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bb | December 2007 St Nicholas party!
For anyone interested I have made my Christmas Card availalbe for sale on Cafe Press. Here is the address: http://www.cafepress.com/bcartfarm  We had our annual visit from St.
Nicholas this weekend. I was putting up the Christmas lights in the
yard early Saturday morning and sweating like a pig. It doesn't seem
right but that's winter in Texas for you. We went into mass yesterday
and it was almost 80. When we came out it was 66 and dropping. This
morning it was 34. Anyway, I digress. We had a lovely party with
lots of good food, singing, St. Nicholas and a bonfire. One of the kids
from one of our new families in Regina Mater had never been to our
house before. As we were standing around the bonfire he turned to his
Dad and said, "This is more fun than Disneyland!" I have to agree. A
special thanks to St Nicholas for coming by (you know who you are)!
  The outside is my painting based on the beautiful Hymn "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming" and the inside is the text of the hymn. November 2007 Sorry about the no blogging in October. It was a crazy month. Mostly good crazy. I had my first exhibit at Enye Creative Gallery. I was in the Pearl art show in Elgin ( I won second place). I boxed up two painting and shipped them to Sandra Bowden to be in a traveling Civa exhibit. I went camping at Garner State Park with four other families from Regina Mater, my daughter's homeschooling initiative. We finally moved Regina Mater into it's permanent home in Our Lady's Maronite Church. We had been camping out in the foