My Brand-New Art Course Launches Monday {...a little behind-the-scenes...}

I'm so excited to tell you about my very first, all-my-own art course I have entitled "Let Us Make".

You may view the trailer here

I've written the course description:

An artful, playful exploration of creation, purpose, theology and story, as we rediscover them all in Genesis chapter 1 of the bible. 

 

This course is built around each of the “6 days of creation”.  We will take one day at a time to make art based on “let there be light” (day 1)…firmament art (day 2)…botanical art (day 3)…moon art (day 4)…birds and fish (day 5)…culminating in day 6, where we create art celebrating a land mammal and, most of all, human beings who are Imago Dei:  made in the image of God.  

Even though we are taking our text from the bible, you do not have to be a Christian to take this course.  This class is for anyone who loves nature, art, and spirituality.  Together we will play with techniques such as abstract flow art, mixed media, collage, botanical art, and expressive portraiture.  We will try our hand at painting things that fly and things that swim, and we will "paint with light" at least two or three different ways.  

If you’ve ever wished you could have an excuse to make art and spend more time outdoors; if you’ve ever wished you could gain some perspective on your own story, and come to know for sure why you are alive, this is the course for you.  

All these things will be explored through art and scripture, in a safe, nonjudgemental, even playful atmosphere.  I’m excited for you to join me in “Let Us Make”.  

I have stuffed this class with art instruction, Bible study, and encouragement.  There is, all total, about 8 hours of content, all of it either direct art instruction or direct Bible teaching, and the cost is only $48 for lifetime access!

And here is the link to join:  

{...join the class "Let Us Make"...}

Now, for a little behind-the-scenes.  This is for those of you who might be curious as to what goes into the making of an online course!  If I can talk you out of it, I will.  Because friends...it isn't for the faint of heart. 

For me, the work of creating this course was much like the work I put into creating the various series of messages I bring, when I travel and teach at women's conferences...only, I had to add art to everything, which tripled the workload.  

And then I also had to video tape myself, which was awkward.  

First, I spent weeks and months gathering.  I studied, I read, I prayed.


And then, for this course, I spent months going gray:

(In case you think I'm kidding.)

I would have gone back to my silver hair anyhow, but as fate would have it, the idea to do an art course based on Genesis chapter 1 of the bible came to me back in the summer of 2016.  Which just so happened to be the time I also decided to go cold turkey off of coloring my hair.  Which is another blog post entirely....and it's coming, I promise.


Next, I had to get several headshots, and this is one of the shots that made the cut:

And then, I created a vision board for the course.  I chose a color palette, I chose certain words and phrases that I wanted to flavor and characterize the course, and I chose a wardrobe that stayed in a certain range of colors:

I gathered my own supplies:

And I then created hours...and hours...and hours...of video footage.  I created lecture videos and art instruction videos:

After which, every minute and every second had to be edited.  By yours truly.  Then, 25 videos and about 18 still shots had to be (::cough::) uploaded.

Let's not talk about uploading.  It's still too fresh.  The struggle and pain are real.  And so is the swearing, even though this is a Bible-based course.  #realtalk

Believe it or not, here we are, mere days from launching this special, special course...and I'm ready to do another one.  It is true what they say about childbirth:

You do forget the pain.  

Most of us mommas were crazy enough to have more than one.

I look forward to this new chapter in my midlife career.  I believe with all my heart that God wants to take an army of us 40-somethings and 50-somethings and do brand new things with us, and bless the work of our hands!

Join me?

A Work-filled, Lazy Saturday

Do the words "work-filled" and "lazy" seem like an oxymoron to you?

Then I invite you to explore the Christian faith further, or for the first time.

Because work is the Original Design for humans.

The Original Artist made man in His image (and P.S. "His image" is plural.  I would go deep with that, but it's a Saturday and I give you permission to not listen to my hermeneutical studies of Genesis chapter 1.  You're welcome.) and God loves the work of His hands.  Behold, it is very good, still yet.

God placed man in the precise habitat, perfect for his flourishing:  a garden.  God gave man a gift precisely suited for his flourishing:  work to do.

