larin-offerings

My Cantankerous Mood, OR, Just Think About It!

2012-02-07T22:30:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling cantankerous lately. I wish people would think about things more deeply than how it makes them feel.

Today I saw a post with a cute picture that said something about how God made you just the way you are and loves you that way, so be yourself. Honestly my first thought was "Really? That's what He thought when He looked down and saw Ted Bundy? 'That's just the way I made you, and I love you that way, so be yourself!'?" Personally I can't agree. If God loves us just the way we are, then why bother to send His Son to cover our sins? He loves us, yes, but not in our natural human state.

I know that a lot of people would want to argue with me and say something like, "Well, what they meant was that people shouldn't have to conform to what the world says, like being skinny or looking perfect, etc." Yes, I would agree. God's Word tells us not to conform to the things of this world (Romans 12:2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."). But Romans 3:10 also reminds us that no one is righteous, and Romans 3:23 says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So, you're right--God loves you whether you're skinny or fat, but He's more worried about the condition of your heart than the size of your body. Unfortunately, more and more the mantra of "God loves you just the way you are!" is a convenient cover for behavior that is inappropriate (what the Bible frequently refers to as sin). God made an even better cover for sin, though! Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Why not try that cover instead--it's a far better one!

If you are offended by this (I've been seeing a lot of posts lately about people not wanting to be offended; since when was that desire listed in the Bill of Rights?), then go vent to someone else. I'm not interested in being jumped on. I'm sorry if my world is too black and white for you. But being an art teacher I know that if you squint at all those middle shades of grey in your world long enough, they'll all start to look that same, like fog (you know it's awfully hard to see in the middle of that stuff).

If you are a Christian, please think your faith through more deeply than just cute sayings that make everyone "feel good." Read through Proverbs and see how often Wisdom is lifted up. Grow your faith, think it through, and have reasons for what you believe (Peter tells us to do that, too). If you have questions, ask someone you trust and work them out.

And if you're not a believer at all, then that's fine, too, but please, please, please, people! Start thinking about what you say and believe!

Oh, and that picture at the top is NOT the cute picture that accompanied the post that set me off. That painting is Edvard Munch's "The Scream." It does a pretty decent job of showing my mood lately.

It's My Blog and I'll Gripe if I Want to, Gripe if I Want to, OR, You Should Gripe, Too

2012-02-03T10:22:00.001-08:00

I've been reading posts and articles with great interest lately. Three thoughts are sticking with me right now.

1. "If everybody is special, then nobody is special." A quote from an article about artists and fame in our modern society, and how young people equate success with fame in our media-driven, everybody-has-to-feel-good, no-one's-viewpoint-is-ever-wrong society. That quote should be self-explanatory.

2. Building off that comment and stemming from conversations about the morality of abortion: if everyone's viewpoint is equally good and should be respected, then do I have to respect and tolerate the choices of people like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy? How can you have law and order in a society where everyone's thoughts/opinions/desires (which is from whence their viewpoints usually come) are equally valid? Why do we want to live in such a society?

3. Our society really needs to go back to teaching critical thinking, because our leaders (aka politicians--and I do mean ALL of them!) are really good at not answering questions, as shown by the President just a couple days ago. Yet, so many people don't see that the answers are like conjurer's tricks designed to shift our attention to the other hand/issue. Kudos to the woman who asked the question for attempting to make him address the issue.

If you want to share your thoughts, feel free to leave a comment. Just note that my comments are moderated, and I have the ability to not share them. Yes, everybody wants to rule the world, and this is my own little piece of it, baby.

An Extremely Brief Comparison

2012-01-25T22:49:00.000-08:00

Preparing for art class tonight brought me to the realization that Hobbits would be Art Nouveau, while Saruman would be Art Deco. Dark, but Deco.

(Okay, okay, there are probably better categorizations, but I'm only teaching Nouveau and Deco tomorrow.)

A Rumination on Literature

2012-01-09T21:29:00.000-08:00

I'm preparing to begin the journey through "Beowulf" with my students this week. The joy of teaching the great stories of the world is uncovering the timeless and universal truths in them. What can we learn about the human condition? How do we travel though this life? How do we stay true to our beliefs, frequently in the face of events we never anticipated? Where do we turn in the face of despair, desperation, and the darkness we encounter? How do we remain inspired, and where do we find joy?

As a teacher I find joy in discussing these questions with students. I am doubly blessed by the fact that I teach in a Christian school and can approach these questions from a Biblical worldview. I am continually fascinated how often Biblical truths emerge in places where they might not be expected, such as the ancient Greeks or in Norse myths, which is what we looked at last week in class.

Tonight I am reviewing some notes a colleague shared about "Beowulf," and I'm excited to see elements that we both marked for deeper exploration, albeit not always from the same vantage point. While teaching art classes I have often remarked to students how different artists can tell the same moment from the same story in such different ways and with such different perspectives. As I read such lines as "Behavior that's admired is the path to power among people everywhere" I can imagine the conversation that will take place in class as we ponder the impact and truthfulness of such a statement. But that doesn't mean the discussion will follow my vision, which is part of the beauty of teaching because in those moments I frequently learn from the students as much as they might learn from me.

Tonight I am excited for tomorrow. That might not be quite so true when my alarm sounds in the morning, but by the time we reach class the excitement will have returned. We will open our "Beowulf" books and take the first steps on our next literary adventure as we step through the door to a new time and place. J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote, “ 'Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.' ”

Let the journey begin!

Waiting in Anticipation

2011-12-24T11:38:00.000-08:00

Why is it that our Christmas tree changes after December 25? The beauty is still there, but the magic has evaporated, swirled away into the cold of a new year. While December 24 possesses the most mystery of any day in the year for me, December 26 is reality. The sole difference is the anticipation. For many Christians the whole season is one of anticipation, otherwise known as Advent. This year anticipation has been made new to me like never before.

Early in December I was set to give a chapel on Advent when I received some startling news about five minutes beforehand. A rather routine medical test had shown some unusual results, and, after another test, the verdict was a pre-cancerous condition. I had not expected this outcome, and considering that I have lost six family members to cancer, the dolorous news left me shaken. Someone had said the C-word in the same sentence with my name. I did not give my Advent message (and am thankful for the teacher who stepped in with such little notice). More doctor visits were scheduled, and a different kind of Advent began for me.

Anticipation. My life has been alive with it these past few weeks. The fear of unknown procedures that certainly would involve pain was offset by the obvious need to know what my state of health actually was. One nurse suggested that I could put off a procedure until after Christmas, but my need for resolution was stronger than that, despite all my dread of needles and knives. "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you..." reads part of Psalm 55:22, and in the moments leading up to appointments with what felt like doom I gave Him my cares. What else could I do? Even those wonderful, supportive people who have been through the same thing could not take the physical pain for me, could not take the disease away if I had it, could not erase the anxiety in my mind. Only one could grant me peace as I pondered the worst, as I spent my days anticipating test results.

In those quiet, woeful moments as I tried desperately not to worry, I realized that I was encountering a different sort of Advent. Every day was full of anticipation. Did I dare look at my phone during the school day? What if the doctor had called and it was going to be the worst news? Would I want to know then, or could I wait until the end of the day? Could I be strong? Deuteronomy 31:6 (frequently referred to in other places in the Bible, as well) reminded me to "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Could I let go of my worries to feel peace in the face of, and in the place of, fear?

With so many normal Christmas season concerns pushed aside in my mind (sorry my present wasn't wrapped--I've been preoccupied; walking hand-in-hand with my son as we shop, not totally caring if I buy your gift, rather than racing from store to store; leaving decorations packed and not worrying about a perfect home [aside from one peevish moment when a change of plans brought out the ugly part of me]; listening to the songs about heavenly peace with a new attitude), a new question arose. If this is what anticipation is like, then what should my anticipation of the Savior's return be like? Do I wait for His return with the same anxiousness that I waited for test results? I have never been one to wake up everyday wondering if today will be the day of His return. Instead my philosophy has been that everyday is one day closer to fulfillment of that promise, so let's live in His service everyday. (Boy do I fail miserably everyday. Please don't get me confused with those Christians who think they don't fail--I'm more than aware of each stumble I make.) Today, however, I am thinking anew of what anticipation is like and how I wait for the Savior, because that is what Advent is all about: It is the season where the saints (in the Biblical sense) look ahead to the Second Coming even as we prepare to celebrate the First.

New, according to Merriam-Webster, means "taking the place of what came before." And that is just what I have in terms of my understanding of anticipation. I pray that something will touch you this season in terms of your relationship with the true once and future King, Jesus. I also pray that it won't be as dire as my journey, which by the way has a happy ending. After two biopsies for two different kinds of cancer I am more than happy to report that I have neither. Praise God! I will be checking in with my doctor a little more frequently, but my prayers for good health have been answered in the positive. In Acts 5:19-20 the angel told the apostles to “Go, stand in the temple courts...and tell the people all about this new life.” My gift for you this Christmas is a prayer that you will find this new life in the form a of a baby born to restore the relationship between you and God. God's gift for you is redemption, but it is your choice to take it or reject it. Blessings to you today and everyday! (What good timing--my Christmas Pandora station has just begun playing Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus, which is exactly what I feel right now!)

Luke 2
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Fear Not!

2011-11-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

Luke 1:26-38 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Painting: "The Annunciation" by Orazio Gentileschi

Random Winter Throughts

2011-11-21T11:09:00.001-08:00

#1: The picture in my banner was the bottom of a table at Borders. Good-bye Borders; we loved you, but obviously not often enough.

#2: The snow is still falling here.

#3: The snow has created a mental shift in my brain that has bypassed Thanksgiving and moved straight to Christmas. I'm so confused.

#4: Now it's time to change the wallpaper on my computer to a suitable Christmas art image. A couple years ago I used some gorgeously colored angels from a Giotto fresco, but need to find something else now. Any suggestions?

#5: Snow tires are a nice invention. So are comfy chairs, warm blankets, and cups of cocoa.

Back to grading...

A Rich Life

2011-11-07T13:05:00.001-08:00

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing." -- Camille Pissarro

Image credit: (obviously) http://www.camille-pissarro.org/

The Lost Art of Editing

2011-10-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

"'I'm the Imelda Marcus of sunglasses,' he laughed."

The above quote is from an article about Bono and why he wears sunglasses. I'm not sure who Imelda Marcus is, but I bet she doesn't own as many shoes as Imelda Marcos did. (Yes, she is still alive [I did a quick check, hint, hint to the editor of the article]; I just don't know if she still owns as many shoes.)

I know it can be difficult to find information on the internet sometimes, but shouldn't writers, editors, newspapers, bloggers, etc., at least give it the old college try?

I'm done. We now return to the regularly scheduled programming.

Clean Before Cleaning

2011-09-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Cleaning is not my favorite thing to do for two reasons. One, I just don't enjoy doing a task that will almost immediately need to be done again. Cleaning my house is like the directions on shampoo: wash, rinse, repeat. And I don't use my shampoo that way, either. Two, my mind has so much free time when I'm cleaning. Unfortunately, I don't always put it to good use, but instead ruminate on how much I dislike cleaning, which makes me cranky (I was going to say crabby, but I decided cranky sounded a bit more steampunk [see previous posts for more on that one]).

My husband is a huge help with the housework, but some tasks seem to fall outside the vision of the other, and floor cleaning has always been my province. So a couple days ago I dug out some cleaner and prepared to mop. I have never found a floor cleaner that works to my liking, although I suspect it has more to do with the floor and all the little divots in the vinyl that was designed by someone who has NEVER cleaned a floor that has dirt stuck in ALL those little divots, but I digress. Since I had not used this particular cleaner in a while (it literally stinks, but it was what was under the sink), I strained to read the tiny directions. (Have you noticed how small things are printed these days? Surely it's not just me. What do you mean, your name isn't Shirley?) Listed shortly before the warnings about not putting this stuff in your eyes, which I wasn't tempted to do--it would be too near my nose then, was the admonition to clean tough spots before cleaning.

"Hmm," and, "Double hmm," said I, as I dutifully pushed and pulled the mop across the floor. I have seen this direction before, and it always puzzles me. I'm supposed to clean the floor before I clean the floor? And just what am I supposed to use to clean it the first time? If the cleaner I am currently using isn't going to work then what should I use the first time? And if the cleaner I am currently using has to have something else used before it, then why should I use it now? Huh? Huh?

Usually this is the moment when my mind takes a sharp left turn into self-pity, griping, and complaining (see that nice Oxford comma? I've recently been re-educated as to its importance). Shortly thereafter a family member will typically walk across the recently mopped and whinged floor and the pity party becomes a surprise party of the most unpleasant kind for said innocent loved one. This day, such was not the case, and the brain took a refreshing right turn.

Cleaning the floor before I clean the floor seems like a ridiculous instruction to me. Yet, in our spiritual lives we do it all the time. One of the most amazing things I can think of is that Jesus came to save me--the spiritual equivalent to my dirty floor, replete with divots. Why should He care about me unless I'm at my best, I wonder. Shouldn't I be at my grandest and finest to stand before God in any capacity? Even before I can ask Jesus to be part of my life? How can I attend church if I'm still covered with the dirt of the world? It's easy to become wrapped up in these worries and forget the truth of Romans 5:8, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Wow. Those words still surprise me sometimes. I don't have to clean me before I can accept Christ's gift. In fact, that cleaning is the gift, and He does the cleaning. I'm not without responsibility afterwards; I should try to live in a way that doesn't attract so much dirt. Neither am I without struggle, as Paul talks about in many places, including Galatians 5:17. Living the Christian life is not easy, but it's sure easier with a good cleaner. He's the best one I've found, that's for sure. And I must confess that it does cheer me to think that the floor is only temporal and I won't be stuck cleaning it for eternity.

Here's my best advice: Don't be stuck cleaning before cleaning. Let The Professional do it.

Steampunk Me, or, The Confetti of My Mind (Redux)

2011-09-11T20:27:00.001-07:00

Despite the fact that it is a time-honored tradition in art, I have never drawn a self-portrait before. This one is for my friend Jenny, and it is drawn with a blue mechanical pencil, then inked with a pen that streams smearlessly. (See the previous posts for some understanding.) While the pen might flow smearlessly (the manufacturer's word--not mine) it does not flow globlessly (hey, if they can do it, why can't I?). That is not the reason I'm sneering, however. It just seemed like fun. As did the steampunk. (Again, see the previous posts.) I think I need a vaporizer, too.

TOTALLY random thoughts, or, the confetti in my mind currently

2011-09-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Random thought 1: We really need to watch Rocky and Bullwinkle again soon.

Random thought 2: Those purple morning glories at my son's new school were one of the loveliest shades of purple I've seen in a long time.

Random thought 2.5: The purple hat at the store was awfully nice, too, but I get hat hair so badly.

Random thought 3: If the man at the bank had steel spikes extending from his hands he would look just like Wolverine, and it would make picking up paper a whole lot of fun.

Random thought 4: The banner on my blog has snow on it. Since it's 95 or so degrees outside I should really change it, but this is Idaho in September, which means it will snow again soon.

Random thought 5: Steampunk. How badly do I want that book? Advice?

Stream of Consciousness Convertible

2011-08-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

In which I relate a silly moment of word and image association. Ready? Good.

As I'm driving down the road between the golden grain fields on my way home today I pass a man walking and he looks hot but I pilot the car out away from him to the far side of the road to give him space but the driver behind me doesn't do the same as I see when I look in the rear view mirror and I see how my hair is blowing a bit in the wind because I don't have air conditioning and the windows are rolled down and I am reminded how I'm so tired of arriving at wherever with hair that looks like I've never even heard of such a thing as a hairbrush, but oh well, such is life, but then I think how other people drive convertibles and aren't mistaken for barbarians which makes me think of the Inspector Lewis episode that I recently watched where the lady arrived in a convertible and she was wearing a headscarf to help tame said hair and that must be the key and I remember that once, years ago, I drove a convertible loaner car while my own was being resurrected from near totalling and that I tried wearing a headscarf but found it very unnerving because it kept wanting to fly off and it's not easy to be comfortable driving a convertible with a scarf blowing out behind because it makes one think of Isadora Duncan--unless one drives with the top up.

New Word for You

2011-08-06T18:03:00.001-07:00

Stick this word in your vocab: yestreen. It's of Scottish origin and means "last evening or night." As in, "My husband barbecued steak yestreen." It was yummy, too! What did you do yestreen?

Get the Lead Out

2011-05-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

My daughter is teaching me the ins and outs (no pun intended) of mechanical pencils. This is a big deal for me; I've watched so many students waste time fiddling with mechanical pencils that I have been on the verge of banning from my classroom at times. However, being a bit of a pen, pencil and paper freak, I couldn't quite bring myself to separate a student from his or her writing implement of choice. (Classroom management can be a fine art.) Furthermore, while I've always loved the feel of a good 6, 7 or 8B pencil for drawing, I've seen students who can work wonders with mechanical pencils. Not long ago a mechanical pencil made its way into my drawing bag and I have used it for very light sketches underneath some little watercolors, but otherwise I steer clear of this writing implement.

All that changed yesterday. My son and I went to the Free Comic Book Day event at our local comic book store to wait patiently in line for a free drawing by a comic book artist. We discovered this event last year, and it was love at first sight for me. Own an original drawing for the cost of standing in line? Wow. (Thank you to those artists!) Last year my son and I each chose Star Wars clones as subject matter. This year we challenged the artists: my son chose a Halo character and I wanted a drawing of Asterix. Neither artist had drawn these characters before and seemed to enjoy the new subject matter, too. But back to the mechanical pencils.

