Art with Salt - Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) True blood portrait ...

Saw this at Gurney Journey and thought it was cool.

I've been slowly adding a few things to the shop. This is todays addition: 

Spring fiddleheads 17x11"

40.00

I've always found new fern sprouts rather fascinating. The way they unwind themselves into the air. :)

Waking Up

Margaret posted a new blog link up thingy over at Two Kid Schoolhouse that looked interesting. It's called Five Minute Friday at The Gypsy Mama and the idea is she gives a topic and your write for five minutes about whatever comes to mind that day. Well, it isn't Friday anymore, my day was packed. But I liked the idea and thought I would give it a go anyway. 

The topic today is "Waking Up"

And I think that is appropriate because lately I feel like I have been waking up. Waking up to how my own thinking has hindered me and actually held the things I've truly wanted over the years from me. I've always been in the "If you don't expect things to be too good you'll never be disappointed but occasionally you might be pleasantly surprised" camp. Eeyore-ish. I thought I was being realistic or something. But this last year I think God has really been working on me about this. 

I've been struck in the Bible how often God prints in very matter of fact ways impossible things and expects us to believe it. The sun retreating a couple degrees because a king asks for a sign of reassurance. Sampson carrying off the gates of a city. Not to mention a sea that parts, a virgin who gives birth, a boy who kills giants, an ax head that floats, a man swallowed by fish and lives to tell about it, on and on it goes. I've been reading the Old Testament in chronological order to my boys (we are now in Daniel) and sometimes I am just struck at how on the surface it stretches my credulity almost to absurdity! But yet I believe it all to be true and I read it to my boys and I want them to believe it is true. Why has God filled His book with all these stories? Why not just tell of our sin, tell us how to live, you know, leave it at Proverbs and the Epistles and stuff like that? Why all these wild stories? 

Well, maybe because He wants us to live as though we expect Him to do the same for us. Maybe "Realistic Pessimism" is not just "kind of a downer but all too often true" sort of thinking but actually antithetical to the Christian calling of faith and hope? What king is honored by little, tiny requests offered in a "Well, I know this is an inconvenience but if you get a little chance..." sort of attitude. Maybe He wants us to ask for bigger things. Maybe He wants us to look at our difficulty and obstacles and see them as opportunities for us to see just how loving, forgiving, generous and joyful that our God really is. 

So, for me, that is "Waking Up". And I pray to continue to Wake Up!

Just Wake Up Already!

More Painting

Lately I've been experimenting with using acrylics as a water medium and then adding pastels over the top. I like spontaneous looking paintings, like Stephen Quiller, who is one of my all time favorite artists. I feel like my painting voice is coming back and that makes me happy. 

When Renoir was an older man he was afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis. During the last years of his life the pain was so bad he was confined to his home and he painted on in great pain. Matisse was much younger than he was but they were good friends and Matisse often visited him. Once when he was watching Renoir paint on in pain he asked him how why he continues when it was obviously so painful to him. Renoir replied "The pain passes, but the beauty remains."

Isn't that how we should be when difficult times come to us? To be patient as the Lord refines and shapes us, but ever with the hope that when the pain passes, the beauty will remain. I find that very hopeful to think on.

Kansas - Carry On My Wayward Son

Alright! It's time to get up and clean up the house!!

Painting

Lately I've been playing around with water color landscape abstractions, combined with colored pencil. 

10"x14"

5.5"x8.5"

4"x6"

They are calming to do. After getting the boys' schoolwork done and dinner going the older kids and I have been clearing off the dining room table and watching The Cosby Show on instant on Netflix and working on various pieces. Am I the only one who feels very nostalgic about the Cosby Show? They were so nice and normal when my own family life was so crazy. I watched it every Thursday night as a kid. I get such a kick out of looking at the clothes and stuff. My daughter commented on how we were so into crazy , bulky sweaters. To True! To aquire a new cozy sweater was pure bliss in the 80's. And we did like things bulky, at least on top. And the colors are so bright and primary and solid looking. Maybe that's why I went for tie-dye-too many clearly defined edges! Anyway, it's funny to watch them again. I think we are on like season 6. In I think 4 days. Kind of bad, huh. 

Kerri

Some of Forrest's Recent Drawings

Some of Forrest's Recent Drawings