Work is our happy place, when we approach it with a renewed mind...which can involve listening to my hermeneutical studies of Genesis chapter 1, but I digress.

So here I am.  In front of a ginormous Mac screen ("Oh Mac, how I love thee...let me count the ways...") doing a different kind of creating.  I'm engaging a different side of my brain, and a different sort of artistry.  When I am done here, I will head to the studio and break out the paints and inks yet again.  These things, because they are so inherently creative, feel like a combination of really-really hard work and really-really intense play.

And I over-use the hyphen, and this is my confession.

Not going to lie:  later, I will have to fold laundry and clean floors.  Genesis 1 and hermeneutics notwithstanding, that's gonna feel like slave labor.

I'm not functioning in my full sainthood capacity yet.  Give me some time.

(just a fun, so-not-serious slice-of-life of my work-filled, lazy, hyphenated Saturday...)

Open the Window {the art of cultivating sustainable delights...}

(beautiful little window, in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise - my own photography)

When I went to Paris, I was struck by how I never needed to go to Paris to feel amazed.

Don’t get me wrong, I was astonished by all of it:

the Seine river, the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame, and apricot crepes.  Especially apricot crepes.

But I already have my Smoky Mountains, my people, my garden, and my coffee with cream.

Cultivating your own sustainable delight

is an art form to be desired.

It’s sort of like the story of the woman who reached a point in her life where she was deeply unhappy.  She felt stifled.

She felt suffocated.

She lacked freshness.

She lacked light.

So she packed up all her belongings and sold the house, because she longed for those things:  freshness and light.

But the next house felt like more of the same.

So she sold it, too.

She sadly never figured out the secret to sustainable joy:

Don’t sell the house.  Just open the window.

This window speaks to me of a God who has richly

provided for me (the kingdom of heaven is "at hand") all that I need.

It is up to me to make the most of it.

My Trip To France {...I still can't believe I was there...}

If you follow me on IG , you may know that this past April I was gifted with a trip of a lifetime - to France!

This woman right here called me on a freezing cold rainy evening in late February and said, "Are you sitting down?"

She hastened to add, "It's good."

She knows me.

(Jeanne Oliver and me, on the last night of her "Living Studio - Seine River, France" art workshop)

Believe it or not, when she offered me an all expense paid spot in her workshop - which just so happened to include a luxury cruise, with excursions to Monet's gardens, a Picasso museum, and Van Gogh's attic apartment...

...I didn't say "yes" right away.  I really did pray.  And I talked to The Preacher.  And he prayed.

And God clearly said:

"Duh.  FRANCE.  Gift.  GO."

A few days later, the above luscious box arrived on my porch.


And it seemed only a few days after that, I was looking straight out at this...

...and fighting a panic attack.  If you know me, to say that "Sheila Atchley" and "travel" aren't good friends, would be an understatement.  I love a lot of things that most women do.  Great shoes, dark chocolate, a smokey merlot, and shirts from Anthropologie come immediately to mind.

But girlfriend, I will never be jealous of your trip.

(Truth be known, I'm not jealous of anything for the most part.  Your happiness is mine, and I'm pretty literal about that.)

I will be processing this trip to some degree for months to come, and for the rest of my life.  I still fight tears every time I look at the pictures.  I still get overwhelmed with the goodness of God when I think of the places He put under my feet in April of 2017.

And don't tell The Preacher, but I don't think I'm done traveling.  Please believe me when I say that the thought actually doesn't thrill me.  But I really do think that the Lord has asked me to be willing to travel to beautiful places to help see to it that women are supernaturally encouraged.  I need to be willing to travel on a plane, coach, and brave the bone-tiredness and gut-wrenching anxiety, so that women can be given art as a powerful tool in their toolkit.  I believe that art is just one tool in the maintenance of a well soul.

When I got back from my trip, this was on my desk:


























It had come in the mail and someone had tossed it to my desk, not knowing that the moment I laid eyes on it, I would feel like someone had punched me in the croissant basket.

Paris marked a new season in my life.  Something begun.  Where it "ends" - my next "yes" - is totally up to me.  I'm asking the Lord to equip me for "my best yes".

