painting: "Breeze"

A little different style. I wanted to really bring out the vibrancy of the colors and keep the brushstrokes loose and fluid. What do you think? Also, this will be one of my pieces that I'll be selling at my booth at the art fair -- July 6th and 7th.

p.s. I can't think of a title. I'll let you know if I come up with one. Thanks to the wonderful Hannah, the title is now "Breeze."

N.T. Wright Sings Bob Dylan

"This is stuffed full of wonderful biblical imagery and it's basically eschatology. When the Ship Comes In..."

Oh the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin’
Like the stillness in the wind
’Fore the hurricane begins
The hour when the ship comes in

Oh the seas will split
And the ship will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking
Then the tide will sound
And the wind will pound
And the morning will be breaking

Oh the fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls they’ll be smiling
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in

And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they’re spoken
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean

A song will lift
As the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts on to the shoreline
And the sun will respect
Every face on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in

Then the sands will roll
Out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin’
And the ship’s wise men
Will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin’

Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they’ll jerk from their beds and think they’re dreamin’
But they’ll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it’s for real
The hour when the ship comes in

Then they’ll raise their hands
Sayin’ we’ll meet all your demands
But we’ll shout from the bow your days are numbered
And like Pharoah’s tribe
They’ll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered


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Some of the comments after the video:

Susan  1 week ago

is there anything Tom CAN'T do?!

jonathan 1 week ago

Uh oh, I can hear the "Chuck Norris" facts coming - NT Wright style! :)

NT Wright can unscramble an egg.
NT Wright was born in a log cabin that he built.

http://www.ntwrightpage.com/

How much does your degree weigh? Thoughts on Jasmine Baucham's article about College Plus.

"It was a year full of firsts: first time living anywhere but my beloved Republic of Texas, first time being home-educated, and my first time realizing that my parents weren’t just “mom” and “dad.” They were deep individuals with hopes, dreams, and plans for the future that, while they encompassed the lives of me and my younger brothers, weren’t simply centered around their children. My dad had always dreamed of going to Oxford, and now, in his early thirties, he was finally getting his chance. He was getting a degree that would sound impressive on any resume, an experience that would enrich his life and ours..." --Jasmine Baucham: "My Dad Went to Oxford and I Didn't -- Here's Why"


I am a big fan of Jasmine Baucham -- her wit, style, and heart -- so I was interested when I heard about her article for the College Plus blog. I was even more interested when I saw she touched on a thought that I have also had while considering College Plus for myself. Namely, does getting a degree through Thomas Edison State College hold enough weight in the world?

Maybe I'm a snob, but it seems like a legitimate concern in a snobbish world. If I work hard to get a degree, I don't want it to work against me afterwards, whether in getting a job or simply gaining more authority in a given subject. Personally, I would love to study at Oxford. Love. It. (I'd also like to do Summit Oxford, but that's another subject.) I would like to have a PhD, perhaps in the philosophy of art (yeah, I'd really pay back the loans with that one. psh.) I would like to travel the world studying and researching with great minds and eventually give talks, publish essays and books, and start a school in an old castle with a chapel that incorporates monastic disciplines...

Okay, too much information, I know.

But perhaps you understand my question about the weight of a CLEPed degree now. I chose not to pursue a degree and am busy studying painting, building a portfolio, and teaching small art classes (honorary degree anyone?), but I am still considering college for this possible future I'm imagining.

This article of Jasmine's helped me with my question, and honestly takes away one of the tallies from the "cons" side of my personal mental pros and cons chart. Maybe you have one too?

Maybe you should read the article too.

p.s. Jasmine's blog All She Has To Say is one of my favorites. 

Recent Events: Dublin Arts Council Garden Party & Dublin Area Art League Spring Show

I am horribly behind in updating the blog! Let's see if I can get caught up. 

This was my third year donating a piece to the Dublin Arts Council's annual fundraiser. This year's piece was the plein air "Red Geraniums" that won second in the paint-out contest last summer.

The Garden Party was held at the OCLC building here in our lovely town, in the atrium with bright skylights and trees covered in white lights. The food and wine was very nice, and I got to try some tuna from Bonefish Grill which was excellent dipped in soy sauce.

There was also live music on piano and guitar. The master of ceremonies was Colleen Marshall of NBC4. I'm too shy to carry a camera around, so I just took these photos on a phone. This was my first year attending, so I was pretty excited, and was not disappointed.


