Don't even know where to start

I have been such a negligent blogger as of late - mostly just putting quotes in place so that I can reference them at a future time...  on the bright side my life outside of the internet is lovely.  We played host to University students as they prepared for their Europe term, they are traveling now and our home is much quieter and we miss them dearly.

On the sculpture front we realized in April that the idealism of fall - doing a major outdoor project before May - was naive at best.  We informed the head of the competition that we would still be very interested in participating, but we would be unable to make the end of May deadline as the weather has just not been our friend this year.  I guess growing up in Southern Wisconsin & Ontario gave us a false sense of what spring could be - and this spring here in New Brunswick has been non-existent.  So glad we made that call, and that we have been invited to participate in next years competition - so we will be using the summer months (if we ever really get a summer) to create the sculpture and enter in next years competition.  Good news all around.

I am heading to a 3 day silent retreat tomorrow and really looking forward to it.  It is sponsored by my spiritual director and while I am a bit anxious the idea of silence and solitude, harvesting my journals and being creative without words will be special, maybe even sacred.

We are making good progress on our yard and hope to have the stone patio in place in a few weeks and then we can begin to focus on making the outdoor brick oven we hope to have in place by the end of summer.  So hard to accomplish any of this with all of the yucky weather we've had, but when you look at the flooding, tornadoes and wild fires others are dealing with I guess grey, rainy days should be the least of our worries.

Hope this finds you all well, miss the heydays of blogging we used to have.  But I guess that season helped us all get to where we are now.  Doing a lot of writing off line now...  maybe one day I'll be back to a regular blog, until then I guess it will just be random updates and interactions.  Take care!

Synchroblog: Creativity and Christianity

Surprisingly one of the best parts of our move to New Brunswick was the lack of really, consistently good restaurants available to us. There are a few, but far too often we would get frustrated with their lack of variety, hit-or-miss menu or just the unfamiliarity of it all. We had favorite foods that we couldn't find or weren't up to our hopes, so we determined to make them ourselves.

I could have never known how much joy and satisfaction cooking and hospitality has brought to our family. We really love to create meals together, be bold and experiment with tastes and new foods. It's been an amazing surprise for us all. We're all healthier and far more adventurous than we could have dreamed.

One of the motivators for our culinary quest was a celebration meal we had at a highly recommended restaurant in our area. The menu was vast, every type of food available, so many options. We each ordered just what we wanted and it was set before us, attractively prepared, but when we tasted the food it was like eating left overs. Keith and I looked at each other, not wanting to wreck Ali & Jake's enjoyment of a night out, but very disappointed in the amount of money we were spending for such unappetizing food. As we left the restaurant we saw into the kitchen things we could not see in the light of the finishing day. Microwave upon microwave. The chef was a very talented cook. His original creation was probably wonderful. Unfortunately his vast menu was the downfall of his service. Trying to keep up with all of the items required him to make in bulk and freeze items for later use. Creativity in the can. Freeze dried moments in time.

I find I have much of the same experience when I come in contact with things labeled "Christian art", "Christian music" and "Christian fiction". I am not saying that it is all bad, there are many talented musicians, authors and artists that produce within the evangelical mainstream. What feels pre-packaged to me is the desperate need to over explain, direct and homogenize the "message".

I am re-reading Madeline L'Engle's Walking on Water, Reflections on Faith and Art as I prepare for the largest art project I've ever undertaken. She draws the distinction between overtly religious books she was given as a child and the story of The Secret Garden. She says:

"The Secret Garden is probably the most successful and most read and re-read of Burnett's books; it is also Christian, though I don't remember whether or not it ever mentions Jesus. And it is more successful than Little Lord Fauntleroy, for instance, because it is a better piece of storytelling, less snobbish, and the message doesn't show, like a slip hanging below the hem of a dress. I think we can all recognize ourselves, at least to some degree, in Mary Lennox, who is as spoiled and self-centered a child as one can find, thoroughly nasty and unlovable, basically because she's never been taught to love anybody but herself. The secret garden is as much the garden of Mary's heart as it is the walled English garden, and we watch Mary's slow growth into the realization of other people's needs and then into love. Mary's journey into love is, in fact, her journey into Christ, though this is never said and does not need to be said."

"Like a slip hanging below the hem of a dress" - that metaphor says it all for me. Can we tell the story and allow those who receive it to meet it in their own gentle way? Jesus always allowed for this. Story is portable, I carry it with me when I go, unpacking it at my leisure, retrieving from it what I am able and returning to it again and again for something new. When we over-explain or feel the need to only tell ONE story over and over again, recycling the "come to Jesus" moment in every script, story and song the only people left listening are those who no longer need that story.

