Starting with a piece of black scratch board and a pocket knife....I did this today in class. Gently I scrached out the picture. It was fun...and something I've never done before today . (unless you count the times in grade school we'd color a piece of paper with all sorts of crayon colors and cover it with black...and then draw pictures on top of it.)
The glory belongs to God, Lord of my heart and life.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
From Art Class today...a lesson in chalk. We took our chalk and colored the whole page black. Then with a rag and our kneaded erasers we made the picture by showing where the light and white areas should be. Definately wasnt as easy as it might sound. Here was my final and last picture done in class today of three.
After class, I scanned the picture in here at home, and colorized it in Paint Shop Pro. I sort of liked it better colorized like this as it seemed to give it a bit more of a "rose" look...than the other.
Next week we are suppose to bring a knife or some other cutting tool in order to continue this lesson on paper covered with black. We'll be etching the black off for the same effects. Challenging comes to mind as I consider next week.
Anyhow...as always, Soli deo gloria
Monday, September 19, 2005
Jon Courson, A Calvary Chapel pastor from Oregon and now Costa Mesa is one of my favorite pastors to listen to (online). I wanted to share his devotional from today with you, along with his . Web Page . You can listen from there as well as take a look at the artistic photography his wife does.
September 19
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
Colossians 2:4-5
In the days of the Roman Empire, a certain wealthy senator became estranged from his son. When he died unexpectedly, his will was opened. ‘Because my son does not appreciate what I’ve done, I leave all of my worldly possessions to my loyal slave, Marcellus,’ the will read. ‘However, because I am a man of grace, I bequeath to my son one of my possessions of his choosing.’‘Sorry,’ said the testator to the son. ‘You can only take one of your dad’s possessions. Which will it be?’‘I take Marcellus,’ said the son.Brilliant! That’s the idea. When you take Jesus Christ, you get all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When you open your heart to Him, you find everything you need. It’s all in Him.Why is this understanding so important? - because it is the only way to keep from being sucked into ‘enticing words’, cults and other dead-end pursuits of pseudo-spirituality. That’s what was happening in Colossae. People were coming on the scene saying, ‘Hey, what Paul is preaching is fine, but there’s much more.’‘No,’ Paul says, ‘Be steadfast in your faith in Christ. All of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Him.’
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Last week, I signed up for an art class at the local community college. They recently built a new East Side campus, which is much closer to my house than the main campus on the other side of town. I noticed in the listings of non credit classes a drawing class. I have considered taking an art class (among many things) there before. Never was it the right time, not to mention the long drive was a deterent. Now, it seems the timing was good, and the drive perfect. I am having fun with it. As I mentioned, it is a non credit class. If at home, I probably would not devote this much time to one drawing. In this class, we have two and a half hours to work on one drawing. This picture here beside my words is what I did today (though very much resized down)The ones below are from last week. Below that are more church notebook sketches. Glory is God's always.
Lessons in Drawing folded cloth
This has become my favorite pen. I got one in a sample pack and have fallen in love with the style. POGO PENS . Problem, Im having a hard time finding them in stores.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
A fun link. With this first one, I made this just like those old label makers:
Label Maker
Friday, September 02, 2005
Before you read this complete post, I want to say I am very compassionate about what is happening in New Orleans. My heart goes out to the people there. My heart is breaking over their suffering. I want to hold the little babies, and feed the little children. I want to offer a shoulder to cry on for the adults as they are fed to full and hydrated with life giving water. I have experienced a great deal of personal tragedies, however, I have never lost everything I own, nor been in the situation of these people. I cannot even imagine to any degree just how desperate these folks are, nor to what degree they feel hopelessness. My tragic situations and this are apples and bananas and cannot be compared. I cannot put myself totally in their shoes. Someday (and hopefully not) my family and I might face similar situations where difficult choices have to be made. I may face uncomfortable choices. I cannot say what I may or may not do in such a situation. My heart says that I would stand firm and not do what we are seeing so many do in looting, but how can I truly tell you this when I sit here in my air conditioned house with a full fridge of food at my computer. How can I even try to even totally understand what it would be like to be stranded, hot, dirty, hungry, tired, scared, without a home, without power, clean water to drink, much less to bathe in? I cannot wrap my mind around such horror.
But with that said, can we set aside our feelings for a moment and see looting for what it is? I know I've seen the pictures of folks taking TV's, DVD players, VCRs etc. I have also seen pictures of folks pushing buggies full of food through the streets after looting a grocery store. I keep hearing folks separate the two incidents by saying that stealing a TV, a VCR or DVD player is inexcusable, but stealing food is understandable. Yes, it is understandable, but both kinds of looting are stealing and are sinful according to God's word. Just because we understand what may drive someone to steal, still doesn't justify their doing it. God's word is clear, stealing is a sin. Looting is stealing. To try to justify the looting based on the person's desperation becomes situational ethics because we are saying that in certain situations, sin is ok. No where in scripture does God give us "outs" where sin is ok. No where is sin justified, except by the blood of Jesus Christ as one gives their life to Christ. While any one of us might would be driven to do what these folks are doing, we still would be sinning as we would if we walked into the grocery store and tucked a can of green beans in our baggy pants and walked out of the store under normal conditions.
In this week, I've been so reminded of how poor in spirit we are. There is a greater need out here that has existed since Eve became sticky with fruit juice and it is that of our souls. We can so clearly see the depravity of man as he has responded to this disaster in New Orleans he found himself in. I just hope we can see the hope that is in Christ displayed as well. Throughout the Old Testament, God tells of different things he is going to do in advance and then says and then they shall know that I am the Lord God. May all men, through this experience know that God is indeed God and that He loves them so much he sent His son to die for all the sin that plagues our souls.