Then there was the Spring Show "Awakenings" held at the Rec Center. My piece "Cozy Cottage" won an honorary mention. The judge wrote, "Well illustrated interior view of a safe place of rest. Nice colors, composition, and message it reveals. Keep painting what you feel inspired by. I see a book illustration." Yep, I love that my intentions with this piece came through so well.

I also entered "Tea and Oranges" -- which, did I ever mention that those aren't actually oranges? They're clementines. "Tea and Clementines" just didn't have as good of a ring to it, although I can see how changing the name could be misleading. The fruit is rather too small for real oranges.

In other news...

1. My graphic design work was recently taken to a new level when my services were opened up to a wider audience. I am going to post my pricing list soon, so stay tuned.

2. I am teaching a workshop sponsored by the DAAL on "Preparing your Artwork for the Web". It'll be held May 31st at the Rec Center, although it wasn't until after I reserved the room did I realize the Memorial Tournament might interfere with attendance. Oh well, being my first ever class for adults, it will be nice to have a smaller group.

3. I will have a booth at the Dublin Art Fair for the first time this year. I will be part of the DAAL tent, and will be helping out the other artists in getting set up. I'm hoping to have a good selection of small, loose paintings, plus a selection of prints of my more finished paintings. I have yet to decide which completed paintings I'm going to have up for sale; I've gotten so attached to some of them!

4. This summer I'll be teaching at Classical Conversations Geo-Drawing Camp during our local campus' three-day Practicum. If you're interested in seeing how the Classical schooling model works, come check it out. I'll be teaching art again next year at CC, and am hoping to put together an official curriculum and workbook over the summer.

Hmm, am I forgetting anything? For the record, pretty much all of these things are outside my comfort zone. I say this as a note to my future self who will hopefully be much more competent than my current self. At this point in my life, as a rule, I tend to take most opportunities that come my way. This means that there is pretty much always something on my plate that looks bigger than I can handle, and I have been known to bite off more than I can chew. I have been learning to practice the concept of living in Christ's strength, as I try to daily look at my to-do list, and just say, "Lord, I want to do what you want in order to bring you glory, because I know it's way better than doing things my own way. I know and ask that you will enable me to do everything that you have planned." I'm not consistent, but I'm learning. I'm also attempting to choose not to be worried or stressed about things. Again, not consistent, but with phrases like "Do not let your heart be troubled" and "Do not worry about your life" I see it as up to me to make it happen; to make the choice, understanding that it is God who transforms me into the kind of person who can make that choice.

My paintings of Garrison the Knight and Major the Cowboy are on hold at present as I work on all these other projects. I'm making good progress in getting more organized, but am not so organized yet to be able to say when I'll be able to work on them again. For now, I pray a little for my daily bread, and a lot for God's kingdom to come.

How to Encourage Your Child's Creativity

For the parents of kids who never stopped scribbling on everything, parents who perhaps themselves learned to draw stick figures from their five-year-old, here are some of my thoughts on how to encourage the creativity your kids seem to already have.  


This started out as just an email to a friend, but then I thought this would be relevant to many other families as well. There are many different kinds of encouragement, so I will just start with what has encouraged me. I will be using the specific examples of music and art, but the principles from these examples should apply to many forms of creation. Here we go:

1. Provide lots of supplies.

For art, I was able to learn a lot about different types of media simply by receiving them as gifts. Both my immediate and extended family knew about my love for art, and so I could look forward to new sketchbooks, colored pencils, paints, how-to-draw books, etc. every year.  I had one aunt in particular who would buy me more professional art supplies such as a set of chalk pastels, acrylic paints, palettes, brushes, and even my first oil painting set complete with artists' turpentine. Sometimes she would teach me how to use them, but most of the time I learned through books or by simply trying them out myself. My dad and grandpa built me tables and shelves to use for my art projects, and always made sure I had the workspace I needed.  

For music, I learned about composition through simply having recording equipment and software available. I also had a pocket Moleskine music notebook which has music staff paper so I could write down the little melodies I would make up. However, I should mention that art and music supplies are not cheap, and I would highly recommend not buying the cheapest supplies. In it's very nature, your creation is literally made out of your materials, so it only follows that quality art needs quality materials. Similarly, with music you are creating sounds whose ultimate quality depend on the quality (down to the tuning) of the instrument.