Going back to about a month before I got on that giant Air France plane -

In mid-March, I had decided to offer my clients a chance to get an original painting from all the inspiration I knew I'd be receiving in France - not just images, but I knew the Lord was wanting to speak to me.  I was overwhelmed (in a good way) when more than a dozen people signed up to receive an original painting from that "Painting-A-Day, Paris" promotion!

Here are just a few pieces that have been completed, so far:



Inspired by the tiny fishing village of Hon Fleur.  Here is the inspiration photo:





















Below, is an abstract of the chalk white cliffs of Normandy, with the steeple of a beautiful eglise in the foreground.

And its inspiration photo:

Above, is a dove I saw at the Medici fountain, inside the jardin du Luxembourg.




Lastly, I titled this one "Fullness of Time".  And here is my inspiration photo:

I have no doubt there will be many more blog posts that in some way involve this beautiful trip, something I saw, something I learned, something I heard the Lord say.  I will forever be grateful to Jesus for loving me so fiercely, and to my sweet friend Jeanne, for embodying His heart to love lavishly.

The Fires in the Smokies {...and restoration, and mountain angels...}

After the horrific fires in the Great Smoky Mountains national park, and the city of Gatlinburg, my husband and I needed to visit our beloved Cades Cove.  Part of me needed reassurance that these places that have sheltered my heart all my life can and will (eventually) recover, and heal, and just be okay again.

Along with countless others, I have ached over the devastation.

This image, rendered after our day trip, will always speak of restoration to me.  Through the worst of destruction, God brings about supernatural restoration.  He gives back all the fruit of the land that was seemingly lost to crime, famine, natural or man-made disaster - as told in the story found in the Bible in 2 Kings chapter 8:

"Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

I believe there are Smoky Mountain angels..."officials"...given the sole task of restoring everything that has been stolen from the beautiful mountain people of Gatlinburg and surrounding area, who have been exiled from their previous existence, their homes, and their businesses.  

Of course, the lives lost can never be recovered.  Never.  

But someday, somehow, joy can and will be "given back" to these mountains.

(prints available here)  50% of all proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross

Painting and Poetry {...finding inspiration in the very, very daily...}

Find and Prepare

I do not so much make art

as I find art

in scraps of gab

the dialogue of children

"Gathered" {...encouragement in poetry...}

I am near-fifty
And the broken barleybread
Of my mistakes and small thinking
Lay scattered throughout 
This silent house.

My Book "The Women of Advent" Now On Amazon {...and an audio clip...}

I'm so delighted to announce that my book "The Women of Advent || A Gathering of Scattered Hearts, Past and Present" is now available on Amazon!

The Best Part About Turning 50 {...and it wasn't the ipad pro...}

In other news - I turned 50 last week! And The Preacher gave me an ipad pro!

The Reviews On My Book

The reviews on my first book The Women of Advent || A Gathering of Scattered Hearts, Past and Present are beginning to roll in.

Art for Art's Sake

Part of my fall "bucket list" is to make even more "art for the sake of art".

So yesterday, after many days of tending to quite literally crisis after crisis...

(see this link to donate to hurricane disaster relief for the nation of Haiti.  The Preacher, also known as my pastor-husband, is the president of Bethanie Missions of Haiti, and we can personally guarantee that every dollar goes directly to water filters, food, and the rebuilding homes for the people there.  He will be heading down in a few weeks, as a matter of fact.  If you know other ministries personally, please donate there.  But if you do not personally know a "boots on the ground" ministry in Haiti, we are, at Harvest Church, boots on the ground.)

...The Preacher and I escaped to our favorite spot.  We needed to talk, laugh, sketch, dream, and I needed to shoot around with my new toy...

A Short Excerpt From My New Book {"The Women of Advent"}

The Women of Advent - My New Book! {...join my launch team?}

I've written my first book.

 It will launch just before Thanksgiving.   I've been hard at work here...

Common Ground

You and I have something in common. Something important.

Whether you are religious, secular, agnostic, sanguine or choleric.  Whether you are an INFJ like me, or an EPBandJ like my daughter Sarah (inside joke).  Whether you drink Jack Daniel's or Diet Coke, you and me have a long history of the same thing.

