An Iris Blessing

I came across this blessing today while looking at poems about Irises because I had come across this painting which had been hidden away and sometimes try to relate my paintings to poems or writings.  Not being creative that way I need to appropriate these from others....

.... and well, yes, I was thinking spring, because the snow did not come and even though it is cold, the sky is blue.  As well, because it is Easter the purple of the iris reminds that it is the symbolic colour for the Christ - the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The blessing clearly relates to us as humans - one of the host of nature poems that are really expressing thoughts about you and me.  May you be encouraged to live your life airborne, sublimely, gracefully and artfully.

 

An Iris Blessing

May your blooms be floriferous and in good form,
Distinctive, with good substance, flare, and airborne,
With standards and falls that endure, never torn.
May you display many buds and blooms sublime,
In graceful proportion on strong stalks each day,
Gently floating above the fans and the fray.
May you too reach toward the moon and stars,
Bloom after bloom, many seasons in the sun,
Enjoying your life, health, and each loved one,
Until your 'living days are artfully done.

By Georgia Gudykunst

Art Show

Event:  2012 Big Sky Artists Show & Sale

Location :  Grace Westminster Church Auditorium

                       10th St and Eastlake Ave, Saskatoon SK

Times:       Friday April 20th  7 to 9:30pm

                  Saturday April 21st  10am to 5pm

                  Sunday April 22nd  12 to 4pm

Sometimes one just needs to stop!

There comes a time when working on a painting that I say, "That's enough!" It's time for the painting to sit while the paint settles into the paper.  It's time to get on with something new.  If I continue to work on this painting I will likely come to dislike it - one begins to fiddle and pick at things and then nothing seems quite right...

It has taken over a month of working off and on - an evening snatched here, an afternoon several days later - to actually get this painting to the place where I have decided to stop.  I'm exhausted because this type of painting is very time consuming and tends to pull me into myself.  Perhaps it's time to do an acrylic painting which is for me, a less meditative and more confrontational way of painting.  With acrylics I tend to fight with the paint and talk to the picture out loud.  A few days to regroup my thoughts, adjust my vision and tackle something different.

Meanwhile this will be hidden away while we wait for the Flowering Ornamental Crabapples that line our streets to once again burst into a million pink and white blossoms and welcome the spring.

"Visual Memories"

I am amazed at the diversity of God's creation and mankind's creativity!  What a privilege to enjoy a week visiting my sister and her husband in Savannah, Georgia where we explored an entirely different physical environment and a city full of history, memories, inspiring architecture, and diverse artistic creativity.  A blend of old and new, classic and modern, ancient cobblestone and plenty of spanish moss.  Because it is still difficult for me to wrap my head around all we saw and experienced I've decided to pull together a few photos to give a visual picture of the beauty and diversity that makes up a minute portion that part of the world...

Blue Heron in the stream by the house

view from the back deck - driving range just past the trees

lichens - wonderful colour!

Bonaventure Cemetery

one of many beautiful statues in the cemetery

First Baptist Church - Cross erected on Ash Wednesday

Cathedral of St John the Baptist

typical sidewalk in the historic district

Art Market

Book Store - lots of nooks and crannies

hallway at the Savannah College of Art and Design

Gallery Espresso - our favorite coffee shop - one of ~ 24 city park squares in the background

Inside Gallery Espresso

one level of the fountain in Forsyth Park

post to tie a horse to - wonder how old this would be?

one of many courtyards

marina on Skidaway Island

salt marshes - they seem to surround Skidaway Island

Tea Room

Tea time - Memories of Gran

 museum at the Savannah College of Art & Design

  

Tybee Island

Simple Sights

I often wonder why I paint... why write... or play a tune....

Do I simply push around the colours until they form a pleasing image, rework words into an expression of yet another interpretation, form scales, triads, and trills into one more melody...?

Sometimes it seems that what has already been done I am simply copying or reforming.

I suppose one thought is, "Yes, but this painting, this writing, this tune, is remade according to who I am, my delights, my sorrows, my vision and senses."

