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.

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: 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: 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

prophecy of hope

Just so you don't think I've been slacking on this Art of Christmas project, here's a shot of my work in progress, which I'm calling "Prophecy of Hope" based on Isaiah 11:1. You can read more about this piece at my Wanderings blog.

I'm also hoping to get more images and details about artworks when the show goes up - next week!

jm

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

more trees

Today we go back to trees - another tree of life in bead embroidery by Sheila Stockton - and watching how a beaded tree grows from the seeds of inspiration to the full growth of a finished product. The first part of inspiration comes from scripture, in this case, Sheila says, "since olive trees are such long living trees:"

They’ll build houses
and move in.
They’ll plant fields
and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
Isaiah 65:16-17* (The Message)

Here you can see the seed growing into a colored pencil sketch in Sheila's journal and below it in the body of text is another scriptural reference to the tree of life in Revelation 22:2, "On each side of the river grew the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit with a fresh crop each month." Some translations specify that each fruit is a different kind of fruit, and this reference to twelve kinds of fruit is part of what has inspired Sheila to render the tree of life as different fruit bearing trees. We'll wait to see if she gets to twelve...







At this stage, you can see the pencil sketch on the cloth (including some color reference) and the embroidery in progress. We happened to catch it at a point where she had just finished a length of thread and had tied it off in the back, otherwise, you might see the very fine needle that she works with.

And finally the finished piece - I think this whole process took her about week, not counting the conceptual process and the many hours of searching for just the right beads for the work.


*On a scriptural note, the verse she chose to accompany this piece, is from a section of Isaiah specifically referring to the New Earth, when Jesus will be back on earth with his people, bringing Heaven down and restoring God's relationship to humankind.

jottings by jared

Jared Konopitski & I got to catch up on stuff on Sunday at which time I mentioned to him that I didn't have a lot of work from him for this blog, even though I KNEW he had been very creative. So also being a very responsible young man, Jared has sent me a couple more images to post. Both pieces are done in Jared's typical colored pencil cartoon-illustrative style which so many of us thoroughly enjoy.

This first image was inspired by Isaiah 9:5 "In that day of peace, battle gear will no longer be issued. Never again will uniforms be bloodstained by war. All such equipment will be burned."

In Jared's words, "The soldier is burning his uniform for he no longer has a need for it. In the same effect the tank in the back is burning to the ground and the sky is glowing from the fire as all the ingredients of war are burned in this time peace."

This second piece comes from Revelation 20:11. "And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the one who was sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide."

Jared says "In this image I placed a white throne right in the middle of a satellite-esque photo of the earth. The image of earth is swirling and twisting to hide from the throne but it has no where to go, limited to its own borders."

Jared is certainly not limiting himself as he continues with his artistic visions of heaven. I'm eager to see what else he has in store for us.

visions in a book

This is one of the pages from my "Visions of Heaven" altered book. The image is a refelction of the heavens over our head, in a reference to the idea that we can only "see" heaven as though in a poor reflection, found at the end of 1 Corinithians 13 and then is paired with a verse, Isaiah 65:17, "Look! I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore." In this verse, God is telling us that he will make heaven and earth new again.

On this next page, I again use a verse that refers to the new heavens and new earth, but this time from the New Testament. "We are looking forward to the new heaven and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God's righteousness." 2 Peter 3:13 This verse also refers back to the promises of a new earth made in Isaiah. The image I used, like all of the images in this book, is a Polaroid transfer, which comes from a color slide, but results in a stylized vision of what was photographed. In the same way, the new earth we are promised will be recognizable as our earth, but a new a wonderful vision of what it is now.

halleluia

Here's another acrylic work from Ross Conklin; the man has certainly been busy painting.

This piece is titled, "Halleluia," portraying the welcoming committee at the gate of heaven with singing and dancing as the "Saints Go Marching In." Once again relating his visual work to his musical roots, Ross this time finds inspiration in the old Negro spiritual. Ross also says, "Notice the joyful faces welcoming a newcomer at the gate of heaven."

Ross offers scriptural references supporting a big party at heaven's gates first from Isaiah 35:10.
"And the ransomed of the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away."

While 1 Corinthians 2:9 has been used to support the concept that we can't envision what heaven will be like, the first part of verse 10 clearly states that we can. In it's entirety, the passage says, "However, as it is written:
'No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him'
but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit."
Ross uses it here to point out that it will likely be even better than we can imagine or possibly depict in our limited capabilities as human artists. Nonetheless, his depiction stirs our imaginations.

Once again, Ross points out that any who ask can be a part of this great celebration by pointing to Revelation 22: 14-17. "'Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
'I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches, I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.'
The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him show hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."

I'm certainly looking forward to being at that party!

more from ross

This is another piece from acrylic painter Ross Conklin titled, "The New Jerusalem."

For this piece, Ross, who has spent much of his life as a musician as well, draws from the old slavery spiritual, "Goin' to that Beautiful City." He shows us the new Heaven and new Earth coming down from heaven, referred to in Revelation 21, then also refers to Isaiah 12, a song of praise looking forward to the new Jerusalem.

Another reference that Ross uses for this piece is Ecclesiastes 12:5,
"When men are afraid of heights
and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
and the grasshopper drags himself along
and desire no longer is stirred.
Then man goes to his eternal home
and mourners go about the streets."

Ross points out that believers will be welcomed in the New Jerusalem with 2 Peter 1:11, which says,"And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."Echoing the sentiment, Ephesians 2:19 says, "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household."

Finally, Ross refers to Revelation 22: 14-17, which points out that all who invite Christ into their lives will be invited into the New Jerusalem. "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral,the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
'I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.'
The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."

work from ross conklin

Ross Conklin is often one of our more quiet artists, but he certainly doesn't lack anything to say. It seems that Ross carefully considers his words before sharing and the same applies to his artistic expressions as well.

Ross works in acrylic paints, and his control is amazing when you see him write or draw, because you realize that he has tremors in his hands that would deter most people from even attempting such fine motor control. Ross says that he uses both hands to control his paint brushes, and is rewarded with results that many artists without such physical hurdles would be proud of.

This piece is Ross's first Vision of Heaven, which he actually painted before we began this project, titled "Watch and Pray." Ross explains, "For the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect Him. All eyes will see Him. We must come to God as little children. Old things shall pass away and everything will become new. We are redeemed by His blood." He provides several scriptures to support his work, including Isaiah 9:2, which says, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." He also sites Isaiah 12, a song of praise to God, and Isaiah 40, which describes how God would release Israel from captivity to Babylon as well as the final days when Christ returns to earth.

Ross seems to almost explain his artistic vision with Daniel 7:13, which says, "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence."

The child figure in the piece is explained by Matthew 18: 1-6, in which Christ speaks of entering into heaven as children and in Matthew 19: 13-14, when Jesus says to allow children to come to him. In Matthew 24 Jesus teaches about the future, his return, and about being watchful, giving overall context; it's also from this scripture that the piece gets its title.

An all too common refrain when Christian concepts are discussed is that it all seems a bit crazy, but Ross points out I Corinthians 2: 14-15, which explains that "the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment."

The importance of the cross as access to heaven is explained in Colossians 1:20, "And through (Jesus) to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." And again in Colossians 2:14-15: "Having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

Finally, Ross directs the focus of the whole artwork on the sun, a metaphor for God's son, illustrating Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."