Star in the East

And finally, this is Star in the East, part of the 8x8 Show at the Museum of Biblical Art last evening! Being so far away, I really have no idea how it went, so I'll just have to wait to hear... I was so honored to be able to participate in this event, which is only by invitation. It confirms that my calling in art is truly a gift from God and that I should continue to put an emphasis on him and his word in my work - maybe even emphasize it more, which can be a frightening thing in the open market where I show and sell my art. I would appreciate your prayers and support in this...

This piece is once again a depiction of a piece of the story of Christ's birth in Luke 2 and Matthew 2. Specifically Matthew 2:1-2, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.'"

The photo that I chose had a natural spot where light was shining through the branches and it made the perfect location for the star, in fact, this is where the concept of the star came from for all four pieces. There is a map of Bethlehem, where the star would lead the wise men to find Christ, and a cow that marks his birth in a stable. While it is easy for the story to get old in the retelling, it is still an amazing thing that the king of glory would come to earth in such a humble manner, first into the lives of such young and inexperienced parents, so completely humble. Like the wise men, we have to be looking for his signs to find him, then seek him out. When we do, we are warmly welcomed, whether we are rich and kingly or the lowest in our society as were the shepherds. It's most often a quiet thing, but the most important thing we could ever do...

In the Field

I forgot to post this yesterday, so I guess I'll just post both remaining Christmas works today...

Titled "In the Field" this piece refers again to the shepherds who were watching their flocks just outside Bethlehem when angels appeared to them and told them about the Christ child. You can see the sheep in the foreground along with another map of Bethlehem. The barn in the photo recalls the stable the Messiah was born in and the little seedling represents a new life. (Christ is also referred to as the sprout out of Jesse's family in Isaiah.) A few words of the scripture from Luke is in the upper left corner and the star is once again present. This was actually a close runner up in my decision making process for which piece to put in the show.

In the City of David

The second Christmas work I'm sharing is titled "In the City of David" from the passage in Luke 2:10-14 spoken to the shepherds in the field...

 "And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

Again, you'll find a map of Bethlehem, sheep, nearly hidden scripture and the star that shown over where the Christ child was born. And once more there is a photo of palm trees, which refer not only to the Holy Lands, but are my personal symbol for heaven. Appropriate, since the birth of the Messiah is what ultimately opens the gates of heaven for us all.

Go to Bethlehem

Just in time for Christmas...

 A little more than a month ago I was invited to a special museum show, asking for a Christmas themed work (and to keep the whole thing hush-hush.) I felt incredibly honored even on the crazy short deadline I was given and I said yes right away. But I didn't have time for pressure and over thinking to screw up my creative process, so I decided to make not one piece, but four, and then to choose the one I liked best to submit. Since there was no pressure for any single work, I was able to work out my chosen theme in four different ways and in the end I was quite happy with all four. So I'll present them here in the next few days and by the time I show you the final one, I'll be able to say where it went as well.

All four works were based on the familiar story about the birth of Christ from Luke 2 and Matthew 2. This work is called "Go to Bethlehem" as that is where Joseph and Mary had to go and so followed the shepherds and the wise men...You can see in this piece a map of Bethlehem, a sketch of animals that could have been in a stable, scripture from the Bible story and the photo of palms to help you envision the town of Bethlehem.

Sharing art & faith for Christmas

Not sure exactly where the time flies to...

Just created three different designs for Christmas cards based on artworks I just finished:

First Born Son Christmas Card by judithmonroe
More Christmas Cards

Good News Christmas Card by judithmonroe
Shop for a different greeting card template online at zazzle

Glory to God Christmas Card by judithmonroe
Browse other Bethlehem Cards

art of christmas: judith monroe

Prophecy of Hope
Mixed media on wood panel, 48” x 48”

Isaiah 11:1— Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot – yes a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.

This piece illustrates one of the prophecies about the birth of the Messiah. Over several chapters of Isaiah, the nation of Israel and people in general are referred to as trees or a forest. Isaiah talks about God’s anger at Israel’s disobedience and his coming judgment as a wild fire that would destroy the forest of Israel, and of allowing the king of Babylon to chop down Israel like trees before he would be a mighty tree felled himself. It was in this context that the hope of a new shoot that would grow from the stump of what was left of David’s family tree was given.