Part of the joy for me is to watch the artists work, and I noticed that several of them were using blue lead while sketching. Now, I have to confess that I'm old enough to have used a waxer for paste-up, so blue immediately makes me think non-repro. But I wasn't sure why they were using it. So I asked. The answer? It doesn't smear as much as regular graphite and is easier to incorporate into the inking. Cool. While I'm not a comic book artist, that was enough for me. Art store field trip!

So this afternoon my daughter is showing me how to prep a mechanical pencil for use. It's true--I have used a waxer, but never replaced lead in a mechanical pencil. But I'm all ready. And as soon as I'm done sketching I will ink something with the pens my daughter bought me for Mother's Day that promise to "Stream Smearlessly." That's really what it says on the package. Yes, the marketing sold me. How could I resist a made-up word like that! :-D

Novus Nomen Maximus

2011-03-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

Last year my favorite name from history was Vindex. Of course, you have to know that in Latin (and this fellow was a rebellious Roman senator) a V is pronounced as a W. I know, silly, but hey, the seventh graders loved it.

Well, as of yesterday I have a new favorite, also from Roman history. Meet Mettius Fufetius. An unfortunate fellow, Mettius Fufetius was the leader of Alba who decided to betray his alliance with the Romans during a battle. But he was outmatched in intelligence by his opponent, Tullus Hostlilius. Is it just me or does it seem really unwise to fight a man named Hostilius? At any rate, the betrayal was a stupid (are we still allowed to use that word?) choice and ended with Mettius Fufetius being executed in a fashion that Livy says "was the first and last time that fellow-countrymen of ours inflicted a punishment so utterly without regard to the laws of humanity." Poor Mettius Fufetius.

Roman history is full of interesting, unusual names like Scipio Africanus (nothing poor or stupid about him!) or Quintus Quinctius Cincinnatus or Publius Manlius (another seventh grade snicker inducer). Another name new to me this year that could be a favorite is Spurius Fusius, appointed Roman spokesman of a compact that Livy says was "in a long metrical formula, which is not worth the trouble of quoting here." The compact was before the battle between the Horatii and the Curiatii, which is a story that is worth the trouble quoting, to, um, well, coin a quote.

As I leaf through Livy there is no shortage of names that sound slightly silly to us today. But I remember reading Wonder Woman comics from the 1940s when I was a kid and being surprised at the old-fashioned quality of the names that were then only 30 years old. I'm sure the Paulines and Abigails of that era didn't feel old-fashioned any more than the Romans sounded silly. And names aren't the only things that go in and out of style, later seeming foolish, humorous or bizarre--orange shag carpet anyone?

Hmm, do you think Mettius Fufetius wore bellus-bottomi? (Sorry, Matt J., but only a little.)

Painting of "The Oath of the Horatii" by Jacques-Louis David.

Drat!

2011-02-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

More snow. :-( Or should I say >:-<

I'm not usually one to complain about the snow--I mean I do live in a place where I anticipate there will be lots of it every year. This year, however, I am just ready for it to not be in my way.

There, I've said it. Bleh!

Spring, come visit us.

Sad Irony

2011-02-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

I come home from being at school all day with active, voluble young people and am ready for some still and quiet time. My son comes home from being at school where he has to be still and quiet and is ready to be an active, voluble young person. And ever the twain shall meet...

Something New, Something Sublime

2011-02-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

I've added a link in the sidebar to a friend's new online workshops. I have followed Deryn since I first commented on her artwork in the Yahoo Altered Book Group years ago. Her work has always spoken to me and I love how she integrates her faith publicly, yet without being obnoxious. (Something I probably fail at frequently.) Her blog is fantastic, although I have to confess I haven't visited in a while, but that is solely a function of time and busyness. (I actually own a Yahoo group that I never visit either.) Anyway, take a peek.

Christianity Meets Abstract Art

2011-01-21T20:22:00.001-08:00

Makoto Fujimura - The Art of "The Four Holy Gospels" from Crossway on Vimeo.

A Re-Posting of an Always Good Lesson

2011-01-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

I originally wrote this post in January of 2008 and accidentally came across it while searching for something else tonight. I'm going to now prove to you why I was once "elected" the safety officer for our playgroup by sharing this bit of advice again. The first title was, "The Safety Officer Speaks, or Never Play with Fire," which is a title I like better than the one above. Note that the cute baby is now taller than I am. Enjoy, and more importantly, go vacuum! :-)

----------------------------------------

Getting down to brass tacks today, I finally finished vacuuming the after-Christmas rearranging and changing, etc. In the last couple days I have safely stowed the ornaments, the putting away of which revealed the pitiful state of the bookshelf and surrounding piles. And so that had to be dealt with. How could I have so many books that I still haven't read? I pulled them all out, stuck them in a basket by the bed and cleaned the area. Once the books were back into a satisfactory state, I finished the vacuuming, which included curtains, lamp shades and the fan blades above the table. (After finishing lunch, thank you so much mom!) By then I had the vacuum so close to the kitchen that I finally remembered a task that keeps catching my eye, just not at the right moment--the dusty state of my kitchen curtain. Having completed that task my eye fell on the refrigerator.

Ah yes, the refrigerator. Did you know that you have to clean the underside of your refrigerator periodically? Especially if you have A) pets, B) a very dusty house, C) a lint-source very near, or D) children. Hmm, we fit all of these qualifications, so we try to clean this under-fridge space at least once a year, but preferably twice. But we didn't always know about this important cleaning chore, which brings up the subtitle of this post.

Once upon a time, in a house far, far away (okay, really only about 10 miles away) there lived a mostly young couple with a brand-new baby. Oh, and cats--three cats. The happy, unknowing couple had lived in this little yellow house for about 6 years, all of them with the cats, when one day mommy and baby went to visit grandma in another town. Poppa was planning to go away for the weekend on an important fishing trip with clients from work, but as things so often go, something else came up and he didn't make it on the trip. Instead, he went home to the little yellow house. When he came in the door, after petting the cats, he immediately noticed a bad smell. A terrible, something-is-catching-on-fire smell, and a scary electricity-gone-bad sort-of-sound. All of it coming from the kitchen. And those lights--they never came out from under the refrigerator before! Quickly Poppa raced over, unplugged the fridge and grabbed whatever was handy to put out the potential fire. Blessedly, cutting the electrical current was all that was needed and no fire ensued. Poppa spent some time moving the fridge and suveying the damage (yup, we needed a new fridge), then opening windows to air out the house. At which point mommy and baby arrived home. They were surprised to see Poppa, but boy were they happy to have a home!

Of all the things my mom taught me to clean, she never mentioned this one. Years worth of cat hair had collected underneath and caused all the problem. To some of you, this may seem like a no-brainer, but I once had a college roommate who couldn't change a light bulb--we all have our failings. Truthfully, I just never thought about it. Fast forward to today, when I thought to clean this so-convenient-to-get-to-space. Here's a pic of some of the fun.
Mind you, this is after I'd already vacuumed quite a bunch, so what you see here is just a little bit of the lint. The whole space underneath was full of this stuff and we just cleaned it about seven months ago or so. Go ahead--if you haven't cleaned yours, go take a look. Should I tell you here that if you haven't cleaned your fridge bottom lately and you're thinking you should, please, please, please! UNPLUG IT first! The power won't be off long enough to cause any problems, but crispy friends are never a good thing. And be prepared--you may have to come up with some creative options for cleaning--see my stick with a paper towel for swiping the really-hard-to-get-to-spots? I'm not, btw, going to recommend you undo any screws or bolts without consulting someone who knows more about these things because you never know what may come loose if you do, but please do the best you can.

And while I was thinking back to our almost fire so long ago, I realized that it was exactly one year ago today that the ground wire from the street to our house burnt out and shot 220 through our home, killing some appliances and starting a near-fire in our basement. Remember that a power strip is just a way to add more outlets for your convenience. A small surge protector keeps the electricity flow even to whatever items are plugged into it, but it does not protect against any kind of catastrophic event. If you have a major surge, those little things can blow-up/melt-down and start a fire. Keep the areas around them clean. BTW, they don't protect your computer, either. If you want to make sure your computer is safe through that kind of event, you want it plugged into something more substantial. When I left my graphics job (ten years ago this spring!) I bought a major battery back-up unit that has saved my computer twice: once when lightning struck our home and came in through the phone line, and last winter through the 220 episode. This little back-up unit died over Christmas (I probably should have replaced it sooner) and I almost went with a heavy-duty-looking surge strip, until I asked for help. The guy said to not be fooled; even the big-looking surge protectors aren't enough in a catastrophic event. Well, since we've lived through two, so I'm not taking any chances.

Oh, and don't play with matches either! The safety officer has spoken.

PS--I don't know why the pics came out with the strange white spaces. I've tried adjusting and re-exporting, but it's not helping. It's late and I haven't read any of those books, so we're just living with it. But, if you have any tips on how to fix it, please share--they really look dorky...

A New Year

2011-01-08T17:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is already another year. Not only that, but it's eight days in. The only remnants of Christmas are some decorations on the table, a poinsettia and two snowmen, who, technically aren't just Christmas and could stay up all winter if I feel so inclined (or maybe that should read "lazy").

Unfortunately I never returned from my music post to talk about how much I love the Christmas season. The lights and the anticipation speak to me in the same way as the Vivaldi music of the last post. While many people do not like the long, dark days of this time of year, I look forward to the changing of the days and the seasons. The dark makes me long for the light, which is doled out in little bits this time of year by all the lovely illuminations of Christmas. Counting the days until the magical pinnacle of Christmas Eve is sort of like Mary treasuring up things in her heart for me. The beauty and sparkle of the decorations dazzle for a brief moment, then they are put away and replaced with a clarity that is almost emptiness.

The New Year arrives and the house seems barren without the tree and all its accoutrements. Then the days slowly grow longer and the light grows. Both are welcome changes, arousing in me a desire for spring and the rebirth of the earth.

For me all of this is a reminder of what Jesus has done for me. I live in the world and see the dark until I long for the light. Just when it seems the dark will overtake all of life I see glimmers and sparkles of the miraculous, which make me long more, until the longest night is past and I remember the glorious rebirth I have been given.

Why is God's gift so easy to forget? My frailty makes it too easy for me to look the other way just when I need the light the most. The last three years have contained far too many moments and elements of darkness. I am ready for the light. I am longing.

And just like that a new year is here. May this be the year of light and growth, a year of moving ahead. Amazingly, when I look back the dark things begin to fade and I remember mostly the sparkling moments. No, I am not some starry-eyed optimist, but I am glad that this is also the way the Lord sees me through Christ. So, here's to the light and the One who brings it. Here's to a year of light and growth.

Music

2010-11-21T23:04:00.000-08:00

I just listened to Vivaldi's "Winter" and it was so good that I'm wanting it to not end. I want to hear it again and somehow be in the middle of the orchestra. Why don't I hear music in that way all the time? My husband does.

I think I don't take the time to really listen to the music and in the moments when it really reaches out and grabs me it takes me by surprise. Some Christmas songs are like that for me, "I Wonder as I Wander" having always had that effect. The first time I heard it was when a classmate sang it at a school concert in high school. She sang it acappella and from the first hearing it gripped my soul. Since then my favorite Christmas songs have always been unusual and not often heard ones. Maybe the ones we hear all the time are the ones we quit hearing first. Too much repetition robs them of their beauty perhaps--the old despising the familiar.

When my children brought home their Christmas song books from school, I was thrilled to see "The Wexford Carol" included. It's another favorite, but one I learned on my own. "In the Bleak Midwinter," "Gabriel's Message" (Sting's version is haunting, but he changes the words to present a different message than the Bible; the best one I've heard is on a CD from Our Daily Bread), "Love Came Down at Christmas" (not the Jars of Clay version, btw), and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" are other favorites. I know I'm missing others, and at different times more standard songs have been more esteemed. But these are the ones that touch deeper than my emotions in the last few years. These are the ones that reach my soul.

I realize, now that I've written these words, that it isn't quite Thanksgiving yet. For the first time in a long while I suppose I am feeling very ready for rejoicing. I'm not sure why. The last three years have brought enough challenges to make me feel like I have walked through a fiery place moved to the top of earth's crust (unemployment, finances, health scares, multiple deaths, constant car troubles, work challenges and on and on--I'll spare you the details; chances are you can just fill in your own name and the story would sound similar, times are hard for everyone). Even though we are still in the midst of the journey, though, I still feel ready for rejoicing. Maybe reading Lewis's "Till We Have Faces" and the ending of the book of Job have reminded me that in the end of all the pain, when we have questioned the most, that God Himself, the very one we question, is the answer. And this is the time of year we celebrate His coming.

I'm not ready to say I know my own face, but I am ready to rejoice.

Opening image by Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

Melozzo da Forli Angel

2010-11-20T21:23:00.000-08:00

A beautiful image by Melozzo da Forli, a fifteenth century Italian artist. He was influenced by Piero della Francesca. Mostly known as a fresco artist, he was adept at the use of foreshortening.

Cool Places I've Visited Lately...

2010-11-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

One was exceptionally cool, as in not much indoor heating: Pilot Books. However, in my mind the books more than made up for the chill. My chilled-dren (sorry, I know it's a bad pun) weren't so convinced. Score for the day? A fabulous book of Giotto's Arena Chapel frescoes illustrating the story of Christ, and two Asterix and Obelisk books in French. Yes, they can sit next to my French Tintin until I learn French someday. Sadly I did not take my camera to be able to share the fabulously old (for our area) architecture with you.

The other cool place was Mariupol Market, where I went on a Russian Club field trip. And before you ask, no I don't speak Russian either. But my son is learning it. Of course, being only eight years old, he was more excited about the candy by the pound bins than being surrounded by Russian words. I thought the shelf goods were beautiful--so different looking than American goods. And those pastries, well, they just looked plain good!

Helpful?

2010-11-08T21:40:00.001-08:00

I was going to change my blog header tonight, but then I remembered that I would have to pull an old header off my stick drive. I really would like to create a totally new one, using a snippet of a more recent photograph. However, the program I once used to make the headers is probably about three generations (that's optimistic) behind current and the computer I used to use it on is now a rather expensive paperweight. I'm too afraid to attempt to install the old software on the computer I use now because it belongs to my school and I've had too many bad experiences with graphics software and system compatibility in my old professional life. So now in order to create a new header I'm going to have figure out some new software, then re-learn some things, which I do not currently have time to do.

All of which makes me wonder how helpful technology really is sometimes... I think I'll go heat my tea in the microwave now.

Ha!

Lost Lore, or, Reading Rescue

2010-09-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

My daughter and I almost effected a book rescue last weekend. As we drove down the street toward home, eagerly anticipating lunch when we arrived, we saw a book in the middle of the road. Yes, just existing there quietly in the middle of the street--shocking, but true. What could I do?

I knew immediately I had to turn around and rescue it. Despite the traffic and despite the setback in the feeding schedule, we had to go back. I quickly steered Jimmy (the children's name for one of our vehicles; the pickup is conveniently called Jerry) into the unfamiliar turn lane, which finally roused my daughter's attention. She had her nose buried deep in a book.

"What are you doing, Mom?" she inquired (note the strong verb). "Z, there's a book in the road back there."

Scarcely had the words left my mouth before she exclaimed, "What?! A book? In the road?"

"Yes," I answered, "And we're going back to rescue it. I think it might be a library book."

"What?! Not a library book! We have to go back!"

"Yes, I know. Here's the plan: I'm going to drive around the block and find a convenient place to pull over. If it's safe, I want you to jump out and grab it."

"Got it, Mom."

"Don't unbuckle yet, we're not there!"

"Oh, okay."

We pulled to the stop sign and signaled for the right turn that would take us to the intersection where I had seen the unfortunate volume. Was it a library book? The glassy cover had made it seem so. But there was no orange sticker--oh wait, that's only at Hayden. Yes, I was pretty sure. The book belonged to John Q. Public. Or duty was clear.

Accelerating out onto the road (I can't say into traffic because this piece of road is really small and it just wouldn't be true), we looked toward the place where the victim awaited rescue. Just beyond the next stop sign. The book was almost in sight. Z was peering through the windshield, hand on her buckle, personal music device safely stowed next to her own borrowed novel resting on the console, ready to make her move.

But as we braked at the stop sign we realized the intersection was empty. Nothing remained but asphalt. The book had vanished! Glancing to the right we saw a white car accelerating, moving to the left back into traffic. Ahhh, another book lover.

So glad to know we're not alone in the world. Satisfied, we turned toward home where lunch still waited.

(Of course, there could be an alternative ending or two, like the person was really a book thief who had safely purloined another volume, most likely from the library, sticking some poor soul with a lost book fine and a permanent blot in the library records--Loser. Book Loser. What could be worse than that?)

Books, books and more books

2010-09-06T19:55:00.001-07:00

Buying books.
Moving books.
Sorting books.
Looking for books.
Loaning books.
Borrowing books.
Arranging books.
Shelving books.
Moving books.
Moving books.
Moving books.

The implied subject is "I" and the helping verb is "am".

History books, literature books, children's books, art books, old books, new books, writing books, coloring books, small books, large books, heavy books, paperback books, music books, map books, used books, new books, musty books, fresh books, funny books, inspiring books, borrowed books, my books--they're all on my shelves at home and at school.

And that is my life right now as another school year comes hurdling toward me. At this time next week I will have completed the first day of the first operating year of Pascal Academy, a brand new Great Books school.

It's a good thing I like books!

