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

heaven is filled with trees

As the gallery show draws near, much is coming together, and there seems to be trees sprouting up everywhere. I have a couple of my own to share later, but today it's another tree of life from bead artist Sheila Stockton (hi Mom!) This is her "Tree of Life #5" which is depicted this time as a cherry tree. Once again, her inspiration for the series is Revelation 22:2, this time in the Contemporary English Version, "On each side of the river are trees that grow a different kind of fruit each month of the year. The fruit gives life, and the leaves are used as medicine to heal the nations."

peeking through heaven's door

Today we'll take another look at the doorway to heaven, this time through the eyes of Eileen Downes, who uses peices of paper to 'paint' with -

I have always been fascinated by doors, windows, portals, passageways and their symbolic meaning. I have saved such imagery for many years - photos from vacations, magazines, family member’s trips, my own illustrations etc... anything about doors really. I have used some of these fragments in the previous collages by layering them over each other, often intertwining them, into an artistic arrangement. Glimpses and views of wonderfully beautiful places symbolic of heaven can be seen though the doorways and windows. These pieces are complete art pieces in their own right, but they are also preparatory illustrations to the larger piece that I recently completed.

This large piece incorporates a real antique door that the viewer must actually open to reveal the imagery behind. This interactive art piece asks the viewer to make a motion, a decision to open, just like we are asked to make a motion to accept Christ as our Savior.

Doors and windows are symbolic imagery that I use in these pieces to convey the essence of heaven. We can pass though these portals of life like we pass from this world into our eternal life in heaven. The Bible references doors in several verses. For example:

Psalm 78:23 "Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens."

Revelation 4:1 "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.'"

Genesis 28:17 "He was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.'"

Although the following verse does not specifically mention “doors” it does so indirectly by indicating that there are many rooms in heaven: John 14:2 "In my Fathers house are many rooms; and if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you."


- Eileen Downes

doorway to heaven

Today we have a contribution from an artist you haven't heard from before, David Kiesewetter. Dave is still experimenting with different media, trying to find one that really suits him, as many of us do before we settle into one or two primary media. (Unless we just decide to mix them all up!) This piece is a wonderful pen and ink drawing, part of Dave's process for a larger work, but strong enough to stand on it's own as well.

Dave's inspiration for this piece, comes from Revelation 4:1, "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.'"

Here we see the door open to show a glimpse into heaven beyond, including some of the twenty-four elders sitting around the central throne of God, referred to in Revelation 4:4. In the foreground, you can see the water of the river of life, that flows out from the throne of God, as found in Revelation 22:1.

As we prepare for Thanksgiving tomorrow, I thank God that he is preparing this wonderful place to share with us. Blessings to all.

process and the river of life

Today I'm going to take you through the process for one of my mixed media photographs, "River of Life." I'll actually show you the step by step process I've gone through in my artist's journal I've been keeping just for this project.

The first step was reading through the book "In Light of Eternity" by Randy Alcorn and looking up all the scriptural references that he cites in his book. This has been the basis for all of the artwork done by all of the artists over the course of this past year. There were actually a couple of pieces of scripture that inspired this particular piece. First, in Revelation 22:1, it says, "Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb."


One of the first things this scripture does is make me think of what river images I might already have, like this photo taken for no particular reason at the time but has been patiently waiting for me to print it. I made a digital copy to color and put in my journal, waiting for the next piece of the work to come together. You can see I also doodled some palm trees onto it, to see how I'd like to work in the palm tree element that I want to keep as a theme in this project.


Another verse helped influence this piece, Genesis 2:10-14, "A river watered the garden and then flowed out of Eden and divided into four branches. The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found... The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates." I really like the link between maps of a place and the image of the place, and I've used maps for overlays before this project, so it wasn't a great stretch for me to think of a map of Eden's rivers to connect the River of Life in Heaven and the river that fed the whole earth from Eden, possibly even the same river? The thought intrigues me that there is a close link between Eden, referred to as Paradise in the Bible, and Heaven, also referred to as Paradise...


In my journal, I can overlap the photographic image and the map, to work out how the two will fit together in the darkroom, change it if I want to, mull it over, move it, or change it completely.


This is the black and white contact print, with the map and a single palm tree as an overlay. When you look at this image and the next one, you can see that the overlay can move around, making no two in the series exactly alike.


Finally, I use watercolors, then dry colored pencils to add the final dimension of color to the piece. In this case, I decided to make the sky yellow in a reference to God's light in Heaven, eliminating the need for the sun or moon, but not necessarily eliminating the sun & the moon themselves, as found in Revelation 22:5. "And there will be no night there - no need for lamps or sun - for the Lord God will shine on them."

