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: 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: 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: 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

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."

contrasting heaven & earth

Today we've got another piece from Jared Konopitski, whose visions are unlike any others. This image is called "Out of Tears" and is in Jared's signature colored pencil style, digitally enlarged to poster size creations.

His inspiration for this image comes from Luke 6:21, where Jesus said those on earth will laugh in heaven, as well as from Mathew 18:3, where He said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Jared describes the piece as illustrating "a child being birthed into heaven out of a world of tears." He made the contrast of laughing in heaven to crying (tears) on earth; much like some passages of scripture do (though I can't at the moment remember where.) We all can acknowledge that life on earth in the here and now can be a very painful experience and this work is a reminder that all of that pain will no longer exist when we live in the presence of God. Praise Him for that!

the mustard tree

As I've been reading through the New Testament now, I've found that Jesus tells a lot of stories that start, "The kingdom of heaven is like..." and proceeds to give an illustration of some aspect of God's domain. The story of the mustard seed is one of those stories, found almost verbatim both in Matthew 13: 31-32 and Luke 13: 18-19. Jesus says, "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." (Matthew)

Many of you know that I have a personal ongoing project called Tree Stories, with an accompanying blog at http://www.tree-stories.blogspot.com/, so the story of heaven being like a tree was something I had to jump at. So the first thing I set out to do was find out what a mustard tree looked like, and see if there were any near me that I could get a photograph of. Not long into my online research, I realized there is no such thing as a mustard tree - so what, I had to ask, was Jesus talking about? And I found a commentary that seemed to answer that exact question, better than anything I had ever heard. (Unfortunately I don't know where that was, but if someone else finds it again, I'll put a link in here.)

So here's what Jesus was saying, that heaven is like a seed you plant, the tiniest of seeds, expecting to get a bush, actually a pretty big bush from such a small seed, and what you get is a tree, larger than anything else in the garden, bigger and better than you would have ever expected. It's not just the concept of a huge thing coming from a small thing, like I have seen some translations make the story a pine nut and a huge pine tree - no, heaven is more than what you expect, impossible for you to completely imagine, better than your wildest dreams! Jesus wasn't referring to some obscure tree and as the Creator himself, he certainly knew that trees don't grow from mustard seeds - but he wanted us to understand that is exactly what heaven is like - the impossible come to life.

So this will become one of my Visions of Heaven, also one of my Tree Stories, and the title is Tree Story #30: The Mustard Tree. This colored version here is just a colored copy, but I'll post the final here when I get that far. I've got other pieces that are Visions of Heaven Tree Stories, which you can find on my Tree Stories blog, but I'll post here with a little more commentary at a later date.

(If you click on the "mustard tree" link below, you will see all my posts on the subject, including the final piece.)