While we're on the topic, anyone want to share something you read or enjoyed or hated or re-read in the last six months? I'd like to know what books are in your life.

The Importance of Being Earnest (at Least in All Things Grammatical)

2010-08-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

Today I was given a rug for our new school. Somewhere in between finishing "The Eumenides" and beginning "Medea" I found time to wash the rug out in the front yard. To help remove extra water I scrounged up a plastic ruler to use in a squeegee-like fashion (the effects of which greatly impressed my little people). Being well trained to read any letters that enter my vision (a tendency I now fight, given the sad decline in the civility of most bumper stickers), I took in the words on the ruler and continued squishing water with it.

Then I stopped and examined the ruler more carefully. Yes, there was a reason my brain was flashing red alert signals to the part of my anatomy that is connected to a red pen much of the year. The ruler, which was most likely a freebie from a fire safety booth at last year's fair, featured the ubiquitous Smokey the Bear and his earnest message about fire safety. The message, however, didn't convey quite what was intended, I'm sure: "Smokey friends don't play with matches".

Now I ask you, if my smokey friends don't play with matches, then how do they become smokey? Cigarettes? Campfires? Arson?

In all earnestness, the only thing left for me to say is that Smokey's friends should play with a grammar book sometime soon. It will make a nice replacement for the matches.

(Oh yes--and remember, only you can prevent forest fires...)

Practice after Delacroix

2010-06-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to draw more often to build up my confidence for demonstrating--something I have long felt is a weakness in my teaching. Because I don't draw often enough it takes longer to arrive at a good place than minutes available in my class time. More practice would help me achieve better results in less time so my demonstration drawings wouldn't be sketched with profuse explanations/excuses/apologies. So with that thought, here is my drawing after Eugene Delacroix.

I have long liked the strength of this piece, which I found in a book somewhere. I'm hoping the label is correct and that it is a drawing by Delacroix and not of Delacroix. (A quick internet search of about 15 pages of Google image results does not help me in answering this question, it does, however allow me to see a hundred or so copies of his famous Liberty Leading the People and show me his amazingly simple and expressive sketch for Attila the Hun.)

I wasn't patient enough to copy the lines of his classical style shading. Deep sigh; but at 1 a.m. my desire to work slowly was asleep without the rest of me (I did not intend to be up that long and it must be understood that I only began the drawing at 11 p.m. or so, so I didn't labor for too many hours on this piece). Instead I dug out my smudging tool and defaulted to a combination of smudge and scribble/hatch. See the shiny graphite--the best drawings avoid this build up by slowly building layers of graphite, rather than pressing hard on the pencil and creating shine.

I'm not sure I like the blue, but again, at that late hour I opted to be adventurous--a choice I rarely make with my drawings. Collage, yes; drawings, no.

I could share a number of other criticisms, but I won't. As long as I see them and know where I went wrong, I know what to watch for next time.

Begin Again

2010-06-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

Starting afresh,
bringing me peace,
breath.

A Little History Humor

2010-04-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

I had the best moment in history this week when I realized that seventh grade is finally starting to get my dry humor. The irony of course is that we're almost to the end of the year...

How do I know they are catching on? Well, this week we encountered another one of those names that probably weren't quite as funny in AD 9 as they are now. This time it was a governor in Germania named Vindex. I wasn't going to share the name, in order to save on confusion, but I still had it written in my notes. When I saw it, I chuckled; of course I was standing in front of the class, and when I looked at their faces and saw the curiosity I couldn't keep it to myself. (I might have a sense of humor that is foreign to them, but I don't need to appear to be totally crazy!)

So I wrote the name on the board and reminded them of their Latin pronunciation. Comprehending faces burst into grins and little chuckles in different places in the room. What's so funny? The V in Latin is actually pronounced as a W. Silly humor I know, but most people today just don't name their children Windex.

How I Spent my Easter Vacation, or Let Someone Else Sweat the Small Stuff

2010-03-31T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Easter vacation for our school. Starting late last week through the end of this one I have had and continue to enjoy (!) the ability to sleep in and move at a leisurely pace in the morning. I have actually read some books; they're still history related books, but I'm reading at my own pace and not at breakneck speed. Best of all I've had time to take care of some tasks that have been sadly neglected.

Ironically these are not tasks I would normally look forward to accomplishing. Things like mopping and dusting always take a back seat in my world, but when they haven't happened in my world since, say, late October or possibly further back, these chores turned into something I have been looking forward to for several weeks. I hadn't realized how back to nature we were growing (pun intended) until I discovered that the dust in some places was no longer dust, but had become actual dirt. I've never been the best housekeeper, but that discovery was a nasty surprise.
Wisely I divided the workload into smaller chunks to be done everyday, so as to not be overwhelming, but the division has also given me some time to ponder.

As I ran a cloth around the upper regions of my kitchen to catch the cobwebs today, I pondered how these messes started off so small. The cobwebs were once little and invisible, until they weren't taken care of and grew into larger dust traps, and then, when the airborne grease particles found the small collection of dusty webwork the problem grew again. Which made for more opportunity to catch dust and so on, until in the dark little recesses of the ceiling there was quite the disaster. Really, isn't that the way most messes begin, though?

Even our personal messes, whether they're financial or relationship-related or workplace problems or spiritual issues, usually begin as small things. But when we don't take care of them they grow. Just like the five cent fee per late item at the library that grows into several dollars when I check out so many items (maybe that's just me...), or the cart full of one dollar impulse purchases at the grocery store that blows the whole budget when it adds up at the end, those little problems left unchecked bloom into larger ugliness. A late payment accumulates fees and that unfortunate sharp word festers in the heart of a co-worker until the situation seems impossible and we wish we had taken the time to deal with it in the beginning, when it was still a small thing.

Those small things matter more than we realize in the moment. In between bouts of cleaning I've also enjoyed having some time to draw during this week and even in that activity I am surprised by how much the small things count. As I have often reminded my art students, the problems in a drawing are usually solved by small adjustments. The eyes are too far apart by fractions of a centimeter, not two or three. The fingers are just barely too long or too skinny or too far left or right--if they were off by a large degree the mistake would have been noticed early on and corrected. But do such tiny errors really matter? Yes. The tiny errors add up and my drawing of one person begins to look like someone entirely different.

And that's just the problem spiritually, too. The big mistakes are so much easier to see and correct. It's the tiny errors that feel like they don't matter that eventually shape who we grow into. Little lies that go unchecked grow too easily into integrity issues that begin to define who we are in the eyes of others. Small deceits that aren't rebuked too often encourage more occurrences until suddenly we find ourselves no longer trusted by those around us. These small moments become so pivotal in who we are later, but we don't always realize it until those small moments are past history and we're stuck in the dirty cobwebs of the present, wishing we had dusted sooner.

I am reminded of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, which shows how God values the small things. Even the one talent was important to the master, who had many. Matthew 25 concludes with the exhortation to take care of even the least among us, which again is a reminder how important the least things are in the eyes of God, who looks not only at the big, abundant, rich things and people of life, but even at the smallest and least. The unfortunate thing for us is that even the smallest errors are noticed by God and separate us from Him. Romans 3:10-12 shows how we are perceived by God: "As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." This is a bold statement that makes us quite uncomfortable--what if I'm taking good care of those least things mentioned in Matthew 25? Doesn't that make me good?

Well, it makes me good in the eyes of people around me. The problem is twofold. First there are all those other small things that add up like the dust in the cobweb. The second thing is also like those dusty cobwebs; from the ground all that mess wasn't quite so visible, and it was only as I stood on the stool and could see clearly that I could see the entirety of the dirt. Our hearts are like that, too, and even if we can show the best and good to those around us, there are always things that we cannot see. But God sees them, as we are reminded in 1 Samuel 16:7, as David was chosen king, contrary to what everyone expected: "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

All of which convicts me and should convict each one of us. But it leaves me even more uncomfortable than before. If those small things matter so much what am I to do to overcome them? Here's the fortunate part for us all: we don't have to overcome them. "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ... But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6,8) These words are good news for us all. The Lord will take care of those small things if we let Him. First He cleanses us through His death on the cross. Then He cleanses us daily as we willingly walk with Him through all those small obstacles. He takes care of those dirty cobwebs in our souls and He doesn't need a step stool to see even the most hidden ones. If you have never thought about God's gift or the need for spiritual spring cleaning, I encourage you to do so. We all need it.

As we approach the day of celebration of His gift, I cannot think of a better way to spend my Easter vacation than to ponder His amazing cleansing gift, as I feebly attempt to clean my long-neglected home.

Conquering Time, or Notice that He Wasn't Called Alexander the Late

2010-03-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

Time. Why does it seem that there is never quite enough of it? These days I have so many different areas of life that want snippets of my time, which makes me feel a bit like Bessus after he met Alexander*--pulled in too many directions. And like Bessus, sometimes the end result is painful. Worse, I suppose, is to be paralyzed by all the demands on my time. I frequently see that defect in my students, where they become immobilized by the quantity of choices: what should my thesis be? Which piece of art do I submit? Which college do I choose? Which hamburger do I pick?

Oh wait, that last stumper would be the one that plagues me.

I'm not denying the importance of some of the decisions--it's just that some aren't as life changing as others. And some of those decisions just affect our time. Do I stop to read the early history of Bactria? Is it essential to my knowledge of Alexander? Or would it just be an enjoyable diversion? Too many choices, too few hours.

Even my normal night owl routine is wearing thin, leaving me thinking that proskynesis may not be such a bad thing, if it just meant I could catch a few extra winks. How long will it take me to draw that horse example for class? How many maps of ancient empires do I need to look at before I find the one I need? Does my family really need to eat again tonight?

Yes, I suppose they do. And yes, I should be looking at yet more unhelpful maps in the search for the one that will make everything clear. I suppose part of the reason why there are so many demands on my time is that I care about the quality of the things I set out to accomplish. If I didn't care it would be easy to just take the shortcut. Perhaps it's that restless spirit that wants to explore and share it all, just like the Macedonian king who couldn't be satisfied. At least I don't have to take care of the whole kingdom. There's a greater One who does that.

*That would be in Plutarch's account. Great reading that Plutarch--if I just had more time...

The Geometry of a Window

2010-02-09T22:52:00.000-08:00

We drew a rose window in fourth grade art today. Ours was based on the one from Grace Cathedral, which can be viewed in animation. After we were finished we watched another animation of Chartres Cathedral. After it finished playing the students applauded and cheered. I think they had a new appreciation for the complexity of the process.

Thinking on the end

2010-01-07T23:32:00.000-08:00

I'm still living in the land of the Greeks and still have little time for any art of my own. I did write a short essay this week that I shared with the students and will share here, as well. We're learning to use a proverb as a building block for composition. Enjoy, but not too quickly. ;-)

---------------------------

Acting in haste can lead to unfortunate consequences, and the proverb “Think on the end before you begin” is a good motto to live by. At the beginning of any undertaking, whether it is an everyday choice or a bigger decision, it is a good idea to think ahead to the consequences. Since every choice a person makes corresponds to another action or choice, it is important to evaluate what the potential consequences could be. If a person fails to think ahead he or she may be unpleasantly surprised when an unexpected end result occurs.

A good example of someone who did not think about his actions was King Midas. In mythology, and some think in real life as well, Midas was one of the wealthiest kings of the ancient world. Yet despite his immense riches he wished to have even more gold. After performing a good deed, he was given a wish by the god Bacchus as a reward. Without stopping to think about the end results any wish might bring about, Midas quickly wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. Bacchus tried to talk the greedy and foolish king out of making this wish, but Midas persisted and Bacchus granted the wish. It didn’t take long before Midas realized his terrible mistake. He had not stopped to think that his wish meant that even his food and drink would turn to gold or that any loved one he might wish to hug would also turn to gold. Luckily Bacchus was willing to undo Midas’s wish and turn his touch back to normal.

If King Midas had considered the end result of his wish, he would have been spared quite a bit of trouble. Many of life’s everyday choices still have big consequences and should be thought through with some degree of carefulness. For example, at the end of the day most people want to go home and spend some time in an enjoyable activity. There is nothing wrong with spending a few minutes reading, playing a game or watching a television show, as long as the person has thought about what other things need to be done in that same period. If there are chores, or tasks like homework (if one is a student), or preparation for work the next day (if one is a grownup with a job) that need to be done, it would be wise to think about which activity should receive the most time. If one does not plan the evening carefully it would be easy to spend too long on the wrong activity and end up in some form of trouble. Some students earn poor grades by not thinking in advance about how to best spend their time. They are surprised when they run out of time to finish a paper and unhappy when they receive a poor grade on it. Perhaps if they had thought about the end at the beginning they would have planned more wisely and the results would have been better.

I once ended up in a disagreeable circumstance at a job by not thinking about what the end result of my actions would be. When a friend in the office where I worked left her job, I was elated to be chosen to fill the position. Before leaving, she took the time to explain to me what tasks were fun to do and which tasks were especially unpleasant, then exhorted me to avoid the latter as much as possible. When the other workers would come to me with these “unpleasant tasks” I would find a way to avoid doing them, even though they were part of my job description. I never stopped to think about what the end result would be until I came into work one day and was met by my boss, who asked me to come into her office. Her words were far more unpleasant than any of the tasks I was so eager to avoid would have been. However, like Bacchus, she was kind enough to give me a second chance and I was grateful to not be fired. What I liked to do did not matter, and if I had stopped to think about what the end result of trying to avoid my job duties was, I would have made better choices!

Taking a little time to think about the possible end results of an action is a wise thing to do. It can prevent trouble and extra toil, as well as allow a person to take a different route that might lead to a better outcome. Midas would have been spared grief. Students could achieve better grades. I would have not come within a hair’s breadth of being fired, if only some thought were given ahead of time. And if one persists in not thinking before acting, there is an African proverb that sums up the unfortunate end results: Haste is the sister of repentance.

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The image is a study for a portrait by John William Waterhouse. I was trying to find something that looked pensive.

Self-Expression and Art: What is the Connection?

2009-11-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

I have not had much time to do anything other than study and prepare for classes, grade student work and feed my family as I make the transition to full-time teaching. This article was written for our school newsletter, but I have adjusted it for publication here.

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In the course of teaching art there has been one concern consistently presented to me from parents and, to a lesser degree, students: the anxiety over students’ self-expression. In truth, the concept of visual art as merely a means of self-expression and an opportunity to share one’s creativity is really a modern concept, but one that has permeated the arts quickly and to a point where it has become the dominant goal in most visual arts. While self-expression has value, it was not the focus of the arts for most of history and is not the focus of my school art classes until the end of the art training process. Instead my curriculum is based on the ideas and methods from the past that helped produce the great art of earlier centuries, which came long before the late 1800s and the concept of art as merely self-expression.

One of the most basic methods of teaching art, which has a long, honored history, is the method that is the most antithetical to today’s focus on self-expression: copying. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Rubens were all taught painting (and sculpting, in Michelangelo’s case) in an apprenticeship or workshop situation where the apprentices began by learning how to prepare tools and then moved on to years of copying the works of their masters before being allowed to work independently. When they were deemed ready, they created a work of their own that was presented to the local guild to determine if they could be granted the title of master. This piece of art was their “masterpiece” and is the origin of the term we still use today to describe an artist’s best work. Even after the Renaissance and Baroque eras, the academies that grew up to replace the apprentice system placed a high value on the process of copying, and modern classical ateliers use the process as well.

In art the tool of copying means reproducing a past work of art that exemplifies whatever concept the student is learning. The goal is not simply to reproduce and claim the copy as one’s own work, which would be problematic, but to reinforce the concept studied. For instance, while learning the different methods of perspective, students in my basic drawing class choose one of two images to copy. One piece requires students to reproduce the perspective using shading techniques, while the other drawing forces students to use vanishing points and convergence lines to create the illusion of depth. In painting class students copy a sphere in different values of black and white to understand how to make shadows to create depth, which prepares them for later assignments that include other spherical subject matter, such as still lifes and portraits. By allowing the students to copy a previously painted work, the task becomes simpler because students do not have the added burden of composing a pleasing arrangement of items, nor do they have to attempt to translate three dimensional forms to a flat, two-dimensional surface. Copying allows the students to focus on learning specific skills without the stress of creating subject matter.

The copying process is one of many tools for training, and proper training is essential if one desires to reach the stage of self-expression. Piano training begins by teaching students to understand the keyboard and its notes and chords and is followed by hours of practice training one’s hands to find the right notes each time a composition is played. Imagine what would happen if a beginning piano student were led to the instrument, seated and then told to “Be creative!” Without proper training beforehand, the result would be auditory pandemonium and listeners would quickly flee. In visual art the result is frequently no less palatable, yet this approach is what some people expect in art programs.

But now imagine that the student has been properly prepared. What is the result? At the piano the result is lovely, flowing music. In the visual arts the result is a composition that is pleasing because it implements the concepts the student has learned and uses the proper tools and techniques to achieve the goal of the work. Are there sometimes mistakes? Yes. Even the most seasoned performer or artist misses a cue or puts a brushstroke in the wrong place; but these mistakes happen less frequently with instruction and practice. Copying from a masterpiece helps the student to see where to place the brushstroke to create the desired shape or where to place the color to form a shadow, and the longer the method is used the easier it becomes to dissect the masterpiece to learn from it.

