Art For Missions - New In "The Shop"

I have a new painting up...

"Grace Like Rain"
14x14 canvas
done in acrylic, watercolor, and ink, on a background of antique book and hymnal pages

Finished in a black gallery wrap style, painted edges.

Here is somewhat of a close-up.  You can see some of the hymnal pages...and the fact that it is, indeed, "raining" in this painting...when grace rains, and when grace reigns, beautiful things grow.

It's a given.

Here is a close-up of a portion of the flower-part of the canvas....stylized flowers, graphic style, but also an aged, vintage look.

...and here it is "at home" on my studio wall (my makeshift studio)...so you can see it in somewhat of a real-home context...it looks so cheerful!

 

This piece is $65 postage paid.  Half of everything goes to fund our church's youth group mission trip to train in street evangelism, in southern California - where there is a giant multicultural meltingpot.

The other half goes to art supplies.

I'm already out of a huge tube of titanium white.  And I just went to the art supply store this morning.

Please email me, if you love it, and want to give "Grace Like Rain" a good home.

Next, this one is also available...

This is "Mercy's Promise"...10x20, done in acrylics, watercolor, guache, inks, and hand lettered - folk art style.  Each color of the rainbow is written over the top, and there is a faint swirl design all over the background.  The usual antique book pages are there, but are barely discernable, giving this painting a beautiful depth and texture you can't quite put your finger on...it is "just there".

"Mercy's Promise" is $55 unframed, $75 framed, postage paid.

If  you love it, and promise to give "Mercy's Promise" a good home, or make it a gift to a good home, please email me, and mention the painting by name, so I know which one you want.  I confess to being a little attached to this one...

I can only part with it for a good cause.  Remember:  the full proceeds of half of everything I sell goes to our church's youth group mission trip this June.  The other half gets plowed back into the ground, in the form of art supplies.

God's Foolish Tool - Preaching and The Preacher

"He Ain't Just Fishin'..."

I’ve always known that preaching is a holy vocation.  There is that aspect that we are ALL called to proclaim the Gospel, but we also cannot get around or deny the fact that God calls certain men, in particular, to preach, teach, and exposit the Gospel in two ways: 

1.  To the congregation (teaching/preaching), and also

2.  THROUGH the congregation, TO the world (equipping) 

At no point in a person’s life, before they are saved or after, do they not need to hear the Gospel continually rehearsed to them, taught to them, in short:  PREACHED.  From cradle to grave, may the Gospel be heard and loved and elevated and preached! 

If we value The Message of the Gospel, to that exact level, we will value the preaching of it.  We will support it, promote it, and put ourselves in front of it to hear it.  Every generation tries to say “preaching is irrelevant in our day” – yet the foolishness of preaching will forever be the vehicle or the tool God uses to save and nourish souls until Christ comes again.  In our day of computers and smart phones, preaching is more relevant than ever. 

Please read that last sentence one more time. 

Does this “elevate” the Preacher himself?  Not if he has addicted himself to preaching, as my Preacher has.  “Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel!”  He’s just feeding his addiction.   

At the same time, we can’t deny the fact that some callings have vested in them a contingency that involves eternal souls…souls are contingent on proper Preaching of the Gospel, and the correct application of the law of God...

…just as outcomes are contingent on a lawyer being a good lawyer.  The same as quality of life can be contingent on  a doctor being a good, caring, skilled physician, souls are won and then souls are fed by a preacher who is skilled and courageous and faithful.  How important is this vocation!   As much as we need plumbers, a soul isn’t contingent on a plumber getting his plumbing right.  Souls are contingent when the plumber PREACHES the Gospel to someone else, which hopefully he is being equipped by his church leadership to do. 

I say this, not because I am all about my husband.  I say this, not because I am the Preacher’s wife.   I say this because I too have addicted myself to sharing the Gospel.  The Message (not Eugene Peterson's, but THE Message) is a fire shut up in my bones.  And I am revisiting the fact that a faithful and courageous (and accurate) Preacher is God’s Idea.  Preaching should be AS valued a Profession – more valued, dare I say, (which is SO NOT politically correct to say) – as any other…not because of the man, but because of the Message.

For the sake of the Gospel. 

So next time someone says, “We are all called to preach – preaching doesn’t make a man special.”  We, as well taught believers, should understand their heart.  We “get” what they mean, and should find a certain level of agreement with the statement.  But we must also find a certain level of disagreement with that statement.  Because we deeply value the Message, we instinctively and reasonably deeply value both the act of preaching, and a man who gives his life to the call.