As I was working on this piece, it came to me that I should make a small section to the left primarily green and then separate the section off with a red stripe, and another red stripe across the top to balance the composition. This would be a new kind of element that added to my work and I literally asked myself, “Why would I do that?” As I pondered and stared, I realized that I would be creating a cross, red like the blood sacrificed by Christ there; and on the other side of the cross there was new life, represented by the green field. This was not my idea, but truly inspired by the Holy Spirit and I was thrilled and humbled by the experience.

Judith Monroe
www.judithmonroe.com

art of christmas: terry ray flowers

Before the Foundations
Assemblage

Rev 13:8— …everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of like of the Lamb who has been slain.

Both Before the Foundations and Father’s Heart have to do with the revelation the Jesus’s birth, life, death, and resurrection were not an afterthought brought about by man’s fall but a strategic plan put in place before the foundations of the world.

Terry Ray Flowers
www.boxartgospel.com

Seed of David
Assemblage

2 Samuel 7:12-16— …I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom…

Romans 1:3-4— …concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David…

This piece refers to the fact that Jesus was a direct descendent of David as prophesied in 2 Samuel, the Davidic Covenant, and confirmed in Romans.

Terry Ray Flowers
www.boxartgospel.com

Father’s Heart
Collage 5” x 7”

2 Tim 1:9— …who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

Terry Ray Flowers
www.boxartgospel.com

art of christmas: teresa harbert and julie bjorgum

Poured Out
Turkey egg pysanky

Isaiah 53:7-12— …He poured out Himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

While reading through Scriptures related to Christ’s coming and His birth, this image of Christ pouring Himself out for us struck me.

Along with the more traditional star and stable symbols I included a red egg representing His shed blood to complete the real Christmas story.

Teresa Mihalko Harbert
www.eggsbyteresa.com



A Debt I Can’t Repay
Shredded credit cards 12” x 14”

Romans 5:8— …But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

A nest is like the foundations we build, the place where we put that which is most important to us…LOVE.

Can love be bought with money? On credit? Why would someone give us money when we haven’t yet earned it? Yet wasn’t Jesus given to us when we weren’t worthy? When we had nothing of value to offer in return?

Christ was the treasure that lay in a manger. And He was given to us when we couldn’t pay the price for our sins. Christmas isn’t about worshiping the straw. Its about what was IN the straw. The gift of Love.

Julie Bjorgum
www.aplaceinmyart.com

art of christmas: stephen scott

Inshallah/Deo Volente
Mixed media 12” x 12”

Luke 1:26-38 — …I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

I buy frames and display boxes in thrift stores. For this piece I mostly used images from the photos I took while travelling in India and different parts of South East Asia. In both instances, the frame and the images are `redeemed, recycled and repurposed.’
I would like to think that this kind of renewal carries a faint, imperfect echo of the possibility that God offers any of us through the coming of His Son.

According to the earlier verses (26 on) Mary was initially troubled by the angel’s visit, and uncertain of the meaning of what was being said to her. As the implication of the angel’s words began to dawn on her she asked questions. And then she placed herself at God’s disposal. `Inshallah’ is how they say `If it is God’s will’ in a Middle Eastern context. This was Mary’s attitude when the angel told her the impossibly good news.

Stephen Scott
www.cana-arts.blogspot.com

art of christmas: ronna scott

 The Gift
Oil 11” x 14”

Isaiah 7:6— For to us a child is born to us a son is given.

Rev 22:17— The Sprit of the Bride says “come!”….let us take the free gift…

The chaos of the darkness represents a life lived without a relationship with The Heavenly Father. Life can be so difficult and yet accepting The Gift is so simple. In Revelations it simply asks us to come and take the gift.

While The Gift is simple to accept, my walk with Christ has taken many twists and turns, always with the request to look deeper.

Ronna Scott

art of christmas: raulin olivera

Angel's Announcement 1
Graphite 18” x 24”

Luke 2:8-14— Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God...

Prior to joining the Covenant Artist's group I had seen some photos by Norbert Rosing on the Internet of polar bears and sled dogs interacting in a very peaceful and playful manner. They were awe inspiring and sparked in my imagination images of what Creation may have been like before the fall of man. After joining the Covenant Artist's group and entering into discussion, prayer and Bible reading with the “Art of Christmas” and the birth of Jesus in mind I was inspired by Luke 2:8–14.

The angel announces Jesus' birth to the shepherds. I imagine that the first angel to appear was Gabriel because he is consistently the messenger angel and the heavenly host was a large number of other angels. Angels are most often scary to humans and since I enjoy drawing animals and birds, I decided to depict angels as polar bears (also scary to humans). Border collies are a shepherding dog so I chose to use them to depict the shepherds in the story. Gabriel is not shown but is in the position of the viewer as he speaks to them.