It does not take long for serious art students to appreciate the value in following in the steps of a master. But of course, the ability to copy is not the desired end goal, it is just the tool used. Once students have learned the basics, they move to a more advanced class, where the training focuses on exploring some of those same techniques on a deeper and more thorough level. The rigid structure of the early classes eases some as students are allowed a little more freedom within the skills and concepts learned. Then, in my upper level art classes, students are allowed to explore mediums, skills, techniques and subject matter of their own choosing. Ironically the students who rebel against the early stages of learning frequently do have a vision they want to express, but not the patience to follow the process and learn the techniques needed to express their vision. This rebellion often leads to frustration and, sadly, they quit and never reach the self-expression stage that they so desire.

This process of learning art mirrors the training levels of the Trivium upon which my whole school is based. This year marks a milestone for my school’s art program. As part of a recent restructuring I have been able to add the second and third stages of this art training process by offering classes that allow deeper and individualized study. The most exciting class is the studio art class, which is designed for upper level students who have previous art training to be able to create their own study program. Some of this semester’s projects include painting, storyboarding for movies, pottery, sculpture and photography. The class itself is the fulfillment of a dream for my art program as a whole, in that the students have learned basic skills that now allow them to explore their interests successfully and express the visions they have. At last, they have reached the self-expression stage of the process, and they are greatly enjoying the fruit of their previous labor.

Images shown: Leonardo da Vinci's "Head of a Warrior", Francisco de Zurbaran's "Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose", Giovanni Battista Piranesi's "Fantasy on a Magnificent Triumphal Arch"
All are used in my class.

Pandora

2009-10-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time for art lately. I have been too busy preparing for classes and grading tests and papers. Even my beloved camera is beginning to collect dust. This week, though, I played with a different art form as I wrote out a sample for my writing class. Enjoy this slanted version of the story of Pandora; my seventh graders did. :-)

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The jar was so beautiful with the light shining through the alabaster. Dawn’s first rays crept through the window and across the sill like a delicate flower unfolding, inching up the curved sides until the whole jar was infused with a rosy glow. How could I know that it held such foulness inside? The colors were so lovely, so inviting. Surely the maker of the jar should have known that beauty of such a kind would kindle a desire to know what matching beauty was inside. I expected glistening jewels of deep color and fiery shine, or perhaps the rarest perfume to delight my senses—such a nice beginning to my dreary days of hunting down that lazy girl who never brings the water quickly and spinning the rough clumps of wool until my hands are raw. This beauty given me by Venus, my skin smooth like the marble at the temple, or white like the fleeting snow, what good does it do me here? Surely she would have been kinder to hold this gift back and not let it be so destroyed by all this work. My lyre hangs unused while the only strings I stroke are the ones I weave from those first rays of Apollo’s sun to the last. And all the while the jar beckoned to me, reminding me of the beautiful things I could have been surrounded by had I only been betrothed to one more favored by the gods. A man with great wealth and a home of delicately made wares would have been more suited to me, so carefully crafted by the gods. If there had been jewels in the jar wouldn’t it have been my right to adorn myself for my husband instead of letting them sit, wasted?

So I went to that one lovely thing, that one bit of fine workmanship in this stone hovel. The day, even, was fair and blue as Apollo’s chariot rose, the light glancing off the sea like sparkles of gold falling behind the horses. But even in that moment the gods conspired against me to create such burning curiosity in my soul. I savored my dreams as I extended my hand to remove the stopper. It was not even heavy as I drew it out. Shouldn’t such plagues have been held imprisoned with something of more substance than that? But the stopper lifted so gently, and, as I sat enchanted with my imaginings, a slow mist began to rise from the open neck.

At first it was pale. Then the color began to shift, to slither like a snake, up into the air until, for a moment, I thought it was a viper coming out and preparing to strike. Then, in the most horrible moment I could imagine, eyes opened in the vapor and looked at me with an icy cold. Arms raised upward and the wisp became a wraith, now grey, now black, swirling and twirling and dividing until there were suddenly two, then three, then ten, then thirty. Still shocked at such betrayal, I sat staring, as if held fast by Ariadne’s web until I felt the cold caress of a hand on my cheek. Pain poured over me, around me, even through me, like the water in the streams in spring. Terror took me then and I fled. Those shapes, those forms of things, laughed as they floated out through the windows, but it was not silver, tinkling laughter. It was the sound of bitterness as it bites and mayhem as it mocks, the laughter of everything evil and I knew betrayal stood among those wraiths.

Now even the trial of that lazy girl would be a blessing to me. As I go to fetch the water the people point at me in accusation, but they would have done the same. How could anyone stand in that moment against the temptation of the gods or have thought to put the stopper back? Epimetheus didn’t warn me. Surely he knew and yet he never said a word. Now he looks at me as if I were a curse from Jupiter himself and my eyes, once blue like the Aegean, are now as red as my raw, raw hands. But I know that one day they will forget; time will wash away their memories as the water washes away the sands. Some day, when I am old one child will look on me with pity, or with kindness even, and ask if he can draw my water. People will treat me with kindness again and remember my beauty. I still have hope.

A Quick Link

2009-09-20T13:49:00.001-07:00

Thinking about art.

http://www.makotofujimura.com/

Turn, Turn, Turn

2009-09-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight I stand at one of those pivotal moments in a life, poised on the boundary of the past and the threshold of the future at the same time. I have been studying and planning for this moment all summer, but I have pondered what this moment of change might look like for a number of years. After being home with my children for 10 years, last spring I received an offer to begin teaching full-time this fall, which I accepted, so it's not a moment unexpected.

In mid-August I lifted my eyes from a book long enough to deadhead my flowers, when I realized it was the first time I had done so this summer. The first deadheading, and at the same moment summer was almost gone. As I clipped the old, spent blooms to encourage a continuing bloom it occurred to me that God was doing the same thing in my life. The seedheads fell into the tangled mess of leaves in the flowerbed along with my tears as I recognized God's hand. God was trimming away the old things to encourage the growth of the new in my world. I stand at the end of my time as a stay-home mom and at the beginning of my time re-entering the world of full-time responsibilities.

As with all of God's works, these changes in season are good and will be of great benefit to our family. At the same time, this moment cannot help but be bittersweet. These years of staying home have been such pleasant ones for me. Taking my little ones to explore autumn apple orchards in the late September sun; napping in a quiet house in the middle of the day with my son snuggled into my arms; driving north to visit Grandma on a whim; all these things have been precious. As Mary treasured up things and pondered them in her heart, so have I. God has been gracious in allowing this time.

He has also been gracious in gently easing me from this season. The change to a working mom has happened slowly, in His time and in His way. I have often wondered what I would do if I returned to the workforce. The field I was in previously doesn't even make the software I used; in ten years I have become a dinosaur. To work as a teacher never would have entered my mind, yet God has made a way through part-time work and I have enjoyed it, along with learning so many things--not all academic. Sometimes I still have doubts. How do I know this is His will for me? Am I really sure? Can I teach these children? To be sure, this summer several naysayers have crossed my path and tripped me up with more uncertainty. But when I examine the elements of my life in the whole I see that He has prepared me for this moment for much longer than just one summer.

When I passed by the flower bed a few days ago I noticed the gallardia is ready to yield more seedheads to my scissors. Then I looked more closely and saw how once again the flowers were the visual metaphor for my life. On one plant are blooms in three stages of life: the old spent and falling away, the middle full of color and life and the new bud opening to the future. And here am I, the year of 40, leaving something behind and turning to something new, all in God's timing. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.

From the Daughter and Son OR Let's Get Wild with Words

2009-08-20T22:53:00.001-07:00

My summer has been spent with my nose in a book. I forgot to come back and post our adventure with the cherries; I forgot to even take a picture of the adventure with the cherries. Which may be just as well, since years from now I don't want to look at pictures of small worms--not even the ones you can shoot out from the fruit like a mini-cannon clear across the kitchen. But you probably didn't want to know about that icky mind picture. And technically it's been more than one book. (Yes, back to the nose.)

Which has left my children to entertain themselves a bit more. My daughter has never been challenged with this concept, but my son seems to need a bit more encouragement in this area. Today, however, they did well. I'm not sure from whence they came, but my daughter produced a pack of word cards and my son received a lesson in grammar. Whether he wanted it or not was never asked. Between the soon-to-be writing teacher and the bossy older sister, he learned some new terms this morning. But once he got past the reminder of days to come, they got down to business and amused themselves with creating the silliest, most bizarre sentences they could make that still made sense. Or at least I hope they make sense; once I promised to share them here, things really got wild. So, yes, here are the sentences.

Poodles bashfully frighten comical steamrolled finger nails.

Cheerfully, girls fiercely punch weirdos. (Surprisingly, or maybe not, from the male child.)

Abnormally bizarre lovesick (had to define that word) kneecaps tweak (had to define that word) lukewarm kneecaps.

Sweatsocks drink feverishly, shocking enormous boys.

Heartless, wicked prom gowns murder hot dogs.

Noisily massive grandmothers casually burn computers. (I'm getting a Salvador Dali vibe here.)

Pierced eyeballs are aggressively useless.

Gorgeous dummies overwhelm choirboys impolitely.

Sticky baseballs stupidly despise romance bitterly. (Noticing a personification trend here.)

Hard drives desire incredible spaceships.

I was tickled to watch my daughter use her Shurley grammar and the technique of listing strong words with this exercise. And you have to admit, some of these sentences leave one with some pretty vivid images. Maybe I'll have to use this card deck in class every now and then!

Once again, images are courtesy of www.morguefile.com.

Random Summer Moments

2009-07-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

The lazy, hazy days of summer have been more like the wavy, crazy days of summer for me this year. Since I will be teaching full-time this next year I have been studying for my new classes. Trying to do a little each day has been my plan, but some days are just more productive than others. So, my first random summer moment is this moment with the ancients--see, even my footware has gone Greek!

I've already spent more time in or near water than in previous summers. On one of our outings we returned home to find this lovely belated birthday gift watiting, full of homemade goodies. Fun stuff--thanks Sis!

In the moments I'm not reading and taking notes, I'm trying to practice my drawing or calligraphy skills. The drawings are in various stages of progress and are inspired by the ancient myths, although drawn from various modern sources. The most unfinished one

will be Circe, I think. Medusa needs better snakes in her hair. I did not know she was originally a woman, but she was a beautiful maiden, who, like so many maidens in the Greek myths, dared compare herself to a goddess. Since her chief attribute was her hair, Minerva changed the lovely ringlets to hideous snakes, and of course the girl's whole countenance, physical and personality, transformed unpleasantly as well. My version is obviously in the beginnings of the conversion, but some of the snakes could use more definition. The expression should probably be one of horror, but maybe she hasn't figured out yet, what is happening. Anyway, it's practice. I think I'm making progress, although I don't draw fast enough for effective classroom demonstration. Next task--drawing from life instead of flat sources...

Perhaps I should spend time drawing flowers instead of photographing them. Nah. I love taking pictures. When I see foxglove I always think of Agatha Christie and British mysteries where digitalis leaves end up in the salad and someone dies. Luckily there are only strawberries and raspberries growing near these.

I could end with a shot of cherries, since we've been inundated with fruits, but I think I'll save that for another post. After all, our summer fruit adventures really deserve a post of their own. Let's just say I now know more about bugs than I really should--I'm a humanities teacher, not science! ;-)

Are Your School Supplies a Waste of Time?

2009-06-24T11:13:00.001-07:00

To finish up my thoughts on school supplies, I offer some general thoughts for pondering.

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The items discussed before offer some specific challenges, but I would also like to speak to the challenge of cheapness. Like I said before, as a mom I am familiar with the need to budget, but as an art teacher I have discovered that cheap price usually goes along with cheap quality. Watching students try to make poor quality items work well for them, and growing frustrated in the process, makes me see the value in spending a bit mor (when I can) in order to facilitate my own children's learning experiences. Because once in the classroom, the real issues change. Can the student learn with the tools provided? Can the student do the work with the tools provided? Do the tools provided steal and waste student time? For example, one second grader complained that her pencil sharpener seemed to always be jammed because it never made her pencils any sharper. She brought it to me so I could clear it and we discovered that the reason it didn't sharpen was because there was no blade in it! It hadn't fallen out—there was no way it could have. It had never had a blade inside, ever. This particular sharpener still bore the logo of a large discount office supply store on the side and sells for quite cheap at the store. Sure, it's just a pencil sharpener, but the bigger problem is the amount of time wasted by the poor supplies. In this case, she had spent over half the year trying to sharpen pencils with something that NEVER would have done the job. After minutes spent fiddling with her sharpener, she would then ask another student to borrow one and now at least two students, but more likely three to five (because nothing ever happens that quietly), have now been disturbed by the problem sharpener. What seems like a bargain really isn't in the end.

I'm not trying to place an extra burden on parents or blame anyone for buying materials that turn out to be bad quality (I've done it too, and I'm not really sure how to recommend choosing something like a pencil sharpener!). I like to see good prices, just like everyone else. But until I started seeing these items in action I didn't realize the frustration some of them can cause. My goal is to educate, and in this letter I hope I have been able to give you some information to help you make choices. For younger students, who are more prone to losing things (most classrooms have a crayon/marker/pencil lost and found just for this reason!), the investment might not be wise, but they won't always be so young, either.

If you do decide to invest in better paints and colored pencils, etc., and want to re-use some of those supplies, remember to talk to your teacher and let it be known that you might want some of those items back at the end of the year. Some classrooms have community boxes for some supplies, but others keep individual items in their desks, so communication is important. Also, make sure to label anything you might want back. Finally, if you have extra supplies and you don't know what to do with them—ask me. Your art teacher can always use donations, or you can find a home for them elsewhere, such as VBS or summer camps. And if the items are still in good shape you can always use them again next year. Blessings to you for a great summer!

Glue and Watercolor Paints for Kids

2009-06-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

Next we take a look at glue and watercolor paints.

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Glue is another item that parents should be wary of buying cheaply. Store brands seem to be the worst offenders, making claims to dry clearly, but then leaving blue, sticky patches in the middle of artwork. Or worse, the glue just does not hold fast, so art falls apart (I could say that's an application problem on the part of the user, but I find that most grade schoolers have the opposite problem and use too much). Gel glues, in my experience, are also not the best option for younger students. The ability to squeeze out only the amount needed isn't really developed yet. Even my eighth grade art students take some time learning how to put out the right amount of paint from the tube, and young children are just fascinated with squeezing things out—especially if there's any glitter involved. I would recommend that you stick with the stick (no pun intended!) when it comes to glue, and save the bling for folders.

The final item I want to make some recommendations about is watercolor paints. With paints you need to decide what quality is most important to you: washability, rich color or lightfastness. If all you are concerned with is washability, then Crayola is a great brand and probably the most economical. For rich color Prang is hard to beat. If lightfastness (which means the art will not fade when exposed to light, such as in a frame), you need to buy Sargent; they are pricier, but they are lightfast, and as far as I can discover, they are the only ones that are. I do not recommend other brands because many of them contain so much glycerin (to make them washable) that when water is added they become gel-like and are very difficult to paint with, besides giving weak, pale, unpleasant colors.

Next time we'll talk about the bottom line with school supplies. Photos courtesy of http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/32487 and http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/233995.

Some thoughts on colored pencils and crayons

2009-06-09T22:40:00.000-07:00

To continue with my series on school supply tips, this time we look at colored pencils and crayons.

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Colored pencils have the same issues with gluing, but they also share a common problem with crayons: wax content. Cheap versions of these supplies are typically loaded with extra wax, and contain smaller amounts of pigment. Consequently they give weak, pale colors and sometimes don't even look like the colors they are supposed to be, which is frustrating to many students. For crayons, I usually stick with Crayola. With colored pencils there are several options. Faber-Castell makes a nice colored pencil that is glued all the way down (which solves the breakage issue talked about above) and has nice color. It's a little more expensive, but I would recommend it for older, more responsible students. Crayola colored pencils have nice color, but are very prone to breaking. A couple years ago I bought my daughter a set of colored pencils at Michaels. I'm not even sure of the brand, but I found them in the art supply section, not the kid arts and crafts section. I paid about six dollars for 24 colors, but she has used them for two years now and will be able to use them again next year, so we're now down to $2 a year. Of course, this investment only works when the student is old enough to not lose the items. I have seen some colored pencils put out by Crayola that are twistable and encased in plastic; what I have heard about them has been favorable, but I'm not very familiar with them.

Thank you to http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/12789 for the crayon photo.

School supplies already

2009-05-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, I've been so involved in school that I haven't visited my own blog in a while. As our year winds down I've been thinking ahead to school supply lists for my art classes next year. This year I've paid attention to the tools all the students use, no matter what age, and have decided to write an informational article for our parents. Then I decided I'd share it here as well. So, if you're reading this and thinking I'm off my rocker already talking about supplies for next year, well just chalk it up to the fact that my students have driven me off the deep end--no wait, I'm just planning ahead. And rather than dump a massive article (in blog terms) here all at once, I think I'm going to serialize it, so tune in again for more schooooool supply tiiiiiips...

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Well it's almost here: the end of the school year. Which means summer break, sleeping in and fun at the beach? No, it means it's time to buy more school supplies! Am I the only parent amazed at how quickly the back-to-school sales fliers come out and sales begin? Before you start stocking up, though, I have a few suggestions I'd like to share after watching students use those supplies in art class.

The first warning I have is to watch out for some of those bargain supplies. Now I understand about budgets—I live on one, too, and I know many families are feeling the pinch right now. But one of the biggest difficulties I have found this year is that many of those supplies I remember seeing at such fantastic prices turned out to be big duds. Specifically, there are a handful of major offenders that I want to discuss and give some recommendations about: pencils and colored pencils, crayons, glue sticks, and watercolor paints.