Preaching will always be relevant.  Preaching will always be necessary to our lives.  I challenge you to impress this on your children and your teenagers – this importance of Preaching.  May a culture of honor be further developed in churches everywhere that deeply values the preaching of the Gospel – valuing it almost to a fault, if that is even possible.  Why? 

Because that is part of the equipping process.  WE WILL NOT USE TOOLS WE DON’T ESTEEM FOR REASONS WE ARE NOT PASSIONATE ABOUT.  If we first are passionate about the Message, if we begin to highly esteem and honor preaching as being “the foolish tool” God uses, we will then begin to really listen to,and be fed by preaching.  THEN,  I promise we will begin to open our own mouths to share The Message.

No School Like the Old School.   Preaching is what’s up!!!

Art For Missions

Here's another one up in the shop. 

But it might be sold already, I am waiting to hear.  Someone saw the 12x12 version on this blog and emailed me about commissioning another one. 

I am going to go ahead and post it because I want you to see this size, and see it framed!

The name of this one is "Promise of Mercy".  The Scripture verse is out of Genesis, instead of Revelation (like in the 12x12 "Grace Revelation").  It is hand lettered in a very, very folksy style, instead of the more exact manuscript hand lettering.  It has each color of the rainbow written over the top - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo. 

The colors aren't reading well in the light I had available to photograph this - but each color reads clearly in person.  If this isn't already sold, I will repost a better picture later, when we finally get sun.

Done in self-mixed acrylics, watercolors,  inks, using a variety of methods - all on a background of barely-visible antique pages from books and hymnals.

This needs a real close-up shot, so you can even see the papers that make up the ground layer of this painting.  Again - when we get good sun.

I'm pricing this one at $55 unframed, postage paid - $75 framed, postage paid. 

Half of everything I make goes to fund our church's youth mission trip to the streets of California in June (several of our kids come from a single parent household, and my heart is so enlarged towards them...I want to see them able to go!), half goes back into art supplies.  (I've already spent more than that replenishing, so far...money invested, not just "spent", seed sown, not consumed...like my word for the year 2011, I am still sowing...)

If you want one like this, in this size, email me.  I can do a special commission for you.  Each one will be slightly different, of course, because this is all hand done, from gesso, to papers, to finish signature.

A Bibliophile's Bag

Truer words were never spoken...

A(nother) Peek Into My Sketchbook

You can click on the above picture, if you want to, to see it closer up, though I can't imagine you'd want to.  The journal entry says, "In the language of flowers, the sunflower means, "I am so proud of you.."

Then it says, "Proud of my girls..."  One flower has Hannah's name on it, one for Sarah, and one for my grandaughter Aidyn, who will be born in July.  Three little sunflowers, my three girls.

This sketch is not awe-inspiring...not amazing...quite ordinary...so why share?  Because if you want to make art, sketching is a good discipline to establish.  I'm trying.  They say it takes 30 days to establish a new habit.  I would love for someone - some really inspiring art teacher - to offer an online class featuring 30 days of sketching lessons, prompts, encouragement, inspiration, and technique. 

Wouldn't that be fun?

Art For Sale Becomes Art "SOLD"

I had not put this piece up for sale yet, because I wanted to tweak it just a tiny bit.  But before I could even tweak or put it in my "shop" (which, for now is this blog!)...

...it sold. 

This one is called "Grace Revelation".  I apologize for the bad photography - but the painting sold before I could retake pictures (and I was planning on retaking pictures, when we get some sun around here!).  The Scripture across the bottom is in an old Remington font and is the second part of Revelation 4:3, "...and there was a rainbow around the throne, in sight like unto an emerald..."

As you can see, there are three rows of all seven colors of the rainbow.  Across the top of each color, I hand-lettered the name of each:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

This piece was done in self-mixed acrylics and watercolor, inks and patches of Pan Pastel, and even markers - trimmed in a gentle-looking metallic bronze guache, all on my typical background of gesso'ed antique hymnal and book pages. 

And just like the Scripture itself, the painting's emphasis is on the "emerald" color in the center.

This painting was 12x12, and it was a joy to create!  It is modern and graphic, yet vintage and old-looking.  Perfect combination!  And the concept is completely original.  I personally have never seen anything like it. 