Redemption is found in the most elemental of places. When something that is lost becomes found we all connect with that emotion and depth. When things are laid bare like a slip below the hem line there is no mystery to unpack, no resonance to echo, no unpacking left to do. Those are the stories, the songs and the scripts that leave me cold, like that re-heated meal at the restaurant. Instead I am warmed and I find a deeper satisfaction by the cooking of our own meals, our kitchen filled with steam and laughter, sometimes even chaos and frustration, but most of the time love and connection. Creating teaches me about God. Becoming a co-creator engages me in the story, in the majesty, in the redemption.

I was raised in a rather sparse corner of the faith kingdom. Bare walls, few instruments and little story. It nearly squished all of the life out of my little bohemian heart. There were life guards along my path though, teachers engaging me in great literature, explaining the stories behind the music, fanning the flame that was my soul. How sad that so little of that happened within my faith structure, that most of the stories I did hear there were of fear and conformity. I felt like an outsider even in the club, and at times, especially in the club. Nothing in me ever wanted to rebel. I possessed a deep longing to glorify God and bring joy; how unfortunate that there were so few channels to do so within the church.

Instead I changed, I conformed and I did my level best to live in a way that fit. It was obvious to everyone including me how little I understood the rules, knew the script and could follow the directions, I truly never did fit in. It was never out of a sour heart, just a total lack of instinct. So I shut down. I withdrew. I projected a persona that could maintain a small social interaction, but did not allow for my inner person to be seen. It wasn't safe, I wasn't sure.

It has been years of healing and growth that has finally brought me to a place of beginning to own my co-creator-ness in a more public manner. Some of my art hangs framed on the walls of my home. I make gifts from time to time for others. Each risk in turn brings the capacity to take a larger one. And it has finally come to the time when I must throw caution to the wind and try for all I am worth to own this bohemian soul I have been given. Hippie to the heart, grace to myself and others, storyteller and redemption junkie. I am going big or going home.

This Friday is the 2nd deadline for our entry in the Kingsbrae Garden sculpture contest. We have cleared the first hurdle, and are prepared for the second. I am sending in the photos of the maquette we have created. It is a miniature of a 50' long mother humpback whale and her 15' calf. The mother's blow hole and the calf's fluke will be done in cement mosaic, the rest of the form will rise,out of the sod, as if you were standing on the edge of a whale watching ship - go big or go home...

I am terrified, electric, overwhelmed and excited. None of this necessarily fits into the "Christian Art" category, but it is the most deeply spiritual exercise of my life.

L'Engle likens the setting aside of Christ's power to become a man to that of the artist. Loss of control, becoming a servant of the work is what each author, composer and artist pray for. Annunciation is the most Christ-like act on the face of the earth. Setting aside our power for the sake of another. She says:

"But the reality of the outcome of all annunciations is a reality which is scoffed at by most of the world. It is one of the great triumphs of Lucifer that he has managed to make Christians (Christians!) believe that a story is a lie, that a myth should be outgrown with puberty, that to act in a play is inconsistent with true religion."

"Obedience is an unpopular word nowadays, but the artist must be obedient to the work, whether it be a symphony, a painting, or a story for a small child. I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius or something very small, comes to the artist and says, "Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me." And the artist either says, "My soul doth magnify the Lord," and willingly becomes the bearer of the work, or refuses; but the obedient response is not necessarily a conscious one, and not everyone has the humble, courageous obedience of Mary."

"Christian art? Art is art; painting is painting; music is music, a story is a story. If it's bad art, it's bad religion, no matter how pious the subject. If it's good art...and there the questions start coming, questions which it would be simpler to evade."

Creativity & Christianity should never be enemies. Profanity yes, but engaging as a co-creator with God is the highest calling we all can have in any sense of our lives.

We have been approved for a Kickstarter application - if we make it over the next hurdle we will be broadcasting our need of patrons here very soon. We would love for you to be co-creators with us in this endeavor. We will also be documenting this process - nearly 25 years of marriage has taught us that even the most simple things can bring out the worst and best in us - we can imagine how something this huge and creative could really become a spectator sport, so we'll track our progress of the whole process here:

Imperfectionists

Ironically - it is currently very IMPERFECT - as we are having horrible problems with images and css - if any of you are code wizards your help would not go unrecognized - we have a great wordpress theme, but are really struggling with all of the tiny bits of customization.