Colored pencils seem to be a perpetual problem, but in the last couple years I've noticed that regular pencils also create unneeded difficulties. Cheaply made pencils, of both kinds, have fragile leads inside and are glued in only a couple places. When they are dropped—and sooner or later they will be!—the leads break down inside the pencil and fall out when the student tries to write. Then the student has to sharpen the pencil, but unless the sharpening process goes below the break or the next glue spot, the pencil lead will still continue to fall out when the student tries to write again. With regular pencils this problem is compounded by exteriors that are made of flimsy wood. Pencils covered with decorative plastic coatings seem to be especially bad about this. Manufacturers seem to think that the plastic will bind the wood tightly enough that the poor quality wood will be reinforced and hold fast. But manufacturers don't live in the world of grade schoolers, who peel the decorative coatings off and drop things all the time. I have watched students spend one third of their class time sharpening pencils until they have almost nothing left. My recommendation is to buy a little higher quality pencil, which of course aren't the ones on sale, but especially avoid the plastic coated ones.

Next time: More on colored pencils and crayons

Photo credit: http://photodaisy.blogspot.com/ through www.morguefile.com (Thank you!)

May the Drawing Force Be With You

2009-04-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

I currently have two students who have a strong interest in creating graphic novels or pursuing similar work after graduation. Consequently I've been dipping into the world of comics, graphic novels and the creation of said materials. Since my household consists of several Star Wars fans who regularly look for online videos, I've spent some time on their site also and have discovered some fun and informative videos on the process of creating in this arena. If you're interested, check out the video on story boarding and then search for the other "You can draw Star Wars" videos. There is also a very good book of the same name. Yes, we have it, too, and it covers more than just Star Wars--including a lot of good solid basics.

Resources for beginning sketchers

2009-03-30T20:39:00.001-07:00

It's spring break in my world, which means I have a few moments to myself. Right now that means answering a question someone posted about drawing books in a forum I occasionally visit. The post was a query for recommendations for books to help one learn to draw, which caught my eye because I'm always on the lookout for good resources. I was gratified to see that several of the ones offered where books I've already got. But I wanted to offer another title, which made me think, why don't I share this info on my blog, too. So, here is the text of my post (with slight revisions to stand alone), for anyone who is interested in learning to draw.

I teach K-12 art and have looked at hundreds of art books. The first book I would recommend is "Start to Draw" by Robert Capitolo and Ken Schwab. The first section covers some basic techniques that can be quite helpful: recognizing shapes and forms as understructure (something my students are currently struggling with), grid drawing, creating depth through shading techniques, proper lighting. The rest of the book gives various step-by-step projects to practice, but also covers such fundamentals as composition, using source material (see below for my thoughts on this topic) and basic proportions of the human face. "Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner", by Claire Watson Garcia, is another one that offers some of the same techniques, but she gives more explanations and goes a little more in-depth in places. She also discusses contour drawing, which has value as a practice exercise, but I think is more important in terms of teaching the eye to really observe what is being drawn. She also explains sighting and spends time teaching values, which are crucial to good art.

Also recommended by other people were Bert Dodson's "Keys to Drawing" and Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". I have both, along with the workbook for the Edwards book. Dodson's book has good information, but I have to confess to not liking his drawing style very much. A couple things I do like are the summaries and checklists at the end of each chapter to help keep the things learned in mind. I also like how he points out what artists from the past have done. Since I incorporate art history into my classes, this is a big bonus for me. "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is a standard for many people, but I find it to be very cerebral (while usually being on the lookout for witticisms, I have to say no pun intended here!). I rather felt like I was reading a psychology book, which must appeal to many people, but wasn't very helpful to me. The work book helped, because it's obviously designed with exercises to make one draw, which put into practice much of what she taught in the regular title.

Another standard is Mona Brooks' "Drawing with Children". This book gives some good step-by-step chapters and I found the breaking objects down into smaller parts advice very helpful. Children especially benefit from this concept, because it can be very overwhelming to look at a complete subject and try to draw it. By taking said subject as smaller, easy to draw bites, students have an easier time not becoming discouraged. Which reminds me that any youngster who likes to draw will enjoy the books by Ed Emberley, where he draws hundreds of people, animals, buildings, vehicles, etc. using a handful of basic shapes.

Someone on the forum suggested going to the library to check out some of the books before buying them and I would second their thought. I have saved myself tons of money by using my local library. Art instruction books (especially painting books) tend to fall into two basic categories: the ones that start from the most basic (pencils, paper, setting up a place to work, etc.) and the ones that take you from blank support to finished art in 3-5 steps. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. There are only so many times you need to read about paper surfaces, and going from beginning to end in three steps can be less than satisfactory. There are books that manage to avoid these two extremes and are extremely helpful--but the best way to discover what's what is to check them out at the library first. If you're not a regular library user, don't forget that most libraries can borrow from all around the country through their inter-library loan programs. Once you find something that is helpful you might try looking it up online and seeing if the author has published anything else or if the book site can recommend another similar book--I've found some great books that way.

Another comment on the forum was that the best way to learn is to do, and really that's the most important step. My seventh grade students focus on drawing and anytime a student has completed an assignment and is in need of something to do I give them another assignment to keep them drawing--practice, practice, practice. We work in the classical style, where we use old master drawings as our source material (copying), just like the art schools of old. I highly recommend this method to master the basics, then move on to being creative. Sometimes the biggest challenge in art is not knowing what to create and this method helps remove that obstacle, as well as helping you see things you might not have seen before: what is the angle on that roofline and how did the artist shade the wall to create the most depth? Copying from a painting or drawing also has the advantage that the artist has done some of the work for you already in terms of translating a dimensional subject to a flat surface and using methods of perspective and shading to create depth. These are techniques that you will want to learn, so copying an old master also gives the opportunity to study what they did to create the effect of the finished piece. Some of my favorite places to find art are Web Gallery of Art for Medieval to Romantic-age paintings and drawings (they also have sculpture, engravings, etc.), Art Renewal Center for 18th-20th century academic and classical art, Artcyclopedia for all ages and links to other places and The Athenaeum for many images not posted elsewhere. Copying has a long, respected history in the art world, but please be mindful of copyright issues.

Even if you are not interested in copying from an old painting, I would still encourage you to use some kind of source material to look at: find an object to draw or a photo to work from (preferably your own to avoid copyright issues). Having something to look at helps with proportions and lends a higher level of realism to the final result. You can also compare and find the places where you drawing goes wrong more easily when you actually have something you are looking at and comparing to. I know that most of my students, if given the assignment to just draw something, typically default to whatever they have always drawn, which doesn't help them improve.

A final reason to use source material is that most artists do, although many people don't realize this fact. There is a stereotype of the artist pulling a subject out of mind and putting it to canvas quickly and perfectly, and yes, this is done sometimes I'm sure (usually after a lifetime of looking at source materials!). However, most artists do quite a bit of research on a subject, including quick sketches, more in-depth studies and possibly several versions of the finished subject. Does every project need this much effort? Of course not, but the point is that artists do research and keep files of research. Even old masters had props and plaster casts to observe and work from. And don't forget the fine tradition of modeling for the artist. Source material is invaluable.

A couple last tips: if you are working on a picture and it just isn't going right for you there are a couple things you might try. One, try converting your source to black and white, which will help you see the values (this tip is especially helpful in painting). Two, turn it upside down and look at it from a new angle. Sometimes wrong proportions or off angles are more obvious upside down because we're not so focused on what the elements are: rather than seeing the town, we see a collection of lines. Look for relationships, line things up using your pencil and then compare it to your drawing. Are the relationships the same? Looking upside down will make these things easier to see.

I hope these thoughts are helpful to you. I would say best of luck, but it would probably be more fruitful to say, practice, practice, practice!

St. Jerome in His Study

2009-03-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

St. Jerome in His Study by Antonello da Messina. I like the stillness of this painting. It has immense depth and makes me wonder what's around the other side of this unusual space within a space that comprises his study. What do you think?

Repose

2009-02-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

Repose, by John White Alexander, Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org)

Where does my time go...

2009-02-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

That's the question I many times stop and ask myself. Lately I haven't been asking that, but perhaps wishing for more time instead. C'est la vie. A few nights ago I sat and colored samples for second grade, which was quite fun. Maybe I need to do more coloring-oriented projects! In fourth grade we will be making faux stained glass tomorrow, using Pebeo glass paints to color in the patterns the students created. Here is my sample in a couple stages of progress. The second photo shows the colors in the finished piece on the paper at the top.

Another recent project was to shepherd the process of making a tapestry as a play prop. The play was Macbeth and the tapestry theme was Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden: both men who listened to their wives with tragic consequences. We based ours on a detail of a fresco by Giusto de' Menabuoi. I designed the pattern from enlarged photocopies of the fresco and then cast the vision for our seventh grade students. They chose most of the fabrics (with a little guidance) and then helped fuse the layers. I stitched over most of them before the play, and was glad I did because the fusing would not have held up during the handling of it that night. I still need to finish stitching the figures. The students did a great job. I'm grateful, also, to Mrs. Bailey, who helped supervise the students, and to sweet Catherine, who painted the faces on the figures.

Personal art right now is largely neglected, but I have some ideas percolating. Hopefully soon I will have a little extra time...

Sharing

2009-01-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

I want to share this post from Deryn Mentock's blog, Something Sublime. It talks about meanness in our world. I teach art to almost every child in our school and occasionally bump up against meanness, squelching it every chance I get. My daughter was the special target of one child for some time. Blessedly, at this point things have been worked out, but watching a child be singled out makes my heart yearn to take it all away. Of all the things I wish for my children, I wish I could take away the meanness they will encounter in the world. Then I remember that these are the very things that shape us into who God wants us to be. Since we cannot escape the world, I am reminded to take the lessons into my heart and make each chisel stroke count for something. Otherwise, the world is just mean.

A bit of fun again

2009-01-15T21:42:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting little applet that creates word pictures.

Ice

2009-01-15T09:46:00.000-08:00

This morning I am struck again by the beauty of the winter landscape. But it is a scary beauty, a sort of terrible beauty. The frost covers the trees like lace and the fog casts a delicate glaze over the landscape, unifying it, softening the harsh and hiding the displeasing. The snow absorbs the sound and forces a sometimes peaceful, sometimes eerie quiet on everything. Yet, I cannot let go of the thought of freezing and these same images take on a power that seems to underpin the beauty. Especially the ice.

It is the ice that catches my attention this morning. As we try to safely make our way to school, our car slides around the corner and then we take tentative steps into the building, hoping to not make unexpected contact with the pavement. I see the massive chunks of ice that have slowly broken loose from roofs and am amazed at the size this year, and glad to not have been near when they came down. Beautiful when the sun shines, rays of light finding paths through the crystals and cracks sparkle and the ice is lovely to behold.

All of which reminds me of two things. The first is the how God also fits so many of these descriptions. He covers our sins (Acts 10:43). He holds us delicately at times, knowing that we are dust (Gen 2:7; Ps 103:13,14). He desires for His people to be unified (Rom 15:5; Col 3:14). We can hide in Him (Ps 32:7). He gives us peace, which may seem eerie to those who do not understand (Phil 4:7). And He is powerful (Jer 10:12; Rom 1:20). Still, when I look at the snowy landscape what I see most is beauty and God is revealed to me through it, but revealed as the terrible beauty that defines what is sublime. Then I drink in the hush and sing praises in my heart.

The second thing of which I am reminded is the Robert Frost poem, Fire and Ice. It fits, perhaps in an odd way, with my meditations of the power of God, so I share it here. But maybe the connection is made only in my mind and I'm not sure I can adequately explain it because it puts in mind too many things for me to discuss here.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

In this mood of musing I went out to take photos of our winter landscape, but my camera is not cooperating with its port this morning, so instead of my own photography I share with you an image from a young lady I know. And another photo from another friend, that sums up our winter.

Have I mentioned the snow yet this year?

2009-01-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

While I haven't had to shovel my mother's barn this year, we have still been pounded with snow. We've had a week of thawing and freezing now, and we still have at least two feet in our yard. Here are some pics from before the thaw began.

I Can Make That...

2009-01-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some paintings that I've finished just this last month.

This small canvas piece is a collage tribute to my husband's grandmother, who died in October. She was my real-life Proverbs 31 woman and I made a similar 4x4 book page for a swap a few years ago. I gave this painting to grandpa for Christmas and we cried together as we remembered this very lovely lady.

In the spirit of the still life, this little piece only measures 3-3/4x5 inches and was based on a large green still life in a magazine spread (I've been cleaning out the secret magazine stash that lives underneath my couch over Christmas break). I simplified it quite a bit and left some very dark places like many of the still lifes of the Baroque era. I think the grapes still need work, but I'm living with it for now. Here's a peek at some of the still lifes painted by my students. I cannot tell you how proud of them I am. Remember, for most of them, this is only the third painting they've done--ever!

This third piece is on 6x6 inch Strathmore linen canvas for acrylic. I went shopping with a friend in November and we both stopped to ogle a little snowman card (we both like snowmen) and I thought what every creative person thinks at one time or another, "I could make that..." Okay, so I really thought, "I could paint that," and it isn't very like the one we saw in the store. But she loves it and I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

I really should be keeping count of the number of paintings I've done so I can encourage the students that we get better with practice, but at this point I can still count the number of realistic paintings I've done on all my fingers and toes. And I'm starting to be happy with them, so there's hope! So, if you have tried painting and been less than happy with the results, please remember what I always tell my students and frequently tell myself (although usually not in the same pleasant tone of voice--lol!) "Art takes practice--just like everything else."

Oh bother! or lemon curd is nicer, even thinly spread

2009-01-03T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well, our school's Christmas break is rapidly coming to an end and with early mornings looming near once again I decided to make waffles. You know--those delicious, slightly crispy breakfast cakes with butter melted into each individual square and topped with aromatic maple syrup. Mmmm...

What? We are out of syrup. It was on the list, but apparently the shopper did not go to the store where the best syrup deal is and consequently we are out. Which rather made me feel like the king in the A.A. Milne poem, The King's Breakfast, especially in the middle (or so) verse:

The King said,
"Bother!"
And then he said,
"Oh, deary me!"
The King sobbed, "Oh, deary me!"
And went back to bed.
"Nobody,"
He whimpered,
"Could call me
A fussy man;
I only want
A little bit
Of butter for
My bread!"

I wanted to be crabby, but remembering what my dearest hubby has been telling the little people lately about how we CHOOSE to have bad attitudes, I thought it best to pull up my socks and be a big girl. (Bother!)

So, I set about digging through the fridge and came up with an option--lemon curd. Not just any lemon curd, I might add, but lemon curd made by a true English woman and gifted to me in celebration of The Saviour's birthday. (Which makes it extra yummy, don't you think?) My daughter added to the options by pulling out huckleberry jam from another dear friend, which prompted me to scrounge a bit more and find the blackberry from yet another friend. I don't can. I don't make jams. I barely like to bake. In fact, other than eating, there's not much that happens in the kitchen that I really enjoy. Maybe watering the plants... Anyway, all this antipathy toward kitchen duties makes me doubly appreciative of all such gifts and my three little jars from Esther, Patty and Susan (respectively) are like little pots of gold.

Little pots of yummy gold to top my waffles! The lemon curd was very nice on top of some gingerbread cookies I had, but my taste buds were eager to try it on that most northwest of northwest breakfasts, a huckleberry waffle.

For anyone interested, here's a scrumptious recipe for sourdough waffles:

2/3 cup warm water
2 tablespoons yeast
2-1/2 cups baking mix (my mom uses Bisquick; I use Jiffy)
1 cup milk
1 egg
We (my mom and I both) mix everything in the blender, then pour the appropriate amount into the waffle iron. I sprinkle frozen huckleberries into the batter before closing the lid. (Please be aware that this recipe makes waffle batter that grows, so it can pop the lid off your blender, if stored in said container.) Then top with butter and syrup.

Oh wait, not today. It was a difficult choice--each topping had its own merits. Huckleberry in double doses is definitely delicious. Blackberry added a bit of zingy bite. But I think the lemon curd was the luscious winner for me. Lemon and huckleberry are quite complementary (just like their respective colors on the color wheel. You knew I had to work art in here somewhere, right?).

Now, I'll have to find something to try the apple and tomato chutney on. Hmm, I don't think it's going to be huckleberry waffles. ;-)

Why Is There a Snail Next to Gabriel?

2008-12-15T22:37:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love about the Christmas season are the lovely greeting cards people send each other. For many people it is their only exposure to the beautiful art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods and to paintings with religious themes. Recently in my grammar art classes we have been looking at the Christmas story as told in art and in the logic and rhetoric painting classes students have been painting Medieval Christmas images. Most of us are familiar with scenes of the Nativity, but there are many paintings that tell other parts of the story, too.

In the book of Luke, the Christmas story begins with Gabriel telling Mary the good news that she will be the mother of the Messiah. These scenes are typically referred to as "Annunciation" paintings and obviously include Gabriel and Mary. However, many of these images also contain other objects that may leave us wondering. Why is there a snail in the front of Francesca del Cossa's version (seen at right)? While viewers today may be stumped, viewers during the Renaissance would have been familiar with the many symbols that we look past or scratch our heads at in these paintings. The snail was thought to live underground in the dark in its shell for three months of the year when it would re-emerge. If this makes you think of the time Christ spent in the tomb, you have solved the riddle. Many of the extra items in these paintings hint at the end of Christ's time on earth, even as His time in human flesh is just beginning. Lilies are an obvious symbol, but take note of how many there are in a painting. Not only do they refer to Christ's death and resurrection, but if there are three of them then they refer to the Trinity. While three is also a visually pleasing number, many instances of three are meant to be symbolic of the Trinity: three windows in a background, three divisions in the architecture, three vases on a table. Colors also have great significance in Renaissance art. Mary is typically depicted wearing blue because it is a heavenly color. White objects frequently refer to purity and red is the color of Christ's blood shed for us.

