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

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.

teresa's eggs...

So only about three months later, here are close ups & some of Teresa Harbert's words about her works. (Sometimes time really does fly!)



“Waves” Chicken Egg Pysanky

Sometimes I have a specific symbol in mind when I start an egg, and sometimes I just play with shapes. This wave pattern was fun to stretch into an all-over design.




“Quilt star” Chicken Egg Pysanky

I’ve always loved translating traditional quilt designs onto my eggs. Here the Ohio Star pattern features prominently.




“Feathered Pinwheel” Chicken Egg Pysanky

My challenge in this show was to take simple forms such as this pinwheel and make each one unique. Without the distraction of color the design had to be distinctive enough to stand on its own.




“Eternal Circles” Goose Egg Pysanky

All the bands of design circle this egg without a break which historically in the art of pysanky signifies eternity.




“I Am the Vine” Chicken Egg Pysanky

We bear fruit as Christians only when we remain connected to Christ.

Thanks so much Teresa, and next time I will be faster, I promise! jm

imagine that...

I wrote this review for Amazon, so I thought I'd share it here, too. I've gotten to know the author, Manuel Luz, and I'm happy to recommend his book, Imagine That.

For too much of my life, I didn't understand the connection between my creativity and my Christianity; after much studying and prayer, I came to realize that art can be an outpouring of my faith and an integral part of my relationship to God. Reading this book, Manuel Luz takes the reader through much the same course of questioning, study and prayer, pointing to our Creator God as the source of our creativity.

Manuel shares his heart while digging into the relationship between the artist, the church and God, with all of the follies and joys that come with any set of human relationships, then points toward a way for understanding on all sides. In the chapter "Art and the Spiritual Disciplines," the reader learns how art can be a spiritual discipline in and of itself, bringing the artist closer to God.

"Imagine That" has become one of the touchstone books in my collection on art and faith, a book that I devoured cover to cover and that I am now leading a group of artists through as the basis for study and discussion. The questions that Manuel poses at the end of each chapter have led to some of the most profound and stimulating discussions I have ever had with my fellow artists.

I've also compiled a list of books on Art & Faith you might be interested in reading, which I add to now and again. jm