Tree and The Moon

-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Thoughts and Prayers

-
Image
What do we say when we see someone suffering?  What is there to say?  Certainly not, "I know just how you feel," or, "don't worry, time will heal," or, "It was God's will."   Often we say, "Our thoughts and prayers are with you."  And what does that mean, and what good does it do?  I've been thinking about prayer since I saw and wrote about Barbara Lubliner's beautiful prayer flags last week. I think a lot about prayer, especially at the times when I’m supposed to be praying and can’t figure out how to do it. I was talking with my brother, Alan, about a person we both knew.   “He’s so pretentious,” I said, “He prays with his head thrown back and his arms up in the air, just like a televangelist.” “How did you know what he's doing if you're praying?” Alan asked me. Theologian Frederick Beuchner  has said that if all we ever did was give thanks that would be enough for a lifetime of prayer. That may be true, and I've...
Read more

How Does Inspiration Come?

-
Image
“One’s work is nothing but the long journey through life to recover, through the detours of art, the one or two great and simple images that first gained access to one’s heart.”                                                                                                       Robert Beverly Hale quoting Albert Camus The first time I heard this quote, at an Art Student's League dinner, I thought, "Well, that doesn't apply to me." I was deep into my bird period; drawing their feather patterns was great practice for my pen technique but I wasn't a bird watcher or anything.  Then I went home for a visit and my mother said, "Let's have a slideshow. She pulled out all the old family ...
Read more

Walk a Crooked Path to the Palace of Wisdom

-
Image
 Or the Palace of ART. Here's the story of a collage I had no intention of making. Audrey Webber, Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church has come up with a terrific idea--Visual Art Bible Study.  Yesterday I was feeling oppressed by the number of meetings I've put on my calendar, wondering how to make more time for making art, but Audrey asked me to show up and so I did. She showed us some work by Gerhard Richter, to whom I've never paid much attention.  This included a short video of him spreading paint on a big canvas with a squeegee. He also designed stained glass windows for a church in Germany, even though he declares himself an agnostic. Then Audrey asked us to think about how we visualize God; that's an interesting discussion for one who thinks in pictures.  My first thought is always Michelangelo's image. Here's a version by a second-grader who said, "God is the only one who has clothes." Then we read together a Bible verse, John 17:20. ...
Read more