I wrote down the paint formula I used to arrive at the background I laid down (over top of the pages), so I think I can replicate this, if anyone wants to commission me to paint one for them. 

I am already working on another version of this - a 10x20 landscape canvas, and it will have one row of seven rainbow colors, with the Scripture across the bottom. 

When it is ready, I'll put it up in my "shop"!

A Peek Into My Sketchbook...

...not because I am any good whatsoever, but because I am honest and brave. 

Seriously.  You have no idea.  My son-in-law is the Jonathan Howe whose fine art graces homes and businesses and government buildings all over my city, and other states.

I'm brave as can be, to be sharing any of my art with you.

I am a teacher by gifting, so the process is as important, if not more important, than the end result.  I can't not share my process with you.  I can barely teach on Proverbs 31 without telling you what I had for breakfast.

Context.  Process.  Even if I'm learning as I go, I have to take someone with me on the trip.

So.  ::clears throat::

Drawing is foundational to making art - even mixed media art.  Drawing is a learned skill.  If you want to become better at it, you have to do it for a few minutes, every day, as a discipline...

...hence, the sketch book.  It isn't to be taken seriously, insofar as the result.  It is to be simply drawn in.  Every day.

And I want drawing lessons, real bad.

Photography Practice

I got this shot off today, flat on my belly, on a gravel road.  Camera in full manual mode.

No lie.  Every part of my body (except for my head and my wrists and my hands) was on the dusty gravel backroad, deep in the mountains.

So stinkin' sweet. I confess to loving this picture.  What you see is straight out of the camera, I have not even opened Photoshop's tools.  (You can tell, because there is no watermark on it.  Come to think of it, I need to fix that...but it is late.  I'm sleepy.  I don't want to open Photoshop.  I'll do that tomorrow.  Surely no one will steal it between now and then.  I've had about four of my photographs "stolen", before I had the ability to watermark them!)

And The Preacher adores that I get so carried away in any given moment that I will squeal, drop to the ground, camera in hand....breathless with joy.  He has seen what sadness does to me.  He vastly prefers to see me taking joy.  He thinks I'm cute.  I'm glad.

What a great day.

Community and Hospitality

(...our chalkboard wall...)

Practicing hospitality is work.

But the Bible says in Proverbs "In all labor there is profit..."

We had our missionary friends Lewis Burke, his wife Kristen, and their two delightful boys Sterling and Benjamin over for dinner last night. This morning, Lewis brought the word to Harvest Church, and I would be genuinely surprised if there was a dry eye in the building. God's people were deeply ministered to, and it is possible that our new friend Keece came to salvation in Christ - time will tell!

Profit! In all labor, there is profit.


Being an integral part of a church community is hard work. ("Integral" meaning: being a vital part of the structure of community, versus being "scaffolding"...there, temporarily supporting the work, and then gone. The average time frame for scaffolding saints is 3-5 years. I feel sorry for them.) It is work to stick and stay and to be committed.

But the Bible says, "In all labor there is profit..."

(Lewis, and a Cambodian woman)

Lewis and Kristen, your profit margins are unbelieveable.  Only a Kingdom Investment can reap the rewards you have!

Lewis and Kristen invest in God's Favorite Thing:  People.

People!  Not livestock or livery or hobby or home or anything money can buy.  God's favorite thing is people.  Any work we do related to people, any investment we make, equals treasures in heaven.

Heaven!  Where nothing breaks down, or has to be repaired, or gets mouldy or has to be locked up.  No thieves can steal profit stored in heaven. 

And God releases that profit to us, as needed, right here on earth.

Jehovah Jireh loves people.  I think I want to keep investing in them...in friends like the Burkes.

Black and White Commissioned "Art For Missions"

I was commissioned by a friend to paint my "In Christ Alone" canvas in black, white, and gray...

...and she also ordered my "He is Risen" print. She plans to hang them both in her bedroom, which is decorated in black and white.

A closer view of the print...(available for $12 - email me if you want one!)

A closer view of the canvas.  (If you want to commission one in colors of your choice, the cost is $45, postage paid.  Email me, and let me know what colors and what size - I do 9x9, 10x10, or 8x10 for that price.  Half of everything I make goes to our church's youth group mission trip this June, the other half goes to purchasing more art supplies, so I can keep creating "Art For Missions".) 