Raulin Olivera



Angel's Announcement 2
Graphite 18” x 24”

Luke 2:8-14— …Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.

The scene and the background for this drawing are the same as "Angel's Announcement 1."

This is my expression of the angel telling the shepherds about Jesus' birth but with a different twist from the first. Gabriel is in the drawing and is represented by the large eyes overlooking the scene. Polar bears are angels of the heavenly host and the border collies are shepherds.

Raulin Olivera

art of christmas: randy blasquez

The Light of His Birth
Oil on Linen 40” x 40”

Isaiah 9:2— The people who walk in darkness will see a great light: Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.

For my piece for the show, I felt drawn to the idea of the Light of Christ. Originally I was envisioning a large abstract piece with a scripture written within the piece. Something with clouds showing the light of the Messiah.

I was feeling that connection to His Light at the beginning, while he was in the womb through to His Birth. Then somehow the two ideas came together when I read this verse and I painted this ocean scene.

Randy Blasquez
www.randyblasquez.com

art of christmas: katie murphy

His Purpose
Mixed media on canvas 36” x 12”

John 12:27-28 — Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

The purpose of Jesus’ birth was His death for us. In this verse, Jesus is absolutely unwavering in his willingness to fulfill this purpose set before Him. He has complete confidence in God and what He is about to endure for us.

To emphasize His confidence, I partially covered up the beginning of the verse with images and symbols of His earthly journey. No matter how troubling His circumstances, He lets God lead His life every step of the way, and glorifies Him in the midst of it all.

I thought it only fitting to also include Jesus’ command iin John 15:12. “My command is this, love each other as I have loved you.” Jesus loved with utter confidence and sacrifice, patience, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, and grace. He loved those whom we might categorize as “unlovable.” Are we not all children of God? It may be troubling to our hearts at times to love this way, but it is what he asks of us. Jesus humbled Himself, came to earth, and fulfilled His purpose for us…are we willing, with humility and God’s consistent help, in spite of troubled hearts at times, to fulfill ours for Him?

Katie Murphy
www.justwonderingthrough.com

art of christmas: kathleen ellertson

Mary’s ‘Yes’
Sculpture 24” x 12”

Luke 1:26-80— …”I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."

This piece represents Mary raising her hands, spirit and heart up to the Lord, saying “Yes” I will give myself up and over to You. I will be Your Mother. It represents the power of how a simple “Yes” to Jesus is so mightily received by Him – and how much it means. It also represents the fact that God reaches us where we are.

I work with computers and the media is shredded CD’s.

Kathleen Ellertson

art of christmas: dianne mattar

Leaning on Him
Acrylic on canvas 24” x 20”

2 Samuel 22:2-4— The Lord is my rock, my fortress & my deliverer: My God is my rock in whom I take refuge…..leaning on Him.

The real Spirit of Christmas is looking beyond our traditions to living the true joy of the birth, death and resurrection of Christ by seeing within each of us a heart decorated with God’s love.

Christmas gave us a living God who came to earth to make a way for us to have eternal life and is the beginning of knowing that God is at our side through all the conditions in life. The undertow of the world may pull us down but with Christ by our side we will surface and be able to stand tall.

Dianne Mattar
www.dmattar.com

art of christmas show: allison carlos

I know many people can't make it to the actual gallery show to see all the works that have been created for this year's Art of Christmas show, so now that it's up (and my school semester is over) I'm posting all the works with the artist's description for the next several days - I think it will be our "Eleven Days of Christmas," if I've counted right. Enjoy.

Mary
Oil 48” x 24”

Luke 1:26-38— I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

This painting is about how God uses everyday people within their everyday circumstances to fulfill his purposes. Mary (and Joseph) were going about their lives of faith, yet if they were not attentive to the movements of the heavenly realm and truly believing in his presence in their lives, …. well … who knows what Mary might have said. BUT, what she actually said was after initially being a little unsettled, “I am the Lord’s servant”.

Allison Carlos
www.allisoncarlos.com

the light of Christ

This week we get to see another artist's piece, nearly finished! Randy Blasquez creates wonderful oil paintings and tells us about her approach to this project:

For my piece for the show, I felt drawn to the idea of the Light of Christ. Originally I was envisioning a large abstract piece with a scripture written within the piece. Something with clouds showing the light of the Messiah. I was feeling that connection to His Light at the beginning, while he was in the womb through to His Birth. Then somehow the two ideas came together when I read this verse and I painted this ocean scene.

