Make your path - leave a trail.

One character trait embedded in my upbringing [other than my grandmother's "Just do it!"] is the deep-seated longing to choose my own way.  I think it comes from our Scandinavian ingenuity and exploring spirit. This is one trait I think our sons have acquired. 

May this quote and poem encourage you and them on the journey of life as the new year opens before us.

Do not follow where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.               Muriel Strode

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Seasonal thoughts

Fredrick Buechner,  on Christmas from Whistling in the Dark:

"The lovely old carols played and replayed till their effect is like a dentist's drill...the banalities of the pulpit and chilling commercialism of almost everything else, people spending money they can't afford on presents you neither need nor want, "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer," the plastic tree, the cornball creche, the Hallmark Virgin.

Yet for all our efforts, we've never quite managed to ruin it.  That in itself, is part of the miracle, a part you can see.  Most of the miracle you can't see, or don't...Christmas itself is by grace.  It could never have happened or survived otherwise...The Word became flesh... Ultimate Mystery born... Incarnation..."God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God... who for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven." 

This reminds me to look for the mystery and experience the miracle of the Christmas season.

Yellow Daisies

I know this painting does not relate to Christmas but it is one of my favourites plus it seems to fit well with the blog background colour.  It was a first attempt to increase depth in my acrylic paintings.

Often I feel that a painting is meant to "call the viewer into it." I hope you get a bit of that feeling when you look at it.

the Beginning

CallingForth

In 2005 I purchased pens, sketchbook, brushes, watercolours, and paper and attended my first “Ink and Watercolour Sketchbook” Class!  In 2006 I joined a group of wonderful artists in my first show. Like many ‘artists come late’ my optimism abounded because I sold several paintings – wow, I felt I was on my way to a new career.

My next thought, rather pompously, was to find a name to suit my new endeavours.  I pondered on this for some time and finally settled on “CallingForth Artworks.”   Why? To me the word, creative can be defined as, “the act of bringing something into existence” and when I thought further I realized that the act of creation calls forth from within us – from the depths of our being – from who we are when we are at home with ourselves, angry with ourselves, settled and unsettled, in community with ourselves and others, or out of sorts and in the doldrums.  What is inside will be exposed.

This act of creativity, of calling forth what is within can be expressed in various ways.  For me, there are two areas of particular interest – painting and writing.  I have not ventured into writing but I delight in the writings of others who can say what I am thinking, who can in one phrase fill my mind with a wealth of material to ponder, who can identify feelings and set them out in prose that I can finally understand and say, “Yes!” 

The term, “Callingforth” actually came about as I pondered the life of Jesus.  Jesus called out his disciples and enabled them to be more than they were. He called them to a life of deep questions, soul searching, and selfless love towards others….He called them forth to become a creative force for His kingdom on earth – to reveal a life worth living.  And in a sense this is what I long for as well, not just spiritually but artistically.  I long to find within myself a deeper reality that answers the creative longing that calls me to be more than I am.  So here I am… incredibly challenged to create artistically from within and being fed by writers who have pondered life deeply and in turn have given words and phrases, and thereby life, into my mind and soul.

It is then to these two things that I dedicate this blog: to share the art that comes from within and to share the thoughts and phrases that accompany me as I journey along.