2. Provide books/instructional material.

For music, this means regularly updating your sheet music library and finding good instructional dvds. There are lots of videos online for instruction on piano and guitar, and lots of demos for specific songs that you might like to play. For art, this can be a bit tricky because a lot of art books contain some inappropriate images. Some books are great except for a few pages, which you can either tear out or cover over. One of my favorite art books is on color, and is called "Mastering Color" by Vicki McMurry. Liliedahl Video Productions has some great dvds that I have been using for painting.

3. Practice, practice, practice.

It is so important to make time for this because it can easily be crowded out in daily life. I often fall into the temptation to only start working on art when everything else is done, but often I just can't get everything done in time, so I miss out on art altogether. When my mom actually tells me to go work on art, I am so encouraged because then I don't feel like I'm neglecting other work, or am not helping her enough. To have a dedicated time for practice, which is recognized and respected by the whole family is really so helpful. Of course, there also needs to be a plan for what exactly should be accomplished during that time, and this is where the instructional materials come in.

4. Have a right attitude.

This may be an obvious one, but I'll go ahead and say it because my list would be incomplete without it. I personally believe that artistic endeavors and practice time should be viewed as seriously as schoolwork or a job assignment, instead of just as a fun hobby -- which is a general temptation and popular attitude with something like this.  Almost everyone in the Dublin Art League label themselves "hobbyists" and have become artists only in their retirement, despite the fact that many of them went to art school. It is just a fact of life that art and music are not easy things to make a living at. Now, you may not even be thinking so long term, but I mention this because we tend to meet whatever expectations are already in place, and if it is expected that this will just be a hobby, then it will certainly become just a hobby. Of course it may turn out to be a hobby anyway (which is perfectly fine), but in my opinion it is far better to aim high and then see what happens. 

My family always believed in me, and that affected how I viewed and carried myself, and what I believed was possible. Because of this, even my English teacher, when discussing what we might be when we grow up, guessed that I would most likely be doing something with art one day. It was that much a part of who I was. Of course, each person is different, with different stories and callings, and I can only speak from my own experience.

Also, always find something to praise in your child's work, never even privately comparing it to other work by kids their age. In the elementary grades what is most important is simply keeping them in love with creating. As young as kindergarten, they can start getting frustrated with their abilities, and protesting that their drawing is "wonderful" won't help; children can sense insincerity. If your child doesn't like their art, work through it admitting weaknesses and seeking solutions.

5. Provide examples of master artwork/music for study and copying.

For music, this could be CDs and DVDs on classical and modern day composers, and original music scores. For art, this could be through books on individual artists, art movements, art history books, or art prints. I even printed out some favorite paintings (found on the internet) onto photo paper which worked really well. I've found that one of the most important ways to develop skills and style is to copy other great art. I cannot stress this enough since I learned so much through this discipline. I learned how to see through the artist's eyes, learned to see shapes, match color, study composition, and so much more through the simple exercise of copying. I'm sure this applies to music as well. That said, much is lost in photography from the original painting or drawing, and in a recording from the live performance, which leads me to my next point...

6. Take occasional trips to museums, galleries, art fairs, and concerts.

These are great places to get inspiration and motivation, as well as study great work in person, which is much different than experiencing it second-hand. Art fairs and small concerts are also fun places to actually talk to other artists and musicians about how and what they do. It is also nice to be a part of some community of fellow artists or musicians, perhaps through a local art club or organization, or a small group of friends who are also art and music students. My siblings are a great artistic community in themselves, and I'm also thankful for the encouragement I get from the Art League.

7. Take opportunities to share creations.

Usually this means art contests or music recitals, and it provides tangible goals to work towards. It is encouraging to keep track of all the places art or music was shared, and can be a good record of progress and growth.


Creativity is such a gift, and I suspect that talent is simply the desire to try. All that trying equates to practicing, and we know that practice makes perfect. Those who don't feel compelled to create, simply do not practice, and so do not get any better. It is important to remember that artistic ability does not grow without encouragement, but that it wants to grow the first chance it gets. You can give your child that chance.


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Portrait for My Friend's Wedding

 I wanted to give something special to my friend since she is so dear to me and I wanted to show her how much I appreciate her. I know I didn't do her justice, but then she just has such a high level of beauty both inside and out.

 

 Her new husband I did not have the priviledge of knowing, so I don't know if I did him justice or not. Anyway, this is my most recent painting, and now that it's finished I'll go back to painting the umber layer of Garrison the Knight.

 For this painting I just used the direct painting method, and actually wasn't planning on getting this detailed/refined. Really, I was too focused on getting their likenesses to be more free with my brushstrokes. Maybe I'll do a second version.

(Congratulations on your wedding my dearest friend!)