covenant artists retreat

Covenant Artists have been plenty busy, even if I haven't been so much on this blog -

Today we had our first annual retreat, a day at the Empire Mine state historic park in Grass Valley - it was a bit overcast, but a nice day in a beautiful setting.

We started with a devotional about creative prayer - that's the focus of our current study right now. It started with Psalm 19

For the choir director: A psalm of David.
1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
2 Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
3 They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.*
4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world.

God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
5 It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding.
It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.
6 The sun rises at one end of the heavens
and follows its course to the other end.
Nothing can hide from its heat.

7 The instructions of the LORD are perfect,
reviving the soul.
The decrees of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The commandments of the LORD are right,
bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are clear,
giving insight for living.
9 Reverence for the LORD is pure,
lasting forever.
The laws of the LORD are true;
each one is fair.
10 They are more desirable than gold,
even the finest gold.
They are sweeter than honey,
even honey dripping from the comb.
11 They are a warning to your servant,
a great reward for those who obey them.

12 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don't let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.

14 May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

*19:3 Or There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.



We talked about how God speaks to us creatively through his what he's made for us to see, and how our words and meditations should be creative, to relate to him as he relates to us. And then we talked about reaching other people creatively, based on Matthew 5

Teaching about Salt and Light
13 "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
14 "You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

I think God has given each of us specific ways to shine, and those of us who have been given creative gifts were made to shine creatively...












We wrapped up the devotional with Colossians 4

An Encouragement for Prayer
2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.3 Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains.4 Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.
5 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity.6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive* so that you will have the right response for everyone.

*4:6 Greek and seasoned with salt.

It talks about our mind being alert and active when praying - certainly creativity gets our brain working - and then sharing that creative relationship with others again.

After all that talk, it was time to actually be creative! Becky took these photos of the rest of us getting into our workshop session, where we made rubbings and incorporated them into small accordion books - then we all got so into our creative time that no one thought to take more photos!

Hopefully, I'll get some scans of some of the finished books to post here later -

After the workshop we shared lunch together and then we had a couple hours of personal time to put creative prayer in action - whatever that meant for each of us personally at that time. I think we all spent most of the time in the lawns and gardens.

Finally, we came together to share what we had each learned that was most important to us - a special time & a good way to close the day.

hope

I just finished a new piece titled "Hope." (You can click on the image to see it bigger.) Sometimes things seem very hard, but if we just look we'll see the hope shining through a situation. Hope is referred to many times in Scripture, and often is a direct reference to the knowledge that we will have eternal life with Christ in heaven - which when we really think about it, can really put things into perspective...

I'm thinking that this will start a new series for me, I really want to look forward a bit more. It's so easy to get caught in what we have to deal with now, and it can be hard to remember the hope we have to look forward to.

(You can see a little more about how this piece came to be on my Wanderings blog.)

more visions in the cafe & upper room

Hung a new set of work in the Cafe' and in the Upper Room yesterday. This time it's more Visions of Heaven work by Sheila Stockton, Karen Fields and myself. You can see several of Sheila's small bead embroidery works and Karen's watercolor "postcards" in the cafe.
And you can find most of my mixed media photo- graphic works in the Upper Room, also known as Room 211. As usual here, clicking on an image will give you a better view, but I hope you can get down to First Covenant Church to see it for yourself!

gospel train

Here's another new piece from Ross Conklin, titled "Got Ticket?" done in acrylic paints on canvas. (You can click on the image for a bigger view.) This time Ross takes his inspiration from the old spiritual, The Gospel Train's a Comin' (GT). He also points to Joel 2:32, which says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Then in the New Testament to John 10:9, where Jesus says, "I am the gate. Whoever enters through me shall be saved."

Then Ross simply asks, "Got Ticket?"

quiet waters

I can't believe it has taken me so long to get back to this blog - but back again I am. This is work from another photographer in the group, Heather Montgomery, who joined us as we started our current "Creative Call" study. Heather's goal with her artwork is to capture the beauty she sees and to give glory to the God who created it all.

This black and white photo was inspired by Psalm 23:2,“He leads me beside quiet waters.” Heather says this about the work, "Here we see the beauty of God’s creation. The water is calm and relaxing which allows you to just be at peace and experience the closeness of God. If you just open your eyes, you will see that God’s beauty is all around us."

I think that sums it up pretty well.

solid rock

I'll be trying to incorporate more artworks from our various artists again - as long as they all keep me supplied with work! Today I'll catch up on a piece that's been hanging in the "Upper Room" at First Covenant, an acrylic painting by Ross Conklin.









This piece is titled "Solid Rock" and serves as an illustration for the common Biblical reference to God as our rock, the one steady constant in our lives. (You can click on the image to enlarge it.)