This blog post is part of a communal synchro-blog effort - you can find more on Creativity & Christianity here:

February Synchroblog - Creativity & Christianity

here are the link lists so far for February synchroblog:

• Bethany Stedman – How God Creates
• EmmaNadine – Creativity and Christianity
• Bill Sahlman – Created, Continued Creativity
• Heidi Renee – Synchroblog Creativity and Christianity
• Annie Bullock – Old Things are New
• John O’Keefe – What is Half of 11
• Kathy Escobar – open.
• Tim Nichols – Artist-Priests in God’s Poetic World
• Maurice Broaddus – The Artist and the Church
• Jeremy Meyers – Creativity First Christian Act (link not working yet)
• Steve Dehner – The Divine Projectionist
• Ellen Haroutunian – Creativity and Christianity: It Matters
• Tammy Carter – His Instrument His Song
• Steve Hayes – Creativity and Worship
• Marta’s Mathoms – Mythos and Create-ivity as a Spiritual Act
• Peter Walker – Creativity and Christianity?
• William Lecorchick – Heaven and Hell
• Jacob Boelman – God’s Magicians
• Liz Dyer – Divine Seeing
• Minnowspeaks – DNA
• Christine Sine – God Created the World by Imagination

Risk...

I don't care if no one likes it, she said, unless no one likes it. ~ The Story People

This one made me laugh out loud today. Starting a HUGE art project and I am internalizing these thoughts even before I begin...

Fill the house with lions

"Beware when you honour an artist.
You are praising danger.
You are holding out your hand
To the dead and unborn
You are counting on what cannot be counted.

The poet's measures serve anarchic joy
The story-teller tells one story: freedom.

Above all beware of honouring women artists.
For the housewife will fill the house with lions
and in with the grandmother
comes bears, wild horses, great horned owls, coyotes."

-Ursula LeGuin

thank you karis!

I know what I like

A Cultural Fable by Brian Andreas

Once upon a time there was a pig who spoke eight languages & did sculpture with pieces of wood & rusted metal he found on his travels.

One day he was out in the woods working on a new installation piece & he met a family from a small town in Tennessee. They had been walking for days.

The dad saw the pig & said what are you doing, little piggie? They were all quite surprised when the pig said working with counterbalanced forces using found objects.

They all stood around & looked at the piece for a long time. No one said anything. Finally, the dad shrugged & turned to the mom & said I don't know much about art but I know what I like & then they killed the pig & ate him.

Turn the faucet on

"If you’re going to be a writer,
the first essential is just to write.
Do not wait for an idea.
Start writing something
and the ideas will come.
You have to turn the faucet on
before the water starts to flow."
~ Louis L’Amour

(my western lovin' dad would be so happy I'm quoting his favorite author!)

via my new favo art blog: Daisy Yellow. Make sure to read her 13 tips for kicking your inner perfectionist to the curb!

Go wild

What she can do with imagination, markers & prismacolors makes me so happy - I am such a fan of Mary Englebreit - and I just love reading her blog. She doesn't post often, but she's really generous with her knowledge and it's so fun to just get a peek into her process.

love, peace, hope & new stories

Absolutely stunning art and stories:

Travel and Sing: Illustrated stories and poems

etsy Finds

Love these so much!



via Amy @ Artsyville



via Valentina

The Butterfly Circus

20 minutes & a box of kleenex. You won't be sorry. Beautiful.



Thank you Matt!

Home is where the art is

My Aussie friend Kel left this as a comment on my last post and it was too cute to hide there:

home is where the heat is
oops, the heart is
no, the art is

Thanks Kel - it is our deep hope that this home truly is where the art is and that we can touch the creative parts of ourselves here.

The White Pebble by Hugh MacLeod

Very Hungry Birthday

Happy 40th Birthday Very Hungry Caterpillar!

As a woman who struggles with an eating disorder The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been one of my top 5 favorite childrens books. Newsweek has a great article on Eric Carle's story and shares a bit of why it resonated so deeply with him. I did not find or remember the book from childhood, it was only when I began to read to my own children that I discovered this gem. Lovely to know that Eric Carle has found happiness and is enjoying his semi-retirement.

Newsweek: The Surprising Dark Side of the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Brian Andreas @ TED

No time to blog or read - this module is kicking my backside...

Wanted to mark Brian Andreas (The StoryPeople) TED interview on storytelling for scientists and technologists so that I can read it later (but you can read it now!):

Brian Andreas @ TED

Listening to the necessary

Quote for the day from my daily reading:

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak.

Hans Hoffman

What she said

Words of wisdom from down under this morning:

Life beats down and crushes the soul.
Art reminds you that you have one.

Stella Adler

via Kel

New skin!

