I like to look at to feel good about working. Great light, a garden of roses to look at when gazing out the windows. A kitty or two to play with. Paints all lined up gleaming in the sun. brushes, canvases, Alexa, my lemon  tree, tea pot boiling, books and mags for color ideas, pens and pencils for writing. My chair that wheels all around. my sink, my tables. by boho thinking space that can be a sleeping place too. A fireplace , Yeah I have it pretty great as far a studios go. It was built just for me. from scratch. We put a drain in the floor so I could hose paintings off if I wanted to. I should talk about my technique some day.

We built it close to the house for easy walk to work.

I really am lucky to have all this glory. When it is going well in there and something is getting born that is past what I can do, then it becomes a chapel. Getting to that place is every artists goal. Artists make beauty  that can sooth the soul of somebody. that is quite an honor.

The sweet things of life are a place to call your own. no matter how small. it helps you get into alignment.

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The beautiful

I miss the beautiful. The Catholic church knows how to do beautiful . Protestants, not so much. Catholics are great at pomp and ceremony and incense,, The Protestants  seem to like no decoration .

This goes counter to my own taste . It seems to me that making the church beautiful is part of worship. We get dressed up for church.

And I wanted an art church to go to 10  minutes after I was converted. I will mention how that all went down in a later blog.

I think artists need to do some kind of sacred artwork to give back to the one who made them that way. Where do the ideas come from??  I sometimes look at a painting after its done and am pretty surprised  that I painted it, shocked even.

Once I got to do a mural for behind the alter. That was intimidating but also thrilling at the same time. Why they entrusted me with that job, who knows, but the elders and pastor did. I came up with a plan and they all approved it. But in the middle of execution of said plan, the Holy Spirit sort of took over and I ended up with a radically different painting. They paid me in advance and here I show up with a different thing. However I told them what happened and they all agreed it was better than the original idea. I wish I had a picture of that big old thing, but I don’t.

Lesson for the future. Always document your work because you never know when you will need it.

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Joy

This blog is not linear . It will go all over the place because that is how life is.

When I was a new Christian, I found a woman who became my mentor. I  met her from another friend but anyway she appeared in my life and we did become friends. She was the  maid of honor at my wedding.

I would call her and we would take for hours on the phone and she totally helped me navigate what was what. It was great that she bothered with me. I remember once she told me she had prayed for me when she just heard about me. She said she felt impressed to do this.

I think about this now 30 some years after that happened. I don’t know what I would have done without her. You cannot be alone and just float  through this. you need someone to come along side of you.

She was like an angel. Who knows, maybe anything I do now that is good is because she came into my life.

 

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the first fruits

I had no idea how to do this thing, but it didn’t matter. It is a lot like confronting a new canvas. Pure white untouched by your brush yet. waiting to be created on.

that is what it was like. Waiting to be created on. I was a blank canvas.

I remember a story about a choreographer who just went into the studio and started stomping around till she had an idea. A step , a start of a new dance.

I went to the church across the street from my apartment. First Presbyterian . Across from my place.

all brick and beautiful. I marched in with my son and we sat in the back. They put a daisy on my lapel to show I was a new person so people would talk to me. A sweet thing really. I liked it. Graham Kerr was sitting in the pew in front of us( My son and myself)  He was pretty famous for being the Galloping Gourmet. I had seen him on TV and now he was in front of me. So that was my first church experience as a new Christian. I think God had a sense of humor and knew what would impress me. Yeah it did. They wrote out the sermon and handed it out before you came in so you could read and listen at the same time. I still think that is a great idea. Keep you focused. I like the daisy too.

I knew zero. So I listened to the service and tried to learn the lingo. I was just day dreaming because it was totally foreign to me. Like listening to a service in Spanish.

Dude I was there to learn how to do this thing that happened to me. I have to remember this because after you are in the know after 30 years , all that becomes second nature to you. But at first it is Spanish. You tend to forget that when you are a pro. What it feels like when you know zero.

but it turned out zero is a great place to be…

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