As Ross puts it, "The constant sea billows roll and pound as the Solid Rock stands fast. The rock represents God's strength as the rock of our salvation stands firm. The surging sea represents the push and pull of this world (the devil) who threatens to tear us down." Ross also shares a list of scriptural reference to God as our rock.

In Deuteronomy 32:4, "He is our rock. His works are perfect." In Second Samuel 22:2, "The Lord is my rock and fortress." King David repeatedly referred to God as his rock in difficult times. In Psalm 18:2, he says, "The Lord is my rock and fortress." Again in Psalm 19:14 he proclaims, "The Lord is my rock and redeemer." And once more in Psalm 61:2 he pleads, "as my heart grows faint; Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Isaiah also proclaims, "The Lord is my Rock eternal." (26:4) I'm sure that's not an exhaustive list of references to God as our rock, but I think it gets the message across. Need something solid in your life? God's your guy.

breathing in: finding inspiration

Our Creative Call study meets this evening; we'll be reviewing Chapter 5, "Breathing In." In this chapter author Janice Elsheimer covers the subject of inspiration and the Holy Spirit as the source of that inspiration.

I wanted to expand on a thought she puts under the heading "The Courage to Create... This week, try to focus on two main ideas:

1. paying attention
2. making time to breathe in the inspiration God offers you"

A good tool to help you get into the paying attention mode is to sit down with an observational checklist, which I use when I teach about art journaling with students. Inside the front or back cover of your sketchbook/journal, write down this list, then refer to it when you feel you must be missing something. Remember to listen as well as to look, sometimes we visual artists can forget to listen...

1. date
2. time
3. location
4. weather - include wind direction, cloud formations, the forecast for the day
5. first impressions
6. ground observations - really get down there & see what there, especially interesting if you're outside
7. eye-level observations - what is there just at your eye level?
8. overhead observations - spend some time looking up, we often ignore what's over our heads
9. whole landscape observations

This is something I do myself as an integral part of my creative process, I find it helps me focus on my work and what I'm seeing. It also gives me something to reflect back on during later parts of the creative process. (I've adapted this list from another great book, "Keeping a Nature Journal.")

Want to read what's on those journal pages? Just click on the image to see it enlarged!

grape vine "tree" updated

I recently got an email asking about the "vine tree" and I wanted to clarify some things about that, as well as share a "vine tree" image of my own. What I'm referring to isn't actually a tree, but a grape vine, as a botanical possibility of the tree of life.

There's alot more on the whole matter in the context of Jewish culture at Nehi's Tree of Life.



This is a new image of mine, not specifically intended to reflect an aspect of heaven, but does anyway, as my work usually does. Some time ago, I realized that all of my work illustrates my longing to be in perfect communion with God, like Adam and Eve had in the garden.

Sometimes when I'm working, especially shooting out in some quiet place all alone, I can almost be in that state, but it can be a hard thing for us to do now when we're on this currently imperfect earth. That's when I long for heaven to be brought down and the earth remade into something the same but more wonderful - and that's what always seems to come through in my work - at least when I've done it right...

creative journaling

Last week we had another Creative Call journaling exercise - this time a collage prayer. We found words and images in magazines, then collaged them together in our journals as a prayer, asking God for the things we need, thanking him for what he's given us, whatever we needed to talk to him about. We didn't worry about whether it made sense to anyone else, because we know that God knows. I'm sharing my collage prayer here, so that you can get the idea and try one of your own - a nice way to journal, I think.

To see this image larger, just click on it, then click your back button to get back to this post - As for what some of this means, the big frame is around the whole thing; I want my life to be God's work of art, so I'm framing this prayer to express that. The word nature and natural images are references to the inspiration I have for much of my work, which I am so thankful for. I need from God his guidance daily for my own artistic growth which is so rewarding to me - and I always want to be sending God's message of love. Down below is the word studio - I'll be renting new studio space soon, which God will have to bless financially or I won't be able to do it very long, so that's a big request right now.

All these things were on my collage but it was missing something, and I didn't know what, so I was looking through one of my art magazines and found the quote, "You've got to touch people. That's why you create art." That pretty much sums it all up. Amen

more heaven showing

Since many of the artworks that were shown at the Artisan Gallery were never shown at First Cov, we decided to have a reprise of the Heaven Show in the Upper Room and the Cafe - in stages. Currently showing are works by Ross Conklin (work in first photo), Jared Konopitski (work in next photo), David Kiesewetter and Vincent Dixon. Apparently my brain was out to lunch when I took photos Sunday morning - I'll have to take more to showcase Dave & Vincent's work!
At least I managed to capture a nice still life in the Cafe'...

cov arts workshop goes to high school

This week I had the pleasure of bringing a Cov Artist's journal-making work-shop to a group of high school girls - whether they knew it or not - a good time was had by all...

creative journal help

Since we are currently working our way as a group through The Creative Call by Janice Elsheimer, I thought I would use this blog as a tool to help out. As a visual artist going through this book for the third time, I was struck at how writer-oriented her exercises are, which is a good way to get some creative juices flowing, but I know so many visual artists who are put off or freaked out by writing that this gets in the way of the study.