An Art Exercise Video For You {...Words Are Their Own Art Form}

This is a simple but enlightening grown-up art activity I put together last week, based on an old coaching exercise of mine.  I adapted it to artists, and like all my coaching material, I did it myself first.  It was powerful for me.

This is an exercise to help you in identifying and affirming your own artistic style.

For about the past two years, my art techniques and approaches have been undergoing a slow but very perceptible change.

 I am finding the courage to be radically simple in my subject matter and palette. And make no mistake, in this mixed media world I know and love so well, it takes courage to, in the words of country singer Luke Bryan, "Strip It Down".

Thank You, Jeanne Oliver {...my trip to Colorado...}

Mostly, you don't know how someplace has changed you until you leave that place.

 You can't understand the way an experience has transformed the way you are in the world until you've had time to synthesize and transmute that exposure to something new...to translate what you saw, into an awareness of just how it has changed you.  It takes time for the adventure to catalyze itself into the venture.

Three weeks ago, I flew to Colorado and stayed in the home of my sweet friend Jeanne Oliver.  She had invited me months before to be her special guest for the very first art workshop in her brand new studio, on the grounds of her brand new home in Castle Rock.

It has taken me this long to write about it, because I've been processing all of it deeply.  More deeply than I ever expected, to be honest.

I knew how that being in the physical presence of an artist whose work you admire, even taking one lesson from that artist, live and in person, can change your own art forever - but it takes time to see the incremental changes.

What I didn't realize - or to be more accurate, what I had forgotten - is how being in the presence of a friend who simply bears witness to who you really are, can change who you are forever.

That weekend, I got both.  I was in the presence of both friend and artist.

That entire weekend, my friend Jeanne was crazy-busy.  I can't imagine putting the finishing touches on an entire 1,100+ square foot teaching studio a mere day before a major workshop, then hosting an entire workshop while hosting a visiting friend.  But that's what she did...

...and so, what I'm saying is that she didn't have much time to consciously "bear witness" of me, or be profound with me or try to change me.  What I'm saying is that who she is, is so authentic, that it simply is.  And you impart who  you are, not what you think you want to teach others.

I caught such an impartation to dream and to believe yet more in a good, good God.  I was reminded that who I have been, in secret, for many years, is of infinite value - because to live life beautifully and soulfully is never - ever - a wasted effort.  In fact, it is the only way any of us can give away inspiration.  You can never just up and decide you are going to inspire someone.  No.  You have to live in an inspired way, alongside your spouse or your whole family, on a thousand Monday mornings, when the dailyness of the daily can become monotony - when no one is around to see the peaches you put in your oatmeal, when there is no one there but you and your loves to smell your scented candles.

After years of this, you can then impart powerfully.  (So start today!)

While I was there, in that beautiful studio, I enjoyed the company of other women, and participated in the art exercises.  But I didn't, at that moment, see one single change in my art.  (I didn't expect to - and neither should you.  These things take time.)

I've had three weeks to process, and suddenly, this week, art has come pouring out of me:

Art that isn't Jeanne.  It is art that is me, with elements of things I saw in her workshop - things that I consciously remember, and some that I'm sure are unconscious.

It's those unconscious influences that are the juju...

...they are the weighty, compelling imprint that changes you.

I don't want this post to seem, in any way, like a "you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours" advertisement for my friend, telling you to take a Jeanne Oliver workshop.

Not even Jeanne would want that.

What she would say, and what I would say, is that you must hold who you are - or if you are an artist, you must hold your art and yourself in high esteem - such high esteem that you trust the process of investment.  

Invest in you.

Remembering that the results take time.

But the rewards are permanent.
Save
Save No comments:

A Different Perspective on the Existence of Evil

There is an enemy to human existence.  There is an enemy unleashed in the earth, who is hostile to the image of God - malignant towards the image of God that walks about upon the face of it. 

Sometimes, this enemy co-opts for its own evil designs the very human beings created to bear their Maker's image.  And that is the sad, sad part.  That is the ultimate degradation of imago Dei and the ultimate insult to the Creator.  

