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Meditations on
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Blog by Bob Catholic Dads Get Religion Looking Closer Journal Church of the Masses The Roving Medievalist |
| WHAT'S UP |
| Who am I |
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James (Jim) Janknegt 55 year old, husband of Lissa, father of Emma (almost 11), visual artist, Catholic), building manager at UT Harry Ransom Center, native Austinite, current elginite, and chainsawwielder. everything on this web site copyrighted by
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January
2003
Web Pages
referring to this page
Link to this page and get a link back!
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Mural Design Auction
The current High Bid is: $500.00 - Tom Dupree
I have designed a mural for the religious education hallway at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Elgin, TX. I am donating my time for this project and hope to get some of the youth of the church to help me paint the mural. In order to raise funds for the materials: paint, brushes, etc. I am auctioning off the design you see above. The design is painted on paper with acrylic paint and measures 8" x 38 ". The actual mural will be 8' x 38'.
If you would like to bid on the painting please send an email to:jim@bcartfarm.com
I will post bids here as the come in. Bid starts at noon and ends at 9:00 pm on Friday 29 May 2009.
The painting will be presented to you after the mural is complete sometime this summer.
Thanks for your help with this project!!
The theme of the mural is water surrounding the life of Jesus and shows six scenes: Jesus baptism, Jesus turning the water into wine, Jesus and the women at the well, obeying Jesus command to give someone a drink of water (from Matthew 25), Jesus washing Peter's feet and Jesus walking on the water. For a close up click on the images below:
April 2009
Last Judgment
I finished my latest painting:
Last Judgment. Click on the image and a detail will open in a new
window. The painting is bigger than I have been painting: 8 feet by 5
feet and it is acrylic on canvas. If you'd like to buy it go here.
I'll be exhibiting this along with some other paintings at the Sacred Art Exhibit on Saturday, 18 April 2009 at St. Edwards University in the Mabee Ballroom. It is a one day exhibit from 9:00 am- 5:00 pm.
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I'll be exhibiting this along with some other paintings at the Sacred Art Exhibit on Saturday, 18 April 2009 at St. Edwards University in the Mabee Ballroom. It is a one day exhibit from 9:00 am- 5:00 pm.
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March 2009
It's worst than that, he's dead Jim...
I never quite get used to disappointment.
Last Saturday I, with my sister and brother-in-law, caught a 7:30 am flight to Nashville to attend my Aunt Virginia's memorial service. It was good to be with my cousin Ann and all the rest of the family that gathered to celebrate my Aunt's life. Pastor Heidi, who had helped my Aunt plan the service during her last days, did a great job with the service. It was full of the hope of the resurrection and a fitting memorial. We spent a short night at a hotel and flew back Sunday morning on a 7:10 am Southwest flight.
I was standing in the airport calling my wife to let her know we had landed when a call interrupted our call. It turned out to be our daughter who was at a church retreat. She had dislocated her knee. I hurriedley left the airport to go pick her up. Her knee had popped back inot place so once I picked her up we decided she didn't need to go to the emergency room but could wait until Monday to go see the doctoer. She has to wear a brace and do some physical therapy but should be fine.
I got her home just in time to go with Lissa to Sacred Heart to teach RE and got to mass. We got back from church and I was exhausted, ate lunch and took a nap. After my nap Lissa and I went down to check out the plum garden. We had a freaky freeze on Saturday night and almost my entire garden was dead...frozen. Saturday was a beautiful warm day and Lissa didn't realize until late in the afternoon that there was a freeze warning. On top of that two of her sisters had come by and Lissa was taking care of one of their kids so they could visit with her mom. She had time to get the upper garden covered with hay and plastic but didn't have time to protect thr plum garden with all of the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. Lissa's garden with the potatoes and basil survived fine but the plum garden is toast.
I have to say I was really bummed after all of the work I had put into the garden, starting the seeds and nurtering them along since January. Oh well, I guess I learned a lesson about holding back some plants in case of a catastrophic freeze. Next year I'll not plant all of my seedlings in case something like this happens again. Lissa bought some eggplant and pepper seedlings yesterday and got them planted. She thinks there many be signs of life in some of the tomatoes so we are going to wait and see if any of them bounce back. What a strange confluence of events. How often am I out of town-how often does it freeze on March 27th? The end result is I feel like a rung out dishrag.