THE PEOPLE WALKING IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT  (Isaiah 9:2)

I’ve been working on some ideas to get the lettering onto the canvas so a viewer can walk up to the painting and read the verse….

Randy Blasquez

all God's creatures...

One of our artists, Raulin Olivera, usually draws animals so his challenge was how to use his talent to portray part of the Christmas story. He explains how it's coming together, with some of his sketches:



The most inspiring passages for these drawings, the polar bears and the border collies anyway comes from Luke 2:9-14, specifically, "An angel of the Lord appeared to them..." 2:9 and, "Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising and saying "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."" 2:13,14.


I had seen some incredible pictures of polar bears and sled dogs on the net by Norbert Rosing which caused me to think about the bears as massive, scary creatures who have a softer side that may come from their designer. Angels are always scary when they show themselves to people in the Bible so I thought that the bears could work as angels in my drawings.

Also, just over a year ago I had a border collie named Boo... So, border collies, also on my mind became a good candidate for the shepherds.


With those two characters for illustrating the Christmas story I began sketching the scene from Luke 2:13, 14 in pencil.

As my sketches matured I started enlarging the characters. I found that pencil wasn't working for me as well as I'd hoped so at the suggestion of you (I believe) Judith I dug-out my charcoal supplies, made a trip to Aaron Bros. and picked-up some supplies there which included a large tablet, compressed charcoal, black and while conte crayon etc.


My current debate with myself is about adding color to it. I know that I am going to use white conte crayon in places but I am thinking about adding a sepia tone as well.

Now the birds are an unrelated topic. I just like to draw predatory birds. The one bird in flight is a Red Tail Hawk and the other is a woodpecker. The variety slips my mind at the moment. Inspiration for these was from the blessing of being able to see them in our neighborhood and pictures of them in books or other photos. Scripture for the birds comes from Genesis 1 and the six days of creation. Birds were created on the 5th day starting in verse 20 And God said, "Let the water team with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."


In our small group we have been studying with the aid of a book called The God of Creation by Theodore Epp. The author is dead now and the book out of print. But we were able to obtain a few used copies. He was the founder of Family Radio which was on KEBR, I believe. Anyway, he delves in deeply to the creation story which has helped us uncover details of creation that we may have not previously been aware. I can only imagine the world being filled with birds in the blink of God's eye and all of the variety and uniqueness of each.

-Raulin

sacred spaces

Covenant Artists have been meeting biweekly lately to read over Scripture about the Christmas story & the many prophecies that concern the coming of Christ. Many have begun to get visions of what God would have us communicate - or what God is communicating to us - from these Scriptures and it's an exciting process.

Finally, we are beginning to produce sketches and share our ideas and visions in a physical manner. I'm hoping to get several artists to share with me so that I can share them on this blog.

Allison Carlos has a passion for the concept of creating sacred spaces, such as within sanctuaries and she has shared some sketches with me, so now I'm sharing with you. She was particularly inspired by the scripture in Luke 1:28-35 and Matthew 1:20.

Alison explains, "I merged my work on creating pieces for sacred spaces with the Christmas Art Project. My concept for two pieces that are intended to hang together are: (1) Mary with the angel telling her about how the Holy Spirit will hover over her and she will be with child (little Jesus) and (2) Joseph's dream when the Lord tells him that he should not be afraid to take Mary home as his wife even though she is pregnant."


"So, the two rough sketches are attached. The challenge is that I intend to paint these pieces using the colors of the Church Calendar. These are Advent pieces, and the primary colors for Advent are purple and blue with some use of rose. The challenge comes with the use of this very limited palette of analogous colors (colors essentially from common sides of the color wheel). So, we shall see how it goes."

art of christmas in july

Covenant Artists is taking on another group art endeavor! This time we will be working in community and digging together into the scriptures that prophesy and tell the story of Christ's birth.

Based in prayer and Scripture, our hope is to create a show that will convey the Spirit of Christmas in a Sacred Space. We will talk about what this means as we encourage each other along the journey to create our own inspired pieces. Our goal is to include many forms of expression including fiber arts, painting, sculpture, clay, photography, drawing and more.

Artists interested in participating are invited to join us biweekly for inspiration while considering our works for the show. We'll be meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. at Folsom's Oak Hills Church for these special times of gathering to explore our role in God’s plan for our gift from Him, the Creative Spirit.

Meeting dates:
August 5th
August 19th
September 2nd
September 16th
September 30th
October 14th
October 28th

For more information email Judith Monroe at judith@judithmonroe.com.