So that takes you from beginning to end in the process. By the way, the first entry for this in my journal is dated February 2007, and I just finished it November 2007: about nine months, so I guess it's appropriate for me to think of the finished piece as one of my babies.

heaven opened

Today I have another image from Jared Konopitski, our colored pencil stylist, with an awe inspired piece from Revelation 19:11-16: "Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. And the one sitting on the horse was named Faithful and True. For he judges fairly and then goes to war. His eyes were bright flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him, and only he knew what it meant. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword, and with it he struck down the nations. He ruled them with an iron rod, and he trod the winepress of the fierce wrath of the almighty God. On his robe and thigh was written this title: King of kings and Lord of lords."

Jared has called this "My simplistic drawing of such a complicated image," but I would say he has distilled the image to something that we can grasp, and that he has done it very well. When I start to look at the image and read the passage, I see many things that I wouldn't grasp in the reading alone. I'm afraid that I'm such a visually oriented person, that it would take many careful readings for me to "see" the image in my head, yet Jared gives me the whole picture at once. It's not so simple that it doesn't takes time for me to grasp the whole picture, but it begins to help bring the scripture to life for me.

At first I felt that the relaxed pose of the rider and horse was incongrous to the sword and flame features of Christ, but it helped remind me this is the same Christ who humbly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, then gave his life for us to share in his glory. And that is what heaven being opened to us is all about...

river of healing revisted

This is a pair of images I first showed some time ago as they appear in my journal, and now they're finally finished. They form a diptych, or two images that are considered one piece, and they actually have elements that run from one image to the next.





They were inspired by Ezekiel 47:7 & 9, "When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of 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 flourish wherever this water flows." All this from a vision Ezekiel was having of heaven. Of course, we are also told about the river of life in heaven in Revelation 22:2, "It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life... the leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations." So the vision of John is different but certainly has commonalities with Ezekiel's vision.

The overlay images I used for this piece are actually maps of the rivers that flowed around Eden, or at least an interpretation of where they could have been, since Eden's exact location was lost to us when Adam & Eve sinned. It's thrilling to think that Paradise lost will become Paradise restored when Heaven is at last brought down to earth, which is what the maps signify in this piece.

I've continued that concept in the next piece I've finished, which I'll try to post tomorrow.

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.

trees of life

Many of you are aware of my own personal facination with trees, and the tree of life has to be one of the most facinating concepts for me personally, but it has also been the subject of many artists and iconographers quite literally over the millenia.

In our western society, the tree of life is an apple tree; I've never researched why that happens to be (maybe I should) but I have researched some of the Hebrew tradtitions and found that some hold the tree of life as a date palm, an olive tree, a fig tree, or even a grape vine. For an artist deciding to depict this most heavenly of trees, the options are wide open.

One artist embarking on this journey is Sheila Stockton (many of you also know her as my mother) who is using bead embroidery as her media of choice for this journey.

This is her second finished work, titled "Tree of Life #2: Date Palm." Her scriptural reference for this piece is "Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life." (Revelation 22:14 NLT) You can see the river of life in this image, and the date palm tree of life growing along both sides of the river.

The detail work in these tiny artistic jewels is pretty impressive. (You can click on the image itself to get a closer view of those details.) We'll share a little more of the process that goes into those details in another post very soon...

And just so you know how these things work, if you'd like to see more artwork that relates to the work in this posting, just click on one of the labels at the bottom of the post and see what happens!

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.

up close & personal

So now that I've teased you with the big picture, so to speak, I'll fill in a couple details. Here are a couple smaller images that you can see framed on the wall in the first photo on the previous post, but that you can't really SEE. I happened to have good scans from a couple of the works that are up but haven't been shared on the blog yet, so I guess it's time to share. Remember that you should be able to see a larger image by clicking on the ones below.

From left to right on the big wall, the pair of works stacked on top of each other are from Karen Fields, works in watercolor & mixed media. This first piece is "Postcard #1, Heaven's Lamb" and it illustrates Revelations 5:11, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and strength and honor and glory and praise."







Her next piece is titled,
"Postcard #2, Understanding" and juxtaposes the cross and a sense of mourning with 1 Corinthians 2:9, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." This piece reflects the bittersweet reality that Christ suffered and died to give us the chance to share an eternity of amazing joy with him.

And way over on the far right hand end of the wall is a tiny gem by Sheila Stockton. This is the first of her "Trees of Life" series in bead embroidery titled, "The Tree of Life #1." She refers to Revelation 22:2, which says, “The Tree of Life was planted on each side of the River, producing twelve kinds of fruit, a ripe fruit each month.” Here you can see all the detail work, including some of the beads we shared with you in an earlier post.

a vision from Ross Conklin

At long last, I am sharing more work from painter Ross Conklin, who has been continuously producing work for this show, stretching himself in ways I don't think he has done before. I'm so impressed with this body of work, and I'm pleased to present his next acrylic piece, titled "Beyond the Pearly Gates."







