tree of life

New images from our resident bead artist (among other things,) Sheila Stockton:



These images are based on Revelation 22:2, "The Tree of Life with its twelve kinds of fruit yeilding its fruit each month." Sheila envisions these sketches as small beaded pieces, possibly as a pair or in a series.



She's collected many beads that will work for the project already (and even more than we're sharing here.)



Pretty green leaf beads in various shades and several kinds of fruit - maybe even twelve?

jerusalem palms

Last week I finally got some new palm tree shots for this project - sometimes squeezing in a long term project like this is tricky amongst the current deadlines - you can see my journal for the shooting session at my Wanderings blog (http://www.judithmonroe.com/journal.html.)

So I was able to insert a copy of photos into my heaven journal, to help guide me when I go into the darkroom - also tricky to squeeze in sometimes - this is what the whole thing looks like when layered, a sort of approximation of the final image, much less refined, but the basic idea.



The topmost layer is a map of ancient Jerusalem, showing the history of the city.



The center layer is the colored photograph of the palms and a clock tower, representing the future Jerusalem.



The bottom layer in my journal will likely be part of the overlay in the finished product, but it's appropriate here as the foundation of the work, the scripture that the whole concept of heaven is based on.



This particular scripture comes from Zechariah 2:4-5, "Jerusalem will someday be so full of people and livestock that there won't be room enough for everyone! Many will live outside the city walls. Then, I, myself, will be a protective wall of fire around Jerusalem, says the Lord. And I will be the glory inside the city!" This ties in with the references to the New Jerusalem in Revelation, speaking of a huge cube-like city brought down from heaven to earth, so much larger than the Jerusalem of the past, that it could house incredibly large numbers of people. We can only begin to imagine the glory of it all...

river of healing

As part of my working on this project, I find myself pouring over my Visions of Heaven journal. This helps me to remember ideas I've had and things I want to shoot, or things I need to print...

As a photographer, there is always a cache of negatives crying out to be printed, sometimes waiting for the right project, other times just waiting patiently for me to get my sorry behind into the darkroom! I've even made quick copies of what I want to print and paired them with scripture and ideas for this project, but other things have demanded my time first. Other shows booked, deadlines for juried events, classes, you name it. But I digress...




So this is a pair of images that I've decided I need to print up as a diptych, called the River of Healing, based on Ezekiel 47: 7 & 9, "When I returned, I was surprised by the sight on many trees growing on both sides of the river.... There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows... Life will fourish wherever this water flows." I'm back at Ezekiel's vision of heaven and this is his description of the River of Life that flows from the temple - that same one with the palm trees carved on the door posts.

I live in a town at the confluence of two rivers, the American and the Sacramento, and we can go to the edges of these rivers to enjoy the bounty of life there, especially along the American, where some time ago citizens had the foresight to preserve a large amount of wild space along the river. I've spent a fair amount of time shooting along the American, so it was pretty easy to find appropriately lush and wonderful river images to match with this bit of scripture. I'm fairly certain the final pieces will have the palm trees along the edges, but this gives an idea of how I think it will look when it's done.

(By the way, if you want to see this image or any other larger, just click on it.)

an amazing offer

Jared Konopitski sent me another one of his colored pencil works in his typical style. I think it's great that Jared has such an identifiable style, it shows remarkable maturity as an artist at an age I was still... well, never mind that. Jared does a great job of explaining the piece and how it came to be, so I'll just share what he wrote:

"The verse that inspired this image is Malachi 3:16 which says: 'Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him.'

It continues on to say in verse 17 that God will spare them as a father spares an obedient and dutiful child, "them" being the ones whose name is on the scroll. The scroll then almost seemed like a peace treaty to me. I drew the scroll, and the doves around the scroll represent the peace that God promises to those whose names are on it. The scroll in my image advertises that it is still possible to get your name written on this amazing offer.

thats all for now,

mor later :)

Jared"