This one was such a challenge to paint!  I thought it would be difficult, but it was harder than I expected.  It was done in acrylics, watercolor, ink, and pages from Old English catechism and antique hymnals.

Do you see the faint outline of a cross in the center?  Can you see shades of gray dripping down the canvas?

I find I cannot paint a canvas without "flow".  As I continue to work to develop a personal painting style, I'm beginning to find that I can't create without purposely letting paint drip and run.   I've thought about it, and I believe this is for several reasons.

I'm strongly affected by Biblical imagery, and everything powerful and effective God does has "flow" to it.

He anoints my head with oil.  My cup overflows.

Jesus wept.

Blood and water flowed at the cross.

But mostly, friends...it's the perfume.

Yeah.  It's the perfumed oil that the worshiping woman poured on the feet of Jesus, and then wiped His feet with her hair.

Extravagant worship is messy.  It drips, it flows, it weeps.  Lately, I can't create anything with paint, without this imagery showing up somewhere.

Beginning next week, I'll be painting more canvases.  I'll be doing another "Grow in Grace" mixed media canvas, and I also have some new inspiration I can't wait to get painted up.  Can't wait to share it with you!    

My Art "Mentor" - Makoto Fujimura

This video is about 14 minutes long...an eternity, in this medium called a "blog".  But if you can slow down long enough to hear...I can tell you, you'll be blessed.

This man, Makoto Fujimura, though I've never met him in person, has impacted my life.  I get my love for mixed media from him (a fact which might horrify him to know...because the man paints with real gold!  I use a mix of watercolor, acrylic, ink, and pages from antique books!)  For another thing, I have learned a deep love of abstract art from him - a love that I never had before.  I understand abstract.  I finally understand it.  Well, I might only understand it from the context of the Gospel of the Finished Work of Christ.  All that art does, ultimately, is resonate with an obsession or deep need in a human being.  Only a very small percentage of modern art will resonate life...life...life...to the human heart.  Fujimura's art resonates life.

To me, mixed media and abstract art can be the most closely representational art there is...it most closely resembles real life, its surprises, its dark and light places, its mistakes made beautiful, its mosaic of experience, and infinite variety of materials encountered in just one average, normal day....and the fact that every human being will experience grace and life differently - through their perspective, whether Old Covenant, New Covenant, or No Covenant At All. 

Towards the very end, the things Mr. Fujimura says about the church, grace, fatherhood...it will "school" you, if you allow it to.  If you are very short on time, bump the video up to about the 11 minute mark, and watch from there.

Why not learn something from a master?

Second Installment - Sweet, Sweet (Not Quite Wordless) Sunday

Hey Pastor Tim, look at this...

 Timothy and Daddy (and Easter bunny)

Aunt Rah (Sarah) on the left, and her baby bump.  This time next year, our granddaughter will be with us!  Momma Hannah on the right, keeping an eye on Timothy... 

Our oldest son Josiah, and a guest named Keece.  (I'll let you decide which is which...)

Youngest son Isaac on the swing, playing a set of shakers (!) - Justin swinging his son...

Jono, who is much more like family than a guest, sitting the beatbox...

Picking a country tune...after all, he is my son.

I can't stand it, either.  This is too cute for words.  It so rocks to be me.

I know, right?  Stop it.  You want me to stop it, and get on with my bad self and stop braggin'.

...handsome... 

 ...um...colorful!  (Keece, you know we love you!)

...very white and and dressed up...think opposite the picture before this one...

"...it's what I love about Sundays..."

 ...are we for real?

Isaac, cueing himself in on the bongos...killing the song...but Timothy applauds him, so he's encouraged to keep banging away... 

Um, yes.  That would be a foot tamborine.  We.  Are.  That.  Family.

(Actually, it's Jono's.  Same difference.  He ain't heavy, he's our brother. )

Last, but not least, these last few will realllllly do you in:

...playing the Penny Whistle...

 ...playing the Penny Whistle and the shakers, at the same time.  A completely uncoached moment!

I dare you to click on this picture, and look at an enlarged version...the look in those eyes...the pure joy of playing instruments like Poppy and Unker Josiah and Unker Jono and Unker Isaac...

I know.  Stop.  It.

I'll stop now.  But this really was our Easter Afternoon.  Don't hate me cuz I'm Harvesting.