Though evil sometimes wears a human face, though it has often worn a human face for thousands of years or more, our battle is not with flesh and blood.  

Evil can seem to lurk large, even dwarfing the delight we feel in God.

But without this delight, without an unshakeable, unbendable, stubborn willing of our inmost being to be happy in all God is, all He gives, all He does - without inner delight dwarfing outside evil - joy dissipates.

Where joy is in absentia - (known to exist, but not present within) - strength is also absent.

It is time to put evil in perspective.  I tremble to write these words, because we all hope against what feel to be overwhelming odds.  But I will write it:

Evil has its limits.

Though the pain of evil scrapes out the interior of our hearts, leaving us feeling wounded and thin and without strong walls of defense, the weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

At the end of the day, at the close of your day-to-day fight to delight in God, you have a promise:  evil is only sufficient for a day.

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof."  Matthew 6:34

I've heard it said that God operates out of abundance, the enemy operates out of a budget.   I know this is an unexpected perspective on Matthew 6:34, but I believe it is Biblical.

The enemy is the one on a budget.  You are limitlessly resourced.  Joy comes in the morning, no matter what this day brings.  Your God is all-sufficient, and your sufficiency is of Him.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God

Evil has a short shelf life.  On this we can depend.  On this we can hope.  

On this we can act:  we can live and love and dream big dreams and look far beyond today with a hopeful heart.  We can plant trees, literally and metaphorically.  We can build houses and inhabit them and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them, even when all around us we see nothing but death and captivity.

Our sufficiency is from God.

(another great explanation of Imago Dei is found here) 

Southern Lights {...things that twinkle on a Wednesday night...}

I suppose I may stand amazed at the aurora borealis someday.  But until that day comes, east Tennessee fireflies will do just fine.

Summer fireflies, and summer stars.

(photo by my Preacher, Tim Atchley)

The June night was bracing cool like October, but without the promise of painted leaves.  June's exclusive rare and separate beauty is the firefly's staccato glow.  That's what we turned aside to see, my Preacher and me;  bushes burning with gentle tempered specks of flame.

We were parked in the wilderness of our national park, glad to be where neon is not normal, and all was unopposed, purple dusk.

I felt staggered by the glory of what must have been a million fireflies, each one lit from within by some sort of genius that is wholly something otherworldly.  The tall grasses, the fence line, the trees, the entire horizon glittered and blinked.  All the night was filled with darting gleam and moving shimmer.

It wasn't splendor, it was sparkle, which is splendor's lingering train.  Sparkle is like the backside of a beauty so bright, we best only focus on the leftover glow.  This side of heaven, sparkle is what you get to look at, when you say to God, "Show me Your glory!"

I looked and looked for a long time - and then I looked up.

Unhindered starlight.  Never had I ever seen a night sky like this - remember I said the night was bracing cool?  There wan't even a smidge of humidity to un-crisp this sight.

I looked and looked for a long time - and then chose to lay right down on the concrete, because I wanted to look all night.  The Preacher lay down beside me.

I lay prone on the sun-warmed slab, bad back be danged, and star gazed.  Every now and then I thought I saw a shooting star, but it was actually a firefly high in the sky.  The thought occurred to me that this was the first time since I was a little girl that I simply and singularly enjoyed the stars.  As a teenager, I was too busy to fling myself down and see stars.  As a young mom, I star gazed with my children, and loved every moment...but was too busy teaching about stars.  I was preoccupied with making sure my little ones saw stars.

Not this night.  This night, there was full-on wonder.  This night, there was flat-out, flat-on-my-back fascination.  It was then that I really did see a shooting star.  It was like all heaven was high-fiving the revelation that worship is wonder, plain and simple.

When surrounded by sparkle, face-up prone is greater than prostrate, and all is worshipful still astonishment.

As I head outside tonight, smack-dab in the city, my home a stone's throw away from a pawn shop and the sound of motorcycles, I plan on seeing fireflies and summer stars.

(photography by Tim Atchley)

I plan on being just as amazed.


"And God said, "Let there be light!"  And there was light."  ~Genesis 1

May Flowers

The unofficial start of summer is here, friends.  (School's out, here in Knox county...woohoo!  So glad my son-in-law, an algebra teacher at a local high school, can begin his summer break soon...after teaching a bit of summer school.)