One of my favorite quotes is from the Princess Bride-"get used to disappointment". I don't think so...
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Spring Break
I took off work the week of spring break. My wife and daughter had the week off, too. We generally don't travel much since we have all of these animals to take care of. I like to use the time to work around the house. This year I had two major goals: build a screened in porch and plant our spring vegetable garden.
I started off the week by hardening off my seedlings I had started back in January. I must say I was very pleased with the progress the seedlings had made. I moved them outside from the greenhouse, in cardboard boxes, in the shade under the porch. I started with a couple of hours, next day half a day, then full day, then moved them out into full sun, then took them out of the boxes in full sun. This gradually lets the seedlings get used to the sun and the wind.
I rototilled the garden, working in old hay and goat manure a couple of days before I planted. I spent all day Saturday raking the beds, laying paths with old hay and putting in posts to support strings to tie up the plants once they get big enough. Saturday afternoon I finally started planting: Tomatoes-8 Jubilee, 6 Cherry, 5 Rutgers, 7 Large Belgian Pink, 4 Kellog's Breakfast, 8 Delicious and 7 Roma. I also planted 12 eggplant, 7 jalapeno a 20 foot row of bush beans and a 20 foot row of pole beans, two kinds of cucumbers and several zuccini and summer squash. After I finished planting I mulched around all of the plants with compost and watered.
I worked all week on the
screened in porch (when I wasn't working on the garden). I poured
footings for the posts, set the 4x6 posts, attached the beam, ran the
joists, attached 1x4 stringers to the joists and screwed the metal
roofing to the stringers. The porch is 9'3" x 26' with a 24" overhang.
The screen will be 6' wide. There are several reasons we have been
wanting a screened in porch. I envision spending a lot of time on it
reading, eating and sleeping. We get a good breeze most of the time
coming out of the south (the porch faces east). We also get early
morning sun beating on the wall of our house which heats up really
quickly in the summer time. With the porch roof in place we will keep
the majority of the summer sun off of our house and will keep the house
much cooler. I also want to add gutters to the porch and start water
harvesting off of the roof. The water would not be to drink but to
water our garden and yard with. I figure I can get 540 gallons of water
per inch of rain off of this section of our roof. My next step (before
I screen in the porch) is to build a ferrocement cistern to store water
in. I built a duck pond several years ago using ferrocement and it is a
great building material. I have been researching how to build a cistern
and am looking forward to the project. It will probably be between 8 to
10 feet in diamater and 6 feet tall and will be able to store around
2000-3500 gallons of water depending on the diameter. If anyone wants
to help on this project and learn how to do ferrocement let me know. It
will be so much fun. And I won't even charge you a quarter! After I get
the water harvesting up and running I will work on finishing the
screened in part.
Of course Saint Partick's Day
usually falls in spring break so we have to stop working for a bit and
hoist a Guinness. My lovely wife and I braved the traffic and crowds
and showed up at the Dog & Duck in Austin. I wore my kilt Lissa
gave me for Christmas. It is really comfortable and wish I could wear
one all the time.
I am mostly Irish, in fact. My
paternal grandmother was a Bradley straight from Ireland and I was
named for her brother James Bradley. My grandfather was dutch, hence
the
last name Janknegt but a lot of my mothers family was Irish so I figure
I am mostly Irish. We didn't stay too long at the Dog & Duck
but I did enjoy the Guinness.
Our male peacock has gotten in his spring growth of feathers and he is looking grand! I love being able to have all of the fowl wandering around our place. Her I am with our ducks. They are helping out with the porch project.
The Satsuma Tangerine we bought last fall is blooming for the first time. I have hopes for it although I found evil fire ants living in it's pot. Death to fire ants! Citrus blossoms are one of my favorite smells!
And here is our Texas Buckeye in bloom. A very slow growing but beautiful native plant.