Inspiration comes where you find it - and two of my blogger friends have recently given their blogs a facelift. Claudia & Kel have chosen funky, fun new skins for their blog and my old blog was looking pretty sad. I have been playing with my blogger template and I think I like the one that I have installed. I had to keep the old blogger so that my "old skin" was compilable - and now I get to have all of the gadgets that the new blogger template affords. That does mean though that I lost my blogroll and have to replace it - so if I happen to miss your blog on my blogroll please just shoot me an email and I'll happily add you.

Wish I could upgrade my own skin so easily! :D

I want you Art!!

thank you andrea!

Story People Ornaments!!!!

Oh my, such joy - look at these beautiful works of art!

They just arrived in my inbox and I had to share them with you. This email came along to explain them:

We don't know about you, but now that the election is over, we can't wait for the world to be fun again. For a long while there, the only thing that came to mind was that we were a little like pinatas at a party of politicians & all of them had way too much sugar.

We thought it was just our problem, since we have a high fun requirement. Now it looks like a lot of people had the same trouble. But, just to be sure, we took a quick poll & here's the result: almost a hundred percent of everybody we talked to is looking at the pinata stuff on the floor & thinking it needs a whole lot of cleaning up, but at least we're finally going to do it together.

We think it's a perfect time to fire up some magic to send us on our way...

You know how magic works. You sit down, think gentle thoughts & ask the universe. Then you listen for the answers.

We didn't have long to wait.

Completely out of the blue, we got a call from Lynne Suprock. Who happens to be an artist from Pennsylvania & a maker of delicate & lovely jewelry. It seems that Lynne had been stirring a little of Brian's art work into her handmade jewelry. After watching her for a few months, her friend Carol just about stood over her until she gave us a call. She told us what she'd been cooking up - part StoryPeople print in miniature, part suncatcher, part jewelry & part holiday ornament. It was magic of the highest order...

We know that when you see them you'll be so delighted you'll most likely want to have your very own. (We know because that's just what happened to us when we saw them..)

Now, the only problem is that Lynne makes each one by hand, so she can get the balance of sparkle & light & magic just right.

So, we calculated how much sleep & personal time Lynne needs between now & the holidays in order to make all the ornaments you might want. We wrote it down on a tiny slip of paper & folded it & slid it across the table to her. She took one look & laughed & said she hasn't had that much free time since she was eight. So, we came up with a new plan. Lynne says you can order all the ornaments you want for the next three weeks & she promises she'll get them to you in time for the holidays. How's that for the universe being on your side?

If you're ready to let the magic back into your world, now's the time. You've got three weeks, so don't wait. (OK. Wait a minute. That's not completely true. We hope you know that you can let in magic any time you want. You only get three weeks for this particular bit of magic... :-)) These hand-made ornaments are available to order for the next three weeks (through Thankgiving Day, Nov. 27th to be precise), so get them while you can!

I <3 the StoryPeople. Wish Iowa was that cool when I lived there!

Place your order here: StoryPeople Ornaments

Great Losers

I have a confession. I am a scavenger.

I just can't seem to walk past a smidgen of interesting brokenness or discarded story. I am so moved by outsider and found art because deep in my heart I long to be a mosaic artist. I have not yet begun to piece together those precious bits and fragments pocketed along my journey.

As Keith and I were walking to church Sunday he bent to pick up a bright piece of turquoise "glass" at the curb. I exclaimed "Don't! It's not glass, it's a discarded cough drop! I only know because I picked it up yesterday and it was sticky..."

Redemption resides deeply in both of us.

We spend hours at the shore with our noses down hoping to find precious bits of pottery or beach glass worn smooth by sand and waves. All the diamonds in the world don't mean as much to me as a tiny little shard of blue and white pottery or a heart shaped rock found by a loved one.

That is why this quote touched me so deeply. I long to be the kind of friend who gathers great treasure and wisdom by carefully listening and fixing those pieces in my heart.

Fragments scavenged from Bob at The Corner:

Every hour’s talk we have with a friend leaves fragments that we ought to gather up and keep to feed our heart’s hunger or the hunger of others’ hearts, as we go on. When we hear good words spoken or read a good book, we should gather up the fragments of knowledge, the suggestions of helpful thoughts, the broken pieces, and fix them in our hearts for use in our lives. We allow large values of the good things we hear or read to turn to waste continually because we are poor listeners or do not try to keep what we hear. We let the broken pieces be lost and thereby are great losers. If only we would gather up and keep all the good things that come to us through conversations and through reading, we would soon have great treasures of knowledge and wisdom.

J.R. Russell, The Book of Comfort