So now that we're in Chapter 3, I'll start adding my own suggestions as to how to work out these exercises. Specifically, for Exercise 1: Visions and Longings, Janice asks us to remember the things we loved to do as a child and list as many of these things as we can in five minutes - finding our way back to our inner child, as it were. I'd challenge you to go a step further and then create a collage from magazine images, or to sketch out images, find old photos, whatever, that takes you back to these same activities.

One of my all time favorite things is time at the beach, sitting and playing in the sand as a child, making roads and castles, finding seashell treasures, running in the waves. And then later photographing at the beach, including my own children engaging in these very same activities.

Make this your creative journaling time today - and just try to keep it to only twenty minutes... ;)

more mustard seed-tree

I got an email with links to more information on the mustard tree/seed parable that Jesus told about heaven and that I used as a jumping board for a piece of work. First link is a photo of an actual mustard tree, which I couldn't find in my own research, but was sent to me by Thomas Brass - thanks! Second is a study of the parable of the mustard seed, by Ken Anderson. I still like the interpretation I first found - guess we can all talk it over with Jesus when we get there!

journal making workshop

One of the things I've been wanting to do as a part of Covenant Artists is to hold art workshops, for artists of all levels, including those who don't really consider themselves artists but might like to try out something creative.

We had our first journal making workshop at the church a couple weeks ago but I forgot to take photos or make mention of it. Last night, though, we had a make up session in my home studio, so remembering my camera wasn't an issue and with my studio in amazing order, I was prompted to record the event on film. If you look carefully, you can see that there's nothing under my worktable in these photos - for those who have seen it under normal circumstance, you know under my work table is a whole lot of storage bins - which were set in other parts of the studio for the night.

So here's the three book makers, Dave and Pam Kiesewetter and Karen Fields, putting the finishing touches on their journals. You can see my finished samples on the table in the foreground.

Pam is concen- trating on getting beads strung onto the threads that she sewed the binding of her journal with. We all had a great time making the project and just hanging out together. I actually enjoyed having it in my studio, and I might host small workshops there again...

Grape Vine Tree

I had to search back to see what I have on file that hasn't been posted yet and I found the sixth in the bead embroidery Tree of Life series by Sheila Stockton. This particular tree happens to be a grape vine, in line with when Christ said "I am the vine, you are the branches..." in John 15. With Christ as our ultimate source of life in Heaven, this would completly appropriate as a tree of life interpretation.

However, Sheila gives another scripture reference, from a new earth passage in Isaiah 62:8-9, “The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: ‘Never again will I give your grain as food for your enemies, and never again will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled; but those who harvest it will eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather the grapes will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.’”

Either way, we don't usually think of the tree of life as a grape vine, but I think it totally works and it might have also been one of the traditional Jewish depictions, though I could be entirely confused on that one.

mustard tree complete

As part of my catching up with all our visions, I've discovered I hadn't posted the completed Mustard Tree piece that I had first written about last July... of course, it was complete and on display for the show in December, but I'm just now getting it posted here. (As always, just click on the image to see it larger.)

This is also part of my Tree Stories series, and is titled Tree Story #30: The Mustard Tree. It was inspired by Matthew 13: 31-32, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches." (See also Luke 13:18-19.) You can see the whole explanation about the mustard tree on the previous post.

This piece is available as limited edition pigment prints:
8x10" (matted to 11x14") - $65
11x14" (matted to 16x20") - $125
16x20" (matted to 20x24") - $250
20x24" on 24x32" paper - $500
Just email me at judith@judithmonroe.com if you're interested.

back again!

I'm back again at long last! What can I say? I got busy getting ready for Christmas, enjoying the holidays and then I just had a hard time getting out of vacation mode after it all - but the blog must go on, so here I am again.

I'll still be posting Heaven art work on this blog & I think I'll start posting various other Covenant Artist happenings and artwork as well...

Today I've got a Visions of Heaven piece by Vincent Dixon, a talented oil painter and comic artist. If you look at his oil paintings you can often see the comic artist in the way he handles his figures, as in this piece that he's titled "Harvest Time." For a scriptural reference, Vincent has cited Matthew 13:30, "Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn." You can see that Vincent has chosen to illustrate this scripture in a traditionally literal style, with angels as harvesters and wheat representing those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God, who stands in the field as the harvest is gathered.