While viewing the Annunciation images, students noted that not only were there many recurring symbols, but the storyline of the paintings rarely varied. Traditionally Mary is depicted as being interrupted in her devotions by Gabriel's visit, so she is usually seen kneeling with an open Bible nearby. Luke 1:26-27 says, "In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David." It really doesn't say what Mary was doing--she may have been sleeping, which is how one Henry Ossawa Tanner painted his version (look back a couple posts to see his version). Which also brings up the quandary of what really is Biblical versus what is simply traditional. Well, the best way to find that out is to open one's Bible and read for yourself, but we do talk about these things in class. Lilies aren't mentioned in the Bible, and neither are haloes, which are always of interest to students. One of the most common questions I am asked is why some of the people have gold circles around their heads. We discuss that this is an artistic device to set apart the saints in the image; then we talk about how the Bible defines saints (all believers). But then, just when the students grow used to seeing the haloes we see a painting that doesn't have them and the question becomes why aren't there any! If you pay attention to the haloes, you will notice that Christ's frequently has a crucifix in it because He died on the cross for us.

This fact created quite a stir when we viewed Nativity images by Duccio and Giotto (shown at left), both of which show two babies with crosses in their haloes. Only the kindergartners solved the dilemma on the first try--there are two baby Jesuses in these paintings. That fact doesn't make sense to most of us, and since we are not familiar with such artistic devices these days it may leave us confused. The device is called simultaneous narrative, which simply means telling more than one part of the story at the same time, and was not uncommon in art of this time. One of Botticelli's paintings shows seven different episodes in the life of Moses--all in one scene. Many adoration paintings show the angel announcing to the shepherds and the shepherds arrival at the same time. Gentile de Fabriano's "Adoration of the Magi" (shown below) shows four moments in the story of the visit of the Magi.

In annunciation and nativity images, however, we frequently find another device that is like simultaneous narrative, but instead of telling other parts of the Christmas story, reminds us of why Christ came. In addition to symbols that refer to the crucifixion and resurrection, there are sometimes hidden references to the sin in the garden from which arose the need for a Saviour. Rogier van der Weyden's panel from the Columba Altarpiece (at left) shows Adam and Eve standing under the tree carved into the wooden furniture that on which Mary is kneeling. But these references can be found in many paintings from this time period. If there is a stained glass window or carved sculptures or small figures in the background of a painting they bear close scrutiny and you will frequently find an Old Testament story told and many times it will be the story of the first couple on earth, reminding us of why Jesus has come.

I could write pages and pages about the many symbols found in just the Christmas story, but suffice it to say that if there is something unusual in the painting, it probably had meaning--even if we don't understand it now. If you have any questions a short search on the internet will usually turn up answers, or leave a question in my comment section--I'll try to find the answer and get back to you. A couple other important symbols to note are the dove of the Holy Spirit that descends on Mary and bare feet, which are a sign of holy ground. For a quick rundown: dogs represent faithfulness and loyalty, cats slothfulness, magpies Christ's suffering, irises sorrow and columbines were thought to look like the dove of the Holy Spirit. See if you can spot all these things when you peruse paintings. Merry Christmas, and may God bless you greatly in the year to come.

My own angel

2008-12-14T00:58:00.000-08:00

I recently took part in a Christmas ornament swap in the Christian Paper Artists group. Here is a photo of one of the angels I made. The collaged background made them all slightly different, but the colors and design elements were the same. One the back I wrote a snippet of the Christmas story from Luke about the multitude of the heavenly host singing praises to God.

An American Annunciation

2008-12-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898

The United States does not have the same long tradition of religious painting that Europe does. One rather obvious reason is that we just don't have long traditions because the country is a young one. Our painting heritage also focuses on different things, like landscapes and the spirit of the west. While still in our teens (comparatively speaking) modernism hit, which totally changed most subject matter. Henry Ossawa Tanner was the son of a preacher, which perhaps explains his exploration of religious themes in his art, or maybe it was the drawing of the Holy Spirit. Whatever the reason, I find his version of the Annunciation lovely. As much as I admire the many beautiful Renaissance and Baroque versions of this topic, I think Tanner's version is more realistic in its simplicity. I like how the focus is on Mary and not the grand architecture surrounding her. I like how we are left to wonder what an angel would really look like. But most of all I like how her face reflects her wonder, her question of how this could be, and her humble acceptance of God's will for her life. Tanner shows us a girl who is on the beginning of a difficult road, but who approaches it without fear--a reminder of how believers should approach the Christian faith. If you are not a believer, I would offer the angel's words to you, to "fear not," and invite you to look a little deeper this blessed season to see what the Christmas Day is really celebrating.

"And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation."

--Luke 1:46-50

Hand carved stamps

2008-12-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

While following a link today I found a post about carving stamps that I wanted to share. Hand carving my own stamps is something I started last year and don't have enough time for (some of my friends might be amused to know that I have finally realized that I enjoy cutting things up--I'm constantly cutting out stars and snowflakes this time of year and was always the official Keeper of the Knives wherever I worked). If you are interested at all in trying this activity, check out this link for some inspiration--I see that I need to set my sights a little higher, or rather, larger. Enjoy it!

The Annunciation

2008-12-05T22:28:00.000-08:00

Orazio Gentilleschi, The Annunciation 1623

This is one of my favorite Annunciation paintings. I love the bright colors and the dynamic composition as the eye moves down the sweep of the curtain to the line of Gabriel's back, then back up his arm to Mary's face, where our gaze comes to rest. Her humility shows on her face as she ponders the angel's greeting and the news. Notice the dove of the Holy Spirit entering at the window above and the rays of light that signify God's presence. The lilies are a reminder of how Christ's life will end--in the pain and death of Easter, but also in glorious resurrection. Mary wears the traditional blue outer garment, which symbolizes heaven. Gabriel is bare footed, reminding us of God's command to Moses to remove his shoes because he was treading on holy ground. Altogether it is a very graceful and peaceful image.

"Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her." --Luke 1:26-38

The Holy Star

2008-12-03T22:45:00.000-08:00

THE HOLY STAR

As shadows cast by cloud and sun
Flit o'er the summer grass,
So, in thy sight, Almighty One,
Earth's generations pass.
And while the years, an endless host,
Come pressing swiftly on,
The brightest names that earth can boast
Just glisten and are gone.
Yet doth the Star of Bethlehem shed
A lustre pure and sweet,
And still it leads, as once it led,
To the Messiah's feet.
O Father, may that holy star
Grow every year more bright,
And send its glorious beams afar
To fill the world with light.

William Cullen Bryant 1875

Thank you to my lovely friend Gayle, for sharing this beautiful poem celebrating the reason for this season of celebration.

New art, and a little bit of it's mine...

2008-10-30T00:05:00.001-07:00

Well, I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted anything. Although our first quarter of school is ending next week, so I guess time is going more quickly than I thought. My life has been a blur of art, but not very much of it mine. Here are a couple cards I made for a card deck project that I am participating in. It's a Christian art group that spun off of the Christian Paper Arts group on Yahoo. I've painted other things lately, but nothing that I've taken photos of or want to share right now. And color wheels and other charts aren't that interesting, so I'll spare you those. However, in the interest of trivia, I have painted seven color wheels in the last four weeks and still have at least two more to go next week. Lots o' art!

And Now for Something Completely...

2008-09-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

...yeah, you know where that's going, but it really is something different. No photo manipulation involved--just my camera and my son's little refraction toy. Fun, yeah?

Random Images

2008-09-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

Summer roses.

Found composition.

I have this thing for roads, paths, trails.

Love that late afternoon sun.

Fun with the baubles.

Sunflowers, Psalm 3:3

2008-09-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

Yay! More art, although this piece is a little closer to my regular style than some of the other pieces I've worked on for school. Sunflowers, Psalm 3:3 is based on an exercise in Betsy Dillard Stroud's book Painting From the Inside Out. I like her style of stamping, collaging and painting. The flower stamps I used are ones I carved this summer.

Initially I used watercolor-like washes (the medium is acrylic), but unfortunately, after a not-too-bad start, I made a terrible mistake in my color washes. I was experimenting by using the big paper and that created problems for me, too (said she who lives in the land of 11x17 and smaller). However, a little cropping fixed that easily; you can see the extra paper used as a further cropping device in the last shot (I'm leaving it there to show the students). I experimented with adding a paper that was a grasslike texture and now think that was a mistake, but it's not coming off now. In the last stages I re-worked the flowers using a palette knife. I've never painted that way before and boy did I have fun! Eventually I turned the orientation of the painting and since the last photo have added some green down through the text to give the stems some heft. BTW, the bubble wrap texture visible in the lower flower center in the last shot is a reflection of the flash--it's not white in the painting, but visible at the right angles. What fun!

I'm happy with the colors and the contrast and like the vitality in the knife work. There are things I wouldn't do again, but overall I'm pleased and it will be a great piece to show my students in terms of texture and use of complementary colors. Enjoy seeing the process. (Post-editing note: I see that the photos are rather small, so please click on them to see them bigger. As I frequently post late at night I've run out of time to fix it now and will need to attend to it upon later return. Sorry about that.)

The text in the stem is:

But You, O LORD, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
-Psalm 3:3

Using a toned paper

2008-08-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I've shown the rest of the pictures in this series, but I've been working with this image for a while. The original is a black and white image that caught my attention in an ad in a fashion magazine. I began by drawing it as a regular old pencil sketch, but I only shaded half of it and left the other half as just the blocked in basics. I plan to use this to help illustrate how to begin a drawing to my students. The second version was a monotone painting done with combinations of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. I'm not very happy with it, but that's alright, too. I can still use it to show students how things go wrong and how to spot them!

My mom gave me a variety of drawing papers, including toned papers, about the same time a sanguine sketch in a drawing book caught my eye. The image shown above was my first attempt at playing with three colors of charcoal on a toned paper. I quite enjoyed doing it and am very happy with the mouth and nose area. I keep thinking that the one side of her face is wider, but when I compared them they are the same and the illusion turns out to be a function of the shadow on the one side. I'll have to play with this technique some more.

Summer Bouquet

2008-08-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

Waxing Philosophical

2008-08-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." --Soren Kierkegaard

Sargent and arms--er, make that paws

2008-08-03T17:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend brought an activity that our household has been excited about, yet dreading--the annual 4-H Dog Show. Okay, maybe I was the only one really dreading it. I know my 10-year-old daughter was nervous a few days before, but dread might be a bit strong. And truthfully, the dog show is less painful than horse shows used to be to me when I was a horse 4-H participant so many years ago. For one, dogs are smaller (pretty obvious that). Two, The show is shorter: half a day compared to three whole days. Three, the attire is much cooler and easier to deal with--no hats pinned into your head to prevent it flying off in the show ring.

Some things remain the same, however. The challenge of learning to take care of an animal. The fun (!) of dealing with an animal that has a mind of its own in the ring. And the discipline of practicing with the animal for hours and hours during the months beforehand to properly train.

Well, maybe she practiced for hours and hours, or maybe it was only hours. Last year I was more diligent about reminding her to practice (read: nag her into it), but she received a white because our dog is just spirited and almost as big as she is (still--smaller than a horse!). Despite a year of maturing, he is still quite spirited but a much better behaved dog after the work of the previous year. Because she felt like she knew everything after just one year, my daughter chose the route of minimum practice this spring. Therefore, despite big dreams of a receiving a rosette, she was very disappointed to receive another white ribbon. Her little heart poured out while we drove home, which gave me the oportunity to tell her about a man named John Singer Sargent.

Perhaps you have heard of him. Sargent was an American artist who lived in late 19th/early 20th century Europe. He visited America a few times and painted a fresco series for the Boston Public Library, but he was most well-known for his portraits. During his life he painted the aristocracy of Europe (don't miss the dogs!), American presidents, and wealthy American socialites and their families, as well as the everyday people he saw in the cities. Altogether he is credited with more than 900 oil paintings and over 2000 watercolors. Remember, this was a time when watercolors were still widely considered practice paintings.

Wait--did I say practice? Sargent did a lot of practice, including painting plein air over top of previously painted canvases--much to the surprise of some of his artist friends. He was known for his work ethic, which sometimes meant working sun-up to sun-down or seven days a week, and he also left innumerable pencil and charcoal sketches. Some of these sketches are just the practice of a dedicated artists, but many of them are the detailed preparations for larger pieces, like the dramatic El Jaleo. But the key word here is practice, which is what our discussion centered on. No matter what endeavor we undertake, practice with a desire to improve is the key to growth. Something I hope my daughter will better understand after this experience.

She still hasn't decided if she will tackle a third year of dog 4-H, but if she does she will practice more. Regardless of what she decides for the future, we also talked about what an improved dog we have after only two years of work and how he is now pleasant to be around. Any work at all will give a certain amount of results, which encourages me as I practice my own painting this summer in order to teach students this coming year. And for the record, she did earn a blue in fitting and showing--and we know she earned it because not everyone received blues.

Actually working on projects

2008-07-14T22:36:00.000-07:00

And finishing a few. I'll leave out the mundane ones, like cutting out lots of clothing to be sewn at some later date and painting various furniture items. Today I finally got to a long-overdue project, one that came to me much earlier this spring in the form of a swap group. Several of us in my LikeMindedArtists fabric arts group decided to swap parts of our stashed items to see what other people would make with them. I've received several packets of fantastic, unusual, fun goodies that include fabric, fibers, buttons, sequins, lace, etc. With the commitments of school, however, I fell way behind (luckily there is now hard fast deadline--although it would be much nicer to stick with the program. I want to say sheers to the women who have kept up each month!) and finally today finished the first one.

I'm feeling a lot of pressure to paint (in preparation for teaching it this year!), but have a hard time finding things I want to paint. I would much rather take a picture of something than paint it. And many of the things that I would photograph feel rather daunting to paint. Argh. Today I looked to DJ Pettitt and Deryn Mentock's article in a recent magazine and found inspiration to combine the swapped goodies and some painting and came up with "Give". The work card is from a vintage vocabulary card set I picked up at a local thrift store and the background is painted. All the other items are from the swap group (thank you Pallas). I enjoyed mixing the colors, slowly building the glazes and paying attention to what colors work well, etc. The torso is lacking, but the face isn't too bad, considering I still haven't completed ten paintings in my life. Looking at it from a distance I can see that the value contrast in the face could be greater. I'll live with it for a while...

Another project I do have a deadline for is three fabric ATCs with a flower theme. I saw an article about using embossing powder as a resist medium and since I recently acquired carving tools I had to make my own stamps first. ;-) (While cutting flowers in the garden the other day I was pondering how my co-workers used to tease me about having exacto knives and box cutters and how I really do enjoy cutting things up. I suppose it was inevitable that I would eventually get a carving set. I really enjoy using them, too.) However, either I didn't use the right medium on the fabric (I used inks) or I need different embossing powder, but the resist part was a bit lacking. Now I'm trying to figure out how to finish them to make the floral theme a bit more obvious. The debate has come to stamping again or free--motion-stitching. I'll probably settle on a little of both, but we'll see. In the meantime here are the stamps and the practice fabric, along with the finished fabric piece.

There's a rabbit on my ceiling, no, wait--it's a fish...

2008-06-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

"Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling." G.K. Chesterson

Art as a Cultural Force

2008-06-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

The following article was first published earlier this year in our school newsletter. I teach at a private Christian school and this article reflects my faith as well as my opinions about art. But since it's my blog, you probably figured that part. :-)

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“Humanity looks to works of art to shed light upon its path and its destiny.” —Pope John Paul II

As I learn more about the history of art I am constantly surprised by what an important role art has played in culture throughout history. Sometimes art has reflected the culture and sometimes art has shaped the culture. For instance, art in the French Rococo-style is ornate, with fine details and frivolous, frequently immoral subject matter. This art was created for the nobility and upper echelons and reflected their culture, while ignoring the world of the everyday people. When the revolution swept through, not only did the government and social structures change, artistic styles and subject matter underwent a revolution of their own, too. Gone were the highly decorative images of the court, replaced, instead, by the clean lines and noble themes of Neoclassicism. It would be easy to dismiss these changes as the fickle fads of fashion, but a look deeper shows that some artists were in a role of shaping culture at these pivotal times.

A good example of this situation is Jacques–Louis David, who painted many images promoting the revolutionary cause. His most famous is The Oath of the Horatii, which exalted the sacrifice of self for the state. David went on to become the official painter for Napoleon and his masterful Napoleon Crossing the Alps is a classic example of art as political propaganda. The painting shows Napoleon on a powerful, rearing steed with his beleaguered troops moving behind him (there are four versions of the painting, with slightly varying names and horses, but all show the same scene). In the foreground the rocks are carved with the names of Charlemagne, Hannibal and Napoleon himself, to forge a link in the viewer's mind between the great generals of the past and Napoleon. In fact, he crossed the Alps several days after his troops on a donkey. Even after Napoleon fell from power and David was forced into exile, he still exhorted his artistic followers to use their art to restore the glory of the Republic.