The weather was so incredible all week. I spent everyday, all day outside and enjoyed every minute of it. It was great to be with my family and get to be around the home place for a whole week. I am back it work now getting some rest.
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Our male peacock has gotten in his spring growth of feathers and he is looking grand! I love being able to have all of the fowl wandering around our place. Her I am with our ducks. They are helping out with the porch project.
The Satsuma Tangerine we bought last fall is blooming for the first time. I have hopes for it although I found evil fire ants living in it's pot. Death to fire ants! Citrus blossoms are one of my favorite smells!
And here is our Texas Buckeye in bloom. A very slow growing but beautiful native plant.
The weather was so incredible all week. I spent everyday, all day outside and enjoyed every minute of it. It was great to be with my family and get to be around the home place for a whole week. I am back it work now getting some rest.
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Last fall I built a portable chicken
coop out of a free trampoline I got off of Craigs List.
Monday I collected the first egg and yesterday I got two more. I am
still making modifications on my design. I had been using a tarp to
give the chickens protection from the rain (what rain???!!!) but the
wind (we have had really high winds this year) keep ripping it and
blowing it around until I finally just took it off. So I am going to
try to attach some old tin roofing panels to the trampoline frame to
shield the chickens from the rain. So far so good. I currently have
seven chickens left out of the twenty I started with. I lost a bunch
because of one of my initial design flaws which was not putting some
wood across the bottom to attach the poultry wire to. Without the wood
the chicks could escape and became dog snacks. Once I added the wood I
haven't had escapees from the bottom of the pen.
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Mountain Laurel
Lissa started several
mountain laurel trees from seed and we planted them around our
property. This year is the first year they have really been in full
bloom. Above is a photo I took Sunday of one of the bloosoms being
enjoyed by a butterfly (lots of butterfly out and about last weekend).
For those of you who don't live near a mountain laurel tree the
fragrance is almost overwhelming, kind of like grape koolaid,
is how most folks describe them.
I always think of my Grandmother Martin when I smell mountain laurel. She too, had started a tree from seed and planted it right outside her bathroom window. By the time I was old enough to experience the smell it was as tall as her two story house. She would bring the fragrant blossoms inside and her whole house would be redolant with mountian laurel. I can't smell one without thinking of my Grandmother. I loved her big old house but there wasn't anyone around to do the upkeep on it and she let it slowly deteriorate around her. When she moved in with my mom they sold the house. Someone bought it and spend boatloads of money (can you say "moneypit") on fixing it up. The new owners ended up selling it and our family went to an open house to see how they had renovated the place. Overall it was a beautiful job of restoring the old house. Sadly though, the had enlarged the bathroom and cut down the mountain laurel tree. That made me sad knowing how big that tree was and how long it took to get that big.
We have planted at least 200 trees on our property since we moved in ten years ago. If we ever have to move (which I hope to God we don't) the saddest thing to me will be leaving all the trees we have planted.
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I always think of my Grandmother Martin when I smell mountain laurel. She too, had started a tree from seed and planted it right outside her bathroom window. By the time I was old enough to experience the smell it was as tall as her two story house. She would bring the fragrant blossoms inside and her whole house would be redolant with mountian laurel. I can't smell one without thinking of my Grandmother. I loved her big old house but there wasn't anyone around to do the upkeep on it and she let it slowly deteriorate around her. When she moved in with my mom they sold the house. Someone bought it and spend boatloads of money (can you say "moneypit") on fixing it up. The new owners ended up selling it and our family went to an open house to see how they had renovated the place. Overall it was a beautiful job of restoring the old house. Sadly though, the had enlarged the bathroom and cut down the mountain laurel tree. That made me sad knowing how big that tree was and how long it took to get that big.
We have planted at least 200 trees on our property since we moved in ten years ago. If we ever have to move (which I hope to God we don't) the saddest thing to me will be leaving all the trees we have planted.