Sweet, Sweet Resurrection (Wordless) Sunday

A Rant - Passover and the New Covenant

I'm stunned and deeply saddened at the Old Covenant understanding of what is a thoroughly, entirely, and solely New Covenant celebration of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.  My blog reading today has grieved me - even my favorite blog (post edit:  I removed the name of this blog out of respect for its writer.  She may not have realized...)

 An Old Covenant understanding is the very opposite of what this Resurrection Thing is meant to communicate. 

No, I am not talking about understanding the Jewish roots of Christianity - though it could be debated that the roots of Christianity are in Christ Alone - He was the plan from before the foundation of the world.

I am not talking about the thoroughly Jewish setting of the Gospel Narrative...I get all that.  Been there, read the books, done the Seders, done the Halakhahs, got the T-shirt, and got me an "A" on the Hebraic Thinking Test.  But all this talk of Old Covenant, as if it somehow makes the resurrection better than it is, all by itself?  All the law-based jargon?  Do we really have to be quite so Jewish to grasp our salvation?

No, we don't.  And it could be...might be...I have at times personally observed it to be....dangerous.  Yes, this whole Passover thing can be dangerous if not viewed through  radically New Covenant eyes.  Read the words of the Apostle Paul, which are, incidentally, also the words of Christ.  The whole Bible should be in red letters, because it is all the words of Jesus, and all about Jesus, the Word become flesh.

At worst, all the Jewish symbolism celebrated by supposedly New Covenant people keeps the lost from seeing the true Gospel (which is the Finished...Finished!...work of Christ).  At best, it is playing with shadows, delighting in symbol over substance.  At worst, all this symbolism engenders an elitist spirituality - blatantly put forth as being sound doctrine.  There is a sad example of this in one of the links on my favorite blog.  The link she promotes takes you to a Jewish roots type of website, where the writer boldly asserts that keeping the law could be what makes us "chosen" in Christ! 

Utter.  Nonsense.  I can't emphasize that enough.  Not.  True.

At best, all this Seder/Passover/Tabernacle/symbolism obscures the real and simple truth:  Christ died for the sins of the world.  (The Methodist church, next road over from me, has a replica of the tabernacle up in their yard.  So I'm not just picking on this one lady, whose blog I normally adore, and promote here all the time.  The tabernacle?  In tarp and cotton and Tyvek?  Puh-leeze.  I'd rather my kid sit on a giant bunny's lap for a cute picture, or hunt for plastic eggs.)

All over blogland, as well meaning parents seek to teach their children the significance of Easter, the Resurrection is either trivialized on one side, or ritualized into Old Covenant oblivion on the other.

On the eve of this most New Covenant of New Covenant celebrations, may I point out that this thing, all along, has been all about Christ, and the Father's securing a bride for the Son?  It all culminates
in a marriage supper, friends.

The Passover depicts the New Covenant, the New Covenant is not about the Passover.  Yes, during Christ's celebration of the Passover, during that holy Seder, it is very possible, even probable, that the Son of God proposed marriage to His bride, down through the ages.  When He said, "This cup is the blood of the New Covenant..." it would have been well known to a practicing Jew that that was a traditional marriage proposal.

Which made communion forevermore a New Covenant sacrament, where you and I get to say "Yes" again and again and again - YES to being the Bride.  YES to having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing - because of the price our Groom paid to obtain us.  He fulfilled the law on our behalf, so that the stain and spot of sin could be blotted out, the wrinkles of our failures smoothed by the pressing heat of His Great Love.

Once, for all time.  His work is Finished, and if you look at that picture up there, you are looking at a small part of what it was all about.  I know this, I think, deeper than I know my own name.


The most appropriate way in the universe to observe and keep and celebrate the Resurrection is to tomorrow be with The Bride, also known as your local church - not playing in the shadows at some Seder somewhere, earlier in the week.  Not playing with symbols long been retired - but rather, go be with the Lamb's bride, celebrating the substance of the Passover, and relishing the freedom from sin's dark stain, freedom from wrong's inherent wrinkles! 

The Bride.  No spot.  No wrinkle.  No "any such thing".  Why?  Because she stands In Christ Alone.  Christ died to have her.  His blood has (past tense) washed her clean.  And don't you call unclean or irrelevant or "too much trouble to fool with" the very thing Christ gave the ultimate price to treasure and have.

The Passover is about the New Covenant.  The New Covenant is not about the Passover.