The influence of art and its use as propaganda was not lost on another famous tyrant. Robert Edsel's fascinating book Rescuing da Vinci tells the story of Hitler's infamous taste for art and the allied Monument Men, who were given the task of sorting out and returning Nazi loot after the war ended. Hitler wanted to be an artist, and he took his rejection by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts very personally. His disappointment rapidly grew into bitterness and he developed a plan to create the finest art museum possible in his hometown of Linz, Austria as a way to humiliate the Vienna Academy. As his armies invaded a country, Hitler's staff had lists of art pieces to send back to Germany to eventually be placed into this museum. Not all pieces of art were the same in Hitler's opinion, though, and art that he did not understand or like was deemed “Degenerate Art” and either sold to raise money for weapons or destroyed (at these times when an air of respectability was needed for resale, he changed the laws to strip people of their citizenship and property rights so that the state's commandeering of art objects didn't appear to be outright theft; very little money was actually raised by these sales). Museums and galleries across the continent closed and began hiding their art treasures.

Hitler also saw the value of these art pieces as propaganda, however, and made a show of destroying art created by artists whose ethnic or cultural heritage was “undesirable” to further promote his own twisted plans. For example, the cultural treasures of Warsaw, Poland were demolished because the people were of Slavic origin, while the cultural treasures of Cracow, Poland were not because the people were considered of Germanic origin. When the Allies began to make their way through Italy, Hitler used their initial ignorance of the importance of preserving art and architectural monuments against them, casting Americans as barbarians eager to sack and pillage European culture. Once the Allies realized the damage being done they went to great pains to preserve these treasures, although mistakes sometimes still happened. An errant Allied bomb destroyed most of the Santa Maria delle Grazie, better known as the home of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper fresco. The fresco wall survived because it had been encased in sandbags held in place by scaffolding and wood planks.

In our own time art is still a powerful cultural force, although its appearance may not be as refined as previous centuries. Unfortunately much Christian influence has been lost in the arts in the modern era, and when Christian imagery is used it is frequently meant to be divisive and controversial, or used for shock value to make a quick name for the artist. Much of what is new and considered chic in the fine art world is based on shock value. I've seen several such examples in the same institutions that house world-famous paintings. At one of our country's finest art institutions, not only did I see paintings by Guercino, Monet, Seurat, Whistler and Cassat (to name just a few), but also a bar of used soap decorated with a spiral of hair. I guess it was hip or something—I just wondered how much they paid for it and who was the bigger fool (professing themselves wise...). The famous American novelist Edith Wharton once said “Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.” Since she died in 1937, she must have been referring to early 20th-century art and had no idea how much stranger art could get.

As discouraging as the state of most modern art can be, though, I like to remember that all things in our world can be redeemed through the power of our Savior. As Christians we need not fear art, but learn to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” ( II Corinthians 10:5 ) and “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8 ) So rather than focus on the dismal state of much of modern art, I like to think of the opportunity we have to grow up a generation of artists who desire to glorify God in our culture—and that is a marvelous destiny indeed.

Joy of Joys

2008-05-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

Oh joy of joys! Oh sweet delight!

It's teacher appreciation week and yesterday I came in to a lovely card and a gift certificate to the local art supply store! Red rubber blocks, here I come! (See previous post.)

This has been such a nice week. Want to hear a funny story on me? Last week I was under the impression it was teacher appreciation, so I took all our teachers their gifts. (See the fresco pictures in my last post for the gift to our fourth grade teacher. I gave him the cross fresco I made for his classroom.) But on Friday at the end of the day I still had not even had anyone tell me "Happy appreciation week." I was so bummed out. I kept telling myself that it didn't matter, but you know those two little voices? The other one kept saying things like "Well, you're so strict and mean with those 7th and 8th graders--they don't like you. Why would they appreciate you? You give TESTS in ART! I mean what kind of art teacher does that?!" Well, I do. I want to make sure they're listening and learning.

Well, by the time my poor husband came home I was checked out on the couch playing video games, trying not to cry between planets. Then it all came spewing out. It really showed me the condition of my heart and it came up wanting. I don't teach so that everyone can tell me what a great job--well good job--okay any kind of praise is nice--I do. I teach to help the school, to encourage budding artists, to expose the kids to an element of our created being in God's image (the creativity), to share what I've learned and the side benefits include growing my own skills, being around children that I enjoy and love and promoting art in as many forms as possible. But last Friday it didn't feel that way, until after I let go of all the selfishness. Heart check.

Then I went in the kitchen and as I was cleaning it up something kept niggling the edge of my brain. Something about a letter I'd received asking for help with appreciating my son's teacher. Something about the 19th of May. It didn't take long for me to dig up the letter and yes, it did say something about the 19th of May. It said that was the beginning of, yes, you guessed it--teacher appreciation week. What else could I do but laugh at my own foolishness? I am such an idiot.

So between feeling really foolish and getting a close up view of the state of my heart lately, this week has been humbling. I've received three gifts this week, each one very thoughtful, and each one has reminded me that I'm not that deserving. I don't teach to receive glory, but that is what I was wanting. I am humbled and that is how God wants me, but He loves me even when I mess up--I really like that part. Even when my heart is not where He wants it, He still sacrificed for me and He doesn't lose His sheep. If you're not one of His sheep and have questions, please send me a comment/message--I'd love to share with you. If you are one of His sheep--that's really the Joy of Joys and the Sweetest Delight--don't you think!

Gloria!

Out of disaster, or, it all began with an eraser

2008-05-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Our fourth grade spends their year studying the Middle Ages through the Reformation for their history section. Since I try to plan my art lessons around their history when I can, fourth grade has been an awesome art year. We looked at some art history, we made some frescoes, we studied cathedral and castle architecture, we designed illuminated letters and we played with calligraphy. We learned about concepts like simultaneous narrative, and how to understand it in a painting, and how still lifes became popular. We looked at some popular subject matter and tried it for ourselves with St. George and the dragon. And when we came to Gutenberg we tried our hand at printing.

From which came one of our few art disasters this year. In third grade it was carving plaster; in fourth grade it was woodblock printing. Don't get me wrong--we learn through our less-than-perfect results. Even the masters had disasters--just look at Leondardo's The Last Supper fresco, which was already deteriorating during his own lifetime because he experimented with oil in the fresco (Bad choice there!). Not every art project is going to come out perfect, no matter how well you plan.

And I did quite a bit of planning with the woodblock printing project. My kindergartener proved that the wood blocks could be indented with a ball point, but the fourth-graders did not prove so hardy, and my own acrylics turned out to be much thicker than the school's tempera. Which equalled disastrous results. C'est la vie.

However, since the printed pages were meant to be part of our Book of Hours project, it was hard for me to let go. With so few pages already going in the book, having one more missing felt extra-discouraging. Enter the grand idea. You know about grand ideas, don't you? The ones that seem so good when they enter the brain; so right that how could anything go wrong? I would just carve my own woodblock and make prints for the kids.

Okay, have you ever carved a woodblock? They don't go real fast. The weeks--no more like months--it would take stretched out in my mind and I tried thinking of other solutions. Wait, a friend gave me a heat tool for Christmas. Surely burning would go faster. Nope! Exchanging a blade for fire was not a good thing.

Now that the year is rapidly coming to an end, it became crucial that I either find
a solution or abandon the project. But how to let go of Gutenberg when movable type changed the world?! (Don't you love hyperbole.) With only a few days left before we need to think about binding our books, I made the decision. The supple block of rubber that I've been hoarding would work just right. And in one night--from drawing to carved--it was done! Now I just have to print them.

If you've never tried carving out your own stamps, I highly recommend it. Being a person with way too many disparate supplies and far too many ideas, I had resisted the interest I felt whenever I read about people carving their own stamps. Earlier this year I gave in when I needed a small bird stamp for some inchies. Taking out an extra eraser I drew my little image and then made the first cut. My co-workers used to tease me about being the keeper of the knives (at every job one of my first requests was a box-knife--I mean have you ever tried cutting mat board with scissors?), and I guess there was more to it than I realized, because that first cut sealed the deal. My exacto blade went through the plastic so nicely. Three birds, two asterisks and one word later my eye fell on a pink pearl... I hate pink pearl erasers; they are the destroyers of too many pieces of art. Being of petroleum origin, when old the oils come to the surface and the unknowing art student puts them to paper and bam! Ruined! A nice oil stain in place of your graphite. So what better use for a pink pearl than life as a rubber stamp--depositing far more pleasant things on a piece of paper. Ha!

By now I've replaced the exacto with a small carving kit and had purchased a nice piece of rubber that was destined for a bunch of smaller stamps. Oh well, I guess I have to go back to the art store now. Please, don't cry for me--I can make the sacrifice! It is teacher appreciation week at our school, maybe I'll be blessed with a gift certificate. (Yesterday I was blessed with a set of beautiful markers--I can't wait for school to get out so I can play!)

But school isn't over yet, so I'd best get back to the world of art history and Gutenberg. Now, if I can just find the table underneath all this plaster and burlap, paper, fabric, markers...

Separate note: The extra photos are our frescoes. The Madonna image was done after a Byzantine image to show the kids what we were doing. However, they all made crosses, based after the cross fresco on the table underneath the Madonna. I made it in true fresco fashion, by mixing pigments into very watery plaster and painting them onto the wet plaster. Very interesting and intriguing process. Another medium I could get very distracted by.

The Power of Great Art

2008-05-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Many years ago I spent a day at the Art Institute of Chicago. Among the highlights of my day were seeing Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, Picasso’s The Old Guitarist (blue man with a guitar) and Monet’s haystack series. But one moment from that day was more powerful than any piece of art and, for me, illustrates the power of art to speak across time, culture and societal barriers.

As I left one of the rooms a man stopped me. He was a large, burly man, who looked like he should be on a loud motorcycle somewhere or in a logging truck back home, rather than in an art museum, and I was very surprised when he asked me if I was a Christian. Not sure what was coming next, I said yes, then asked why he wanted to know. He led me over to a painting and told me it made him want to cry. Then he asked me why. Why would he want to cry?

Because he had just come face to face with Christ’s sacrifice, depicted by an artist who had painted it almost 350 years before. At 57-3/4 x 87-1/16 inches, Guercino’s The Entombment is a imposing painting showing the placing of Christ’s body into a stone sepulchre. Baroque art is marked by strong lighting and drama, and this painting is no different: Mary stands behind Christ’s body, weeping. The strong emotions of the painting greatly affected the man talking to me, and he wanted to know why he couldn’t just walk away from the image. Why did it affect him so greatly? I know we talked about the sacrifice Jesus made for us, but I really don’t remember everything we talked about. But I do know that his visit to the museum that day probably changed the rest of his life.

Such is the power of great art. Notice that I didn’t say just “art”, or “all art”, but “great art”. Of course not even all great art is going to have such a profound effect on our lives as salvation, but great art does have the power to speak of eternal truths, including salvation. While the term masterpiece is frequently used to refer to an artist’s greatest accomplishments, it also refers to those pieces that have a voice beyond their own time. The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece because of Leonardo da Vinci’s technical skill in painting it. Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People is a masterpiece because it speaks to us of the desire for freedom that crosses class lines, which we can understand today as easily as the viewers who saw it during those turbulent times in France. (Indeed, they understood it so well that the painting was removed because from its original display because it was considered inflammatory.)

Art, like literature, transcends our own lives and moments in time, sometimes giving us insight that we don’t grasp in our daily tasks. For many centuries from antiquity on, art was primarily tied to the church and used to teach Bible stories and to impress the majesty of the Trinitarian God. During the Renaissance art changed, and subject matter was no longer exclusively religious, but still concerned with matters of the human condition. Unfortunately, many of us are no longer in a position to understand the stories or messages in these pieces of art because so much cultural literacy is lost; but while modern viewers may be stumped by many of the stories and symbols, contemporary viewers would have been familiar with all the references and understood the meanings. With a little understanding of these stories and of the symbols used, we can usually begin to grasp the deeper meanings of many pieces of art. For example, you can usually find Peter in paintings because he carries a key. Luke is many times accompanied by a bull and knowing why there is a bull in the middle of a painting, seemingly out of place, helps make the image less strange.

Last semester I asked my students which of the images we had looked at was their favorite and why. Two pieces stood out above the rest. One was a favorite because of the drama and high emotion of the scene (Delaroche’s Execution of Lady Jane Grey, a historical event that several of them were familiar with), which was not a big surprise. The other favorite was a surprise to me, though. Albrecht Durer’s Knight, Death and the Devil is a complex engraving of a knight on horseback passing the figures of death and the devil. Students particularly liked how the knight did not show fear at the other two figures and pointed out that neither do we when we know Christ. They also pointed out the little dog, which represents faithfulness, trotting at the knight’s heels on his journey through life. None of this subject matter had been discussed in class; instead students had been given the tools and they understood the message on their own—a message that we encounter in many places in our spiritual walk, to be sure, but what a powerful visual put to an abstract truth. Such is the power of great art

I'm Back?

2008-05-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

We've finally figured out the internet thing, but these last couple weeks of school are crammed. Soccer, grades, art history (from Romanticism to Modern), Renaissance day, still lifes and a Book of Hours will all keep me busy until the first week of June. C'est la vie! Once again I am expectant that life will slow down, but when I turn my scope of vision past the end of school I realize that I still have obligations to fulfill even unto the end of June. Was life always this full?

Sometime in the next few days I hope to post an article I wrote for our school newsletter a few weeks ago. I don't want to post it without the accompanying paintings or I'd just stick it up now. Stay tuned...

And yes, the snow here is finally gone! (Still some in the mountains yet.)

Working while away

2008-04-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well, our internet provider debate still is not resolved, but I've been working while away. Giving and correcting tests, updating my art history knowledge from Romanticism on and preparing for next year. With the exception of the horse, which was done as a Christmas gift, here's a sampling of my little art world. And yes, it was still snowing earlier this week, although it's not sticking now, and the flowers are starting to bloom despite it all. God's cycle of life overcomes the temporal weather and I'm so glad--it means we won't have snow forever!

From Botticelli's "Madonna of the Magnificat", this is my drawing, but it is also the next assignment for my students.

A fabric postcard sent to Scotland. I didn't fit in the envelope--c'est la vie.

A Christmas gift for my sister who rides and trains horses, gives lessons and competes in dressage.

A study in colored pencil focusing on values.

The same picture only now being worked in acrylics and experimenting with underpainting.

A gift for a friend in progress.

In a corner of the world far, far away...

2008-04-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

I've been away from the computer a lot lately due to internet access problems. I should be back soon... Is it still snowing where you live? It still comes and goes here. This winter is now the second snowiest on record for our area. But my crocus are blooming. Wishing many flowers to you. :-)

Mirror images

2008-03-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

A couple posts back, I asked if anyone knew the two images with incorrect mirrored reflections. The first one, the one my students drew a detail of as part of their test, is Ingres' Madame Moitessier. The students drew her hand on a grid; not a hard project, but it does tell me if they understand the concept. The second image is Manet's Bar at the Folies-Bergerè. If you know of others, feel free to post them in hte comment section.

Art day

2008-03-16T18:23:00.000-07:00

Working on deadline has its advantages. The biggest one that comes to my mind is that the project has to be finished by a specific date. Yes, you're likely thinking, "Well, duh!" Unfortunately I'm one of those people who can easily put a project down and leave it for waaay too long. So as I scratched my head and wondered what projects I could take with me to a teacher crafting get together yesterday, I was very pleased to find a couple small projects that I had put down and--well, you're with me now.

Some good conversation, an awesome cheeseball and five hours later--ta-da! Two finished projects that were both started last summer. (The ATC above was finished quite some time ago and was the inspiration for the lettering on the baby block below.)

Today, in between catching up on grading, I was able to add the finishing touches to a larger flower piece that I am debating putting in my Etsy store. Can I deal with it if it doesn't sell? asks the pessimist. Well, nothing is selling now, so what's the big deal? asks the pragmatist. I'll let you know if I put it there. The base is matboard collaged with calender pages and flower images, then gessoed and painted. The large flowers are painted with acrylics, then highlighted with stamps and water-soluble wax crayons (a favorite supply of mine). The butterfly is cut from a Somerset Studio page (never used one before!). The verse is Genesis 1:11 "And God said, "Let the earth bring forth".

The earth is bringing forth around here, too. I've seen some green grass and the return of robins. One day I listened to the calls of red-winged blackbirds, but they don't stay around our house because we don't have the watery terrain they like. I'll be watching for the first crocus, but it won't be at our house--we still have snow!

In the spirit of taking our first art test

2008-03-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

Oh the joys of teaching! I've been grading tests today, and one of the assigned tasks was to draw a detail from a famous painting on a grid. While looking at the little piece of the painting (24 times!) I pondered one of its elements, which brought to mind a fun little art history trivia question.

The painting we used has a reflection in it and it is one of two famous paintings that have mirrored reflections that are incorrect. Both were done purposely by the individual artists, but neither reflection is realistically possible. Anyone know which two paintings I'm talking about? (BTW, there may be more than two; I only know of these two--but I'm not an expert!)

Here's a hint: they are both 19th century works. Have fun!

And before you go ponder what paintings have mirrors, take a look at this lovely Botticelli, The Madonna of the Magnificat. I spend quite a bit of time looking for paintings that exemplify the concepts I'm teaching and/or testing on, so my nose was buried in art books for a while this week. I found a wonderful reproduction of this painting in a book about Mary in art. So many times the reproductions are small, or, frequently in the case of the internet, dark, but this image was full page in an oversize book. It made me long to stand in front of the real thing and see the surface: is it glassy, or can you see his brushstrokes? Does the translucent paint have that lovely glow that so many oil paintings do? Are the details fine? Maybe some day I can see for myself. In the meantime I must content myself with dreams and lots of books!