This piece was inspired in part when a family friend sort of jokingly suggested to Ross, “What about the pearly gates?” This actually got him thinking about what the view through the gates might look like. Ross says, "The Bible refers to the pearly gates as being made of one pearl, but I could not understand how to paint one large pearl so I broke it down into segmented stones."

Looking through the pearly gates, Ross shows what is described in Revelation 22: 1-5: "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever."

In the painting, we can see the River of Life, which is flowing from the throne of God. The throne of God is depicted by the penetrating bright sun showing through the branches of the tree, and is referred to in verses one and later in verse five. In verse two, the Tree of Life stands on each side of the River of Life, which Ross illustrates by spreading its roots on both sides, then shows it giving fruit, as it will in each month. Ross's stylized approach to this piece gives the image impact and helps us to see what another glimpse into heaven.

final book installment

Finally, I'll share a couple more images from my "Visions of Heaven" altered book. This first image shows another Polaroid transfer image of an almond orchard here in Northern California. I happen to love almonds & my family owned an almond ranch once upon a time, so it sort of speaks a bit of the concept of home for me as well. I used it to illustrate the verse, "Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river, the leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches." (Revelation 22:12) The river mentioned is the River of Life, also referred to in my final inscription, opposite the "hole" in my altered book.

When the flaps covering the final recessed section of the book are opened, it reveals a triptych of hand colored Polaroid transfers of a river scene. The scripture across the page comes from Ezekiel 47, verses 7 and 9, "I was surprised by the sight of 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 flourish wherever this water flows." Which explains the fruit trees always fruiting...

more book visions

And so I return to this blog, after a week of computer problems... ;)

Here's another page in my altered book, "Visions of Heaven." I'm not revealing every page in this book, partly because it would be so tedious, and also to provide some little surprises for those who come to the actual show to see it. You'll notice I've again employed my palm tree motif on this page, it's a recurring theme throughout and you can find other posts that talk more about that by clicking on the tag at the end of this post. The image itself in an orignial Polaroid transfer, hand colored with pencils. On the facing page I put this verse: "The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay... We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us." (Romans 8:19-24) I find this whole concept of creation's redemption utterly amazing. We are so connected with the earth that it suffered the curse with us, which is found in Genesis 3, and then is redeemed with us as well, which is shown in Revelation 21.

You can see this theme continued on the next page of my book, where I have revealed a sort of hidden code in the book's original text. Of course, I could have chosen to say most anything in this hidden code, but that is the beauty of this device. I first adopt the initial sentence of the page, as it was quite apt for me, "I began asking questions." Which is the beginning of any learning, and then reveal the letters r-e-d-e-m-t-i-o-n, then the word "of" and "the world." Finally I ask the reader of my book to "break free of the expectations" that they might come to the piece with. That is all any artist can ask, that a viewer be open to the message an artist is trying to convey.

Eileen Downes' visions

Finally I am getting back to this blog! It seems I have a case of vacation-itis; while not actually on vacation, my brain nonetheless seems to be strongly leaning in that direction... then Eileen was good enough to send me some of her notes, right as I was realizing I needed to post something new. While most of us are working quite diligently on the project, it's not always something that gets to the blog right away.

So, Eileen Downes in her own words:

I have always been fascinated by doors, windows, portals, passageways and their symbolic meaning. I have saved such imagery for many years - photos from vacations, magazines, family member’s trips, my own illustrations etc …anything about doors really. I have used some of these fragments in these three collages by layering them over each other, often intertwining them, into an artistic arrangement. Glimpses and views of wonderfully beautiful places symbolic of heaven can be seen though the doorways and windows.

These three pieces together with the previously posted piece titled: My Visit with God, are complete art pieces in their own right, but they are also preparatory illustrations to the larger piece that I am currently working on. This large piece will incorporate a real antique door that the viewer must actually open to reveal the imagery behind. This interactive art piece asks the viewer to make a motion, a decision to open, just like we are asked to make a motion to accept Christ as our Savior. More information and photos of this piece will be included later as it progresses.


"Visions of Heaven #1," 15” x 12” Collage

Doors and windows are symbolic imagery that I use in these pieces to convey the essence of heaven. We can pass though these portals of life like we pass from this world into our eternal life in heaven. The Bible references doors in several verses.

For example, Psalm 78:23 "Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens."


"Visions of Heaven #2," 15” x 12” Collage

Revelation 4:1, "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.'"

Genesis 28:17, "He was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.'"


"Visions of Heaven #3," 15” x 12” Collage

Although the following verse does not specifically mention “doors” it does so indirectly by indicating that there are many rooms in heaven:

John 14:2, "In my Fathers house are many rooms; and if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you."

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."

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?