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Lent
"...the important thing is not to think much, but to love much; do, then, whatever most arouses you to love. Perhaps we do not know what love is: it would not surprise me a great deal to learn this, for love consist, not in the extent of our happiness, but in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything, and to endeavour, in all possible ways, not to offend Him, and to pray Him ever to advance the honour and glory of His Son and the growth of the Catholic Church."
Another part of my Lenten discipline is reflecting on the Stations of the cross and on Fridays durying lunch to do a sketch of one of the stations. The above is my first sketch of Jesus before Pilate. Maybe next year I'll get around to doing a series of paintings from the sketches.
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New Hay Rack
I built a new hay rack for the goats this weekend. I spent most of Saturday afternoon outside and the wind was blowing a gale. I felt like I had been sand-blasted by the sand being blown about. We are going to move the goats to the other side of the barn and grow corn, beans and squash where they have been penned up. We are thinking that once the soil is tilled up and mulched it should be pretty good due to the accumulation of goat poop. Anyway, this necessitated a new hay rack and a new goat pen for the buck. I still need to build the goat pen and move the water trough and do a bit of fencing before we can make the move. I also built a seed starting bin out of recycled deck material that I am going to start my corn seed in this week. I going to take a week of vactaion over spring break which is the perfect time to plant our spring garden in Texas as the last average freeze date is March 15. I have a huge list of things I want to get done and if I get a quarter of them done I'll be surprized.
I built the hay rack out of an old painting storage rack that we moved out of the barn to make room in our milking area. It is old yellow pine 1x4, completely clear. It was a little brittle but worked out great. I am so grateful that I have learned out to build things over the years. I remember when I first started trying to built things out of wood what a mystery it was trying to cut pieces the same length. I could cut 6 pieces, supposedly all the same length and they would none be the same size. I don't remember if someone told me the solution or if I figured it out on my own but eventually I learned that the secret is being consistent on which side of the pencil line you cut. The kerf, the part of the wood removed by the saw blade, is about 1/16" and the pencil line is close to 1/16" so if you draw a pencil line and make one cut on one side and one cut on the other your two pieces of wood will be aout 1/8" different. Combine that with sloppy measuring and you get pieces of wood as much as 1/4" different. That plagued me for years and frustrated me to no end. Now if I measure carefully and consistently cut on the same side of the pencil line I can make all my boards the same length. I was thinking about this as I built my hay rack since I had to cut a bunch of boards all the same length. Another trick I was taught is to tap on the end of your nail with the hammer to dull the point of the nail. You would think that a dull nail would split a board faster that a pointed nail buth the opposite is true. This is especially important when using old brittle wood when you are nailing on the edge. I love learning little tricks like that. These are the things that used to get passed down from father to son but, sadly, no longer seem to. I am grateful whenever I can pick something up.
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A New Painting
I started a new painting two
weeks ago. It is another in my Rosary series: Joyful Mystery #5, Jesus
in the Temple. Above is the painting after I have worked on it for two
weeks. Traditionally the iconography shows Jesus confounding the elders
in the Jewish Temple. Since I am trying to make the images a bit more
contemporary, I decided to have Jesus be in the modern replacement of
the Temple, the University. Jesus is sitting at a desk surrounded by
the great founders of modernism: Einstein, Darwin, Freud and Marx. In
the background is the Main Tower from the University of Texas, where I
work. On the front of that building is enscribed the words of Jesus: "
You Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You Free.", although
it is not attributed to Jesus anywhere. To the right, Mary and Joseph
arrive looking for their lost son. How many parents are like them,
having lost their sons and daughters to the liberal education which
seems to primarily have the goal of removing any kind of religious
belief from the students. I belief there is no contradiction between
science and religion but most scientific endeavours begin with a
philosophical assumption of reductionist materialism.
You can see the other paintings in the Rosary series here: Joyful Mystery #1, Joyful Mystery #2, Joyful Mystery #3 This is not part of the series but is the same subject I did for a commission-I will eventually do this as Joyful Mystery #4.
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You can see the other paintings in the Rosary series here: Joyful Mystery #1, Joyful Mystery #2, Joyful Mystery #3 This is not part of the series but is the same subject I did for a commission-I will eventually do this as Joyful Mystery #4.
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