Sheila Atchley Designs

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...