There is a fulfillment that comes when light and colour clash or flow into one another and reflect back to me from the paper, when words formed into a short phrase embody much ponderings, when a tune causes my mind to forget words, my eyes to close and my spirit to soar in pleasant release.

Oscar Wilde, wrote, "Humility in the artist is his frank acceptance of all experiences, just as Love in the artist is simply that sense of Beauty that reveals to the world its body and its soul."

I don't know in what context this was written but it reminds me that "before the mystery of what is, and what happens, I offer homage because it is not of my own making, and that I am stirred and blessed simultaneously by nature's beauty and depth revealed in the 'ordinary'." How grateful I am to be able to see, hear, smell and touch - and how grateful I am to live life where I can "glimpse the infinity that hides in the simple sights," and  respond creatively to what is.

For the Senses  [John O'Donohue]  
May the touch of your skin
Register the beauty
Of the otherness
That surrounds you.

May your listening be attuned
To the deeper silence
Where sound is honed
To bring distance home.

May the fragrance
Of a breathing meadow
Refresh your heart
And remind you you are
A child of the earth.

And when you partake
Of food and drink,
May your taste quicken
To the gift and sweetness
That flows from the earth.

May your inner eye
See through the surfaces
And glean the real presence
Of everything that meets you.

May your soul beautify
The desire of your eyes
That you might glimpse
The infinity that hides
In the simple sights
That seem worn
To your usual eyes.

Adeste fidelis

Adeste fidelis.  “Come and behold him, born the king of angels.  Speak to him or be silent before him. In whatever way seems right to you and at whatever time, come to him with your empty hands.  The great promise is that to come to him who was born at Bethlehem is to find coming to birth within ourselves something stronger and braver, gladder and kinder and holier, than ever we knew before or than ever we could have known without him.” Frederick Buechner

Adventus

Stories invite us into a world larger than ourselves. 

God invited mankind into His story of the universe when He created Adam and Eve.  The narrative recorded in the Old Testament is primarily interested in God’s revelation of himself to mankind and begins an unfolding revelation of His plan to accomplish this.

This plan centers round God’s presence – God continually says, “I am with you.”  He longs for relationship with us and in Jesus He physically entered our world.

Like the people of the Old Testament we recall the many prophecies of his coming.  As they waited so we wait. Advent slows us down. It makes us think. It makes us look beyond today.

Advent reminds us what we are waiting for as we go through this busy season. Advent did not end with the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem 2000 years ago – Advent welcomes us to participate in the continuing story of God as we learn to wait for the second coming of Jesus, the Messiah.

When the first flame of the Advent wreath lights up in our homes and our Churches, we begin a new liturgical year.  Christmas is four weeks away and as we travel through these four weeks the light increases and we are reminded through the story of others why Jesus was born.

Advent, from the Latin word Adventus, means “coming.”   This season focuses on preparation and joy as we look forward to the coming of the Messiah. We rejoice as we begin our journey to the manger in Bethlehem to witness the birth of Jesus.

Our preparations for Christmas reflect this as well. It is a time when we clean out our houses to make way for the coming company and celebration… John the Baptist called people to consider their souls and called them to clean the sin out of their lives in preparation for the coming of the Christ.  We clean things away both physically and spiritually to make way for the coming of Jesus.   

This is also a time of year when nature begin to move from darkness to light. Indeed, in nature, this is the darkest time of the year – I love the moment we crest the longest night to turn our path to longer days. Advent looks towards that moment.

For many years we as a family have included in our seasonal preparations the custom of the Jesse Tree – a tree or branch decorated with ornaments or symbols signifying individuals in the genealogy of Jesus through the line of David, son of Jesse. The symbols also symbolize God's ongoing presence and covenant with mankind.  In this way we celebrate how God With Us, El Shaddai, welcomed humanity to walk the journey with Him in Jesus and how we now look forward to His coming once again.  How blessed we are to have a place in the story of God.