In case you're not familiar with the Magnificat, a beautiful passage from Luke 1:46-55, here it is:

And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."

Thanks to From Old Books for the scholar image at the top; Web Gallery for the Botticelli; and Biblegateway for the verse.

My bit for internet accuracy, or, go visit Peter Callesen right away!

2008-03-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

I got that wonderful e-mail of the paper cutouts made from one sheet of paper again tonight. You may have seen it--it's the one with the bit about how these were for a contest for some New York Gallery. Well the cutouts, made by artist Peter Callesen, are real, but the story with it is not accurate. I don't know if he made those pieces for a contest, so I can't comment as to the truth there, but the story leads one to believe that they are all the work of different artists. Not true! Peter Callesen, I've never met you, but your artwork is amazing and this post is for you! Check out his site and see the amazing creations he makes, then pass this info on to anyone who sends you that e-mail, please, please, pretty please with sugar on top. As an artistic type I would think it might feel good to know that everyone is looking at your art. But it would NOT feel good to know that no one knows whose art it is, or worse, thinking it's the art of a bunch of other people. Here's my moment for internet accuracy! --L

Wings

2008-03-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

I love the detail in the wings in these very different pieces. The first is a drawing by Albrecht Durer. The second is a painting, St Michael and the Satan, whose authorship has some debate; some say it is Giulio Romano, some say Raphael.

Dad is great! Made him a chocolate cake...

2008-02-25T10:44:00.000-08:00

Well, we've had a birthday at our house and my sweet daughter, who took 4-H cooking last summer, decided to celebrate by making a chocolate cake.

So, have you ever wondered what happens when you add 1-1/2 cups of baking soda instead of 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda? Well, I'll never know either because when she couldn't quite eke out the last 1/2 cup and asked for help I discovered her error and was able to remove most of the extra soda. Although I obviously didn't get enough of it out...

The end result?

Of course, the proof is in the tasting, right?

Just think what we would have had if she'd used the whole 1-1/2 cups!

Two more lovely and interesting links

2008-02-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

Imagine Carol Merrill hands flowing back and forth over the words as you read this post. For today, we are offering two more interesting and beautiful links for your viewing, reading and learning pleasure...

The first is full of amazing photos from places that I would love to visit.

The second is from a favorite blog and talks about the forgotten middle ground between the Impressionists and the Academics.

Enjoy!

A nice bit of poetry

2008-02-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

For anyone who enjoys Christian poetry, although one need not be Christian to enjoy the poem--but perhaps the commentary around it, try this sonnet by Richard Wilbur.

Valentines

2008-02-13T22:12:00.001-08:00

If it keeps on snowing the barn is going to break, OR, what not to do on your snow day...

2008-02-06T22:44:00.000-08:00

After a couple days of slightly warmer temperatures, it's...snowing again! This was our day last Saturday. By the end of this week we're supposed to get temps in the low 40s(F), which should allow us to all put away our shovels and instead get out our canoes!

A few new Etsy items

2008-01-31T20:58:00.001-08:00

I completed a handful of bottlecap necklaces last week and have listed a few in my Etsy shop tonight. I'm trying to get to some more new things in order to earn some money to take my daughter to visit an exhibit of Roman art this spring. She studied Greek and Roman history last year, and of course I teach art, so I want to see the companion exhibit of Ghiberti's door panels. So, in a shameless appeal for your patronage, if you see something you like, don't hesitate to buy it--lol! Blessings to you and yours and may you not have the tons of snow that we have! --L

And the Winners Are...

2008-01-16T10:31:00.001-08:00

Winners? Was I having a contest? No, just the results of what pieces of art are favored by my 9-11th grade students.

The favorite painting, with most of the "votes", was Paul Delaroche's The Execution of Lady Jane Grey. (You can click on the images for larger versions--it's worth it!)

This one was a fvorite because of the drama and realism of the scene. The students responded to the emotions of the people in the image and how the artist created a highly dramatic moment through the use of light.

The second favorite was Albrecht Durer's Knight, Death and the Devil.

They liked this one because the knight is not afraid of death and represents how we do not need to be afraid when we live in Christ. They also liked the symbolism of the different elements (the armor as the armor of God, the faithful dog trotting at the knight's heels, etc.).

Another favorite was Vincent van Gogh's The Potato Eaters.

The student who chose this piece liked how the artist created the atmostphere through use of color and value, as well as the rough brushwork, which added to the roughness of the scene.

The final favorite was another van Gogh, Starry Night.

This student also like van Gogh's brushstrokes and how they created movement and rhythm.

I enjoyed reading their responses and discovering which pieces they liked and why. It is always interesting to me to find out what people like about a painting because many times they see things that I didn't notice. What's your favorite painting/piece of art? I'd love for you to share by leaving a quick note in the comment section. And don't forget to tell why, too. Have a blessed day!

Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you...

2008-01-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

In case you were wondering who she really is, check out the latest.

I shocked my art students last year when I confessed that I don't particularly care for this painting. When I started analyzing it I realized that portraiture isn't my favorite type of painting; I prefer storytelling and allegory pieces and landscapes. Here's a favorite by Raphael, called Allegory, The Knight's Dream.

This painting, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, by Paul Delaroche, was a favorite in art class this year. The "Mona Lisa incident" led to a great discussion about how we can separate opinion from objectively looking at art. In other words the Mona Lisa is a great painting because of Leonardo's incredible techniques of sfumato and chiaroscuro, and not because everyone likes it. Truthfully, to try to label a piece of art as a great piece or a masterpiece simply as a reflection of our taste is kind of dangerous. What if I'm a critic with a newspaper column and I don't like yellow? Does that suddenly mean that Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie should be dismissed? Or van Gogh's Night at the Cafe (either version)? In labelling great art we need to rise above the level of opinion and talk in terms of composition, meaning, style, color, etc. Or, if we do want to dwell in the realm of opinion, to recognize it and talk in that vein.

And in that vein, we also talked about developing their own likes and dislikes in art, and how those tastes may differ from their teacher--none of which affects whether or not the Mona Lisa is a great painting. So, if you like something that the critics don't, it doesn't mean you're in the wrong. It's okay to like 19th-Century French Academic art and the Impressionists at the same time. I think it's a good idea, though, to give it a little thought and discover what it is you like about each--it makes art more interesting. On our last test I asked the students to tell me their favorite painting that we've looked at this year and to explain why, which was fun. (Side note: be aware that clicking on the art links may lead to images that contain some painted nudity--art is that way. I try to always keep this a family-friendly blog, but it's hard to monitor every image that will come up when clicking on a clearinghouse sort-of database for these artists, so I'm giving you a heads-up.)

And here's another tidbit. Technically it's not correct to call Leonardo da Vinci by just "da Vinci". That part refers to where he is from. I don't call my friend in Canada "of Hamilton." Instead I call her Dianne, and we should refer to Leonardo as (are you ready for this) Leonardo. (Especially posted for William Kloss.) Of course, then there's Caravaggio, who did go by a name that refers to where he is from because his real name was Michelangelo Merisi and he presumably didn't want to be confused with the other fellow, Michelangelo Buonarroti--you know, the Sistine Chapel fellow. Isn't art fun. :-)

What Ho! Start the Year with a Laugh

2008-01-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

A friend posted this wonderful link to Jeeves and Wooster read aloud. The kids and I are great fans, so we want to share this link with you, too. Click here for some great humour.

The Safety Officer Speaks, or, Never Play With Fire

2008-01-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

Getting down to brass tacks today, I finally finished vacuuming the after-Christmas rearranging and changing, etc. In the last couple days I have safely stowed the ornaments, the putting away of which revealed the pitiful state of the bookshelf and surrounding piles. And so that had to be dealt with. How could I have so many books that I still haven't read? I pulled them all out, stuck them in a basket by the bed and cleaned the area. Once the books were back into a satisfactory state, I finished the vacuuming, which included curtains, lamp shades and the fan blades above the table. (After finishing lunch, thank you so much mom!) By then I had the vacuum so close to the kitchen that I finally remembered a task that keeps catching my eye, just not at the right moment--the dusty state of my kitchen curtain. Having completed that task my eye fell on the refrigerator.

Ah yes, the refrigerator. Did you know that you have to clean the underside of your refrigerator periodically? Especially if you have A) pets, B) a very dusty house, C) a lint-source very near, or D) children. Hmm, we fit all of these qualifications, so we try to clean this under-fridge space at least once a year, but preferably twice. But we didn't always know about this important cleaning chore, which brings up the subtitle of this post.

Once upon a time, in a house far, far away (okay, really only about 10 miles away) there lived a mostly young couple with a brand-new baby. Oh, and cats--three cats. The happy, unknowing couple had lived in this little yellow house for about 6 years, all of them with the cats, when one day mommy and baby went to visit grandma in another town. Poppa was planning to go away for the weekend on an important fishing trip with clients from work, but as things so often go, something else came up and he didn't make it on the trip. Instead, he went home to the little yellow house. When he came in the door, after petting the cats, he immediately noticed a bad smell. A terrible, something-is-catching-on-fire smell, and a scary electricity-gone-bad sort-of-sound. All of it coming from the kitchen. And those lights--they never came out from under the refrigerator before! Quickly Poppa raced over, unplugged the fridge and grabbed whatever was handy to put out the potential fire. Blessedly, cutting the electrical current was all that was needed and no fire ensued. Poppa spent some time moving the fridge and suveying the damage (yup, we needed a new fridge), then opening windows to air out the house. At which point mommy and baby arrived home. They were surprised to see Poppa, but boy were they happy to have a home!

Of all the things my mom taught me to clean, she never mentioned this one. Years worth of cat hair had collected underneath and caused all the problem. To some of you, this may seem like a no-brainer, but I once had a college roommate who couldn't change a light bulb--we all have our failings. Truthfully, I just never thought about it. Fast forward to today, when I thought to clean this so-convenient-to-get-to-space. Here's a pic of some of the fun.
Mind you, this is after I'd already vacuumed quite a bunch, so what you see here is just a little bit of the lint. The whole space underneath was full of this stuff and we just cleaned it about seven months ago or so. Go ahead--if you haven't cleaned yours, go take a look. Should I tell you here that if you haven't cleaned your fridge bottom lately and you're thinking you should, please, please, please! UNPLUG IT first! The power won't be off long enough to cause any problems, but crispy friends are never a good thing. And be prepared--you may have to come up with some creative options for cleaning--see my stick with a paper towel for swiping the really-hard-to-get-to-spots? I'm not, btw, going to recommend you undo any screws or bolts without consulting someone who knows more about these things because you never know what may come loose if you do, but please do the best you can.

And while I was thinking back to our almost fire so long ago, I realized that it was exactly one year ago today that the ground wire from the street to our house burnt out and shot 220 through our home, killing some appliances and starting a near-fire in our basement. Remember that a power strip is just a way to add more outlets for your convenience. A small surge protector keeps the electricity flow even to whatever items are plugged into it, but it does not protect against any kind of catastrophic event. If you have a major surge, those little things can blow-up/melt-down and start a fire. Keep the areas around them clean. BTW, they don't protect your computer, either. If you want to make sure your computer is safe through that kind of event, you want it plugged into something more substantial. When I left my graphics job (ten years ago this spring!) I bought a major battery back-up unit that has saved my computer twice: once when lightning struck our home and came in through the phone line, and last winter through the 220 episode. This little back-up unit died over Christmas (I probably should have replaced it sooner) and I almost went with a heavy-duty-looking surge strip, until I asked for help. The guy said to not be fooled; even the big-looking surge protectors aren't enough in a catastrophic event. Well, since we've lived through two, so I'm not taking any chances.

Oh, and don't play with matches either! The safety officer has spoken.

PS--I don't know why the pics came out with the strange white spaces. I've tried adjusting and re-exporting, but it's not helping. It's late and I haven't read any of those books, so we're just living with it. But, if you have any tips on how to fix it, please share--they really look dorky...

The Twenty-Third Psalm

2008-01-03T01:29:00.000-08:00

The God of love my shepherd is,
And he that doth me feed;
While he is mine, and I am his,
What can I want or need?

He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass;
In both I have the best.

Or if I stray, he doth convert
And bring my mind in frame;
And all this not for my desert,
But for his holy name.

Yea, in death's shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear:
For thou art with me; and thy rod
To guide, thy staff to bear.

Nay, thou dost make me sit and dine,
Even in my enemies' sight:
My head with oil, my cup with wine
runs over day and night.

Surely thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days;
And as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.

--George Herbert

Christmas Tidings From our Home

2007-12-24T10:59:00.001-08:00

Like it is for so many other families at this time of year, our world has been a whirlwind of activity lately as we prepare for Christmas.

A couple weeks back our oldest fell down while playing at school and got broke.

Ouch! Our youngest just lost his first tooth, but I'll leave that one to your imagination.

For some reason the urge to make cookie plates has taken hold on me. This only happens once every three or four years, so I go with it.

In another five years I'll get the urge to send out Christmas cards, but by then we won't have anyone left to send to, I'm sure. Sadly, my family members have slowly dropped me from their lists and at this point we get more cards from businesses than from relatives. I hope they know that my lack of Yuletide greetings doesn't mean I love them any less (any friends and relatives reading this?).

The little lamb (of God) cookies from the plates.

For those of you who are also not highly experienced in the culinary arts, don't turn the oven temperature up when the meringues are inside it. You get not good results. This bag is ours. I've already eaten the worst ones.

For my snowmen I didn't have enough marshmallows, so I cut them in half and the hats ended up looking more like cardinal hats in all those paintings of the saints in the art I teach. So here are the St. Jerome snowmen that went to fourth grade (where we studied St. Jerome and his translation of the Latin Vulgate early in history this year).

Kindergarten had a party that involved decorating cookies.

Fourth grade ate snowmen ;-). Ha, ha! Actually, I subbed for the teacher and made the kids take all wrapped goodies home, including the snowmen. There were plenty of unwrapped treats, trust me!

Kindergarten also had a play, so I've made some costumes. (All this and teaching too!)

We've had prayer time for a dear family who are still separated after much red tape. I've thought a lot about homecoming, reunion and faithfulness to our tasks lately and how these relate to the coming of The King of Kings. Please pray for our friends when you remember them.

We've had lots of snow. And just as much melting. Will it ever stay? I love the snow, although I don't care for driving in it. I am, however, growing accustomed to my husband's vehicle (not front-wheel drive, like what I've always driven), and the kids loved the donut I did the other day in a parking lot. It was not intentional (honest!), but it was the very first thing my son told my husband about when we returned from Christmas shopping...

I always enjoy the music of the season. Favorite songs this year include "I Wonder as I Wander," "Gabriel's Message," "The Wexford Carol," "He Is Born, The Divine Christ Child," and "Snow" by Loreena McKennit. My son loves "Feliz Navidad", my daughter likes "We Three Kings" and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and my hubby likes it all. What are your favorite songs of the season? I'd love to hear from you.

Art I have been working on (necklaces for nieces):

Art I have not been working on:
This is a charcoal rendering of an earlier angel. I keep toying with the idea of adding some pastel colors to the charcoal--we'll see how brave I am over break.

The ubiquitous (in our house) snowflakes that help keep my hands busy.

I am keeping this one. Several years ago I started a book that I keep my favorite ones in, so I need to find it and add.

The house is a mess and I am feeling blessed to go to every other relative's home for celebrations this year. To have to have everything clean by tomorrow would send me over the edge right now. The one thing that keeps us all together in this time, however, is also the most important. No matter how busy we are in our family, we all remember that without Christ we have nothing in the end. If you have never encountered Jesus, I urge you to find out about Him. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Alpha and Omega, Who is coming back at the right time. Don't put off getting to know Him because only the Father knows when our time is up--it could be tomorrow, it could be years. Each year we celebrate the Advent season by adding figures to a nativity calender I made when the oldest child was little. We try to read some of the Christmas story along with the daily updates, and it always leads us back to Jesus and His birth, which is what we celebrate. We give gifts to honor the gift Jesus Christ gives to each person who will accept it: reconciliation with God the Father and everlasting life. The banner on our nativity displays John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Don't miss the gift.

Well, I do have to go tidy some things and finish a horse I am painting for someone for tomorrow. No matter what you are doing, I hope you will take a moment to meditate on why you celebrate this season and pray for loved ones. And with that, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! --L

What Christmas Means to Me

2007-12-13T22:17:00.000-08:00

Winter sunset

2007-12-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

In His hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
-Psalm 95:3

A snap of our area from the woods behind my husband's family home.

Snowflakes

2007-12-02T23:14:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again: snow season! And in honor of the foot of snow that we've had in the last few days (which, alas, will be gone in the next couple with wind and warming temperatures), I give you photos of some snowflakes I made last year.

There are two basic ways I fold my paper, both of which start with folding whatever sheet you are using down into quarters (two half folds). After that you can fold the folded edges together once to make a triangle (which will give you the four-pointed flake shown; if you want an eight-pointed flake, fold in half again, but because of the bulk the paper can be very difficult to cut, especially for children). Or you can fold it into thirds by bringing the top folded edge to the middle and the lower folded edge up to new top edge (which will give you the six-pointed flakes shown). From there just make sure you do not completely cut through either folded edge (meaning take out nips and such, but make sure at least some part of the folded edge remains or you will end up with pieces!).

Last year I taught third grade art, which at our school means Greek and Roman history. We used a sheet of motifs from this time period as a reference source for many of our art projects, including our snowflakes. Mine were made as samples, using those Greek motifs.