This video isn't at all instructional.  It's just three minutes long.  It's just happy.  Pour yourself some iced tea and enjoy...

...and happy summer!

Birds of a Feather Flock Together {...the lost art of imitating the right people...}

It has been said, and I know it to be true, because I saw it in the mountains this afternoon, from about 3 o'clock to almost sundown:

"Birds of a feather flock together."

See, there's this question of authentic progress.  There's this nagging question as to how high and far you can really fly, if you are a bluebird flying alone...

....or if you are a bluebird from Tennessee who imitates a crow from Nebraska.

"Remember your leaders, those who have spoken God's word to you.  Think about the impact of their lives, and imitate their faith."  (Hebrews)

You will never fly high and long by imitating the flight patterns of a bird you honestly can't see, who isn't right in front of you.

You will never innovate (create something that is uniquely your own) until you imitate.  This is true in art, this is true in cookery - thus, grandma's biscuit recipe.  It is true for learning how to walk, talk, and use a spoon.  The necessity of imitation is hard-wired into all sentient creatures.

Be careful, therefore, who and what you imitate.  Bluebirds make strange crows.

There are 3 criteria that should be applied, when choosing who you imitate:

1.  Their outcome needs to be that which you want to see manifested in your own life.

2.  They need to be outspoken leaders.  (If they haven't said anything to you that ruffled your feathers, you will not make rapid shifts or big progress imitating their tactful timidity.)

3.  They need to be "YOURS".  

They need to be, to some degree, physically accessible to you.  "Remember YOUR leaders."

And while you are remembering, remember this:  If your leader carefully guards his or her time, that does not make them inaccessible.  That makes them productive, which makes them worth imitating.

We "remember" - we think about, sometimes even obsess over, and chase down -  remote teachers. Everyone wants Bill Johnson for their pastor.  (Good luck with that...I like him too, but he wouldn't have lunch with me if I asked him, not even next YEAR.  He probably would not personally answer an email from me.)

We imitate the faith of a YouTube prophet, and wonder why we don't see the personal growth we long to see.  We wonder why our lives always feel like two steps forward, three back.

Two steps forward, three back is what happens without the impartation that comes with the imitation of what is yours.

"Think about the impact of their lives...".  I challenge you to do something I bet you have never done before:  spend a few minutes each week, thinking about the impact of the life of YOUR leader.  I guarantee he or she has been up to way more than you know about, and their impact goes farther and deeper than you have actively considered.

Don't let familiarity rob you of yet another season of advancement!  You cannot make headway, you will not expand, by imitating the Internet Famous, or seeking the stamp of approval of a professional credentialist.

It never ceases to amaze me and stump my logic, the way people will set out on an absolute tangent, pouring their time talent and treasure into imitating someone they met six months ago, or imitating someone who wants to sell them an idea or a product or a book.  If the person you are imitating, profits directly from your interest in them, then frankly all you are is a feather in their cap.

You can keep imitating that awesome, remote person.  I'm not the boss of you.  But.  Be prepared to risk making huge progress...in the wrong direction!  And that is worse than no progress, because that pseudo progress will deceive the daylight out of you.

You need to reaquaint yourself with that seemingly ordinary man or woman who tells it like it is, and who clearly is "yours".  You know who they are - they are the ones you've been attempting to avoid, while you've been trying to get the attention of that cool, charismatic crow in Nebraska.  They are the ones who lead, irrespective of your criticism or reward.

I'm all about my book learning.  Some of my best mentors have taught me from their graves, through their books.  But something was always missing.  Always.  This is my confession.

See...I've never made the sort of progress from a book, that I've made from imitating the faith of someone who God placed very physically and directly in my life.  Someone who spoke the word of the Lord into my situation.  Someone who I can watch her do her life.

Proximity does matter.  God has localized this whole process, because that's how He wanted it done.

I believe with my whole heart, if you yield to God's plan of imitating what is YOURS, you will see a lot of authentic progress, and a heavy load will lift from off your spirit...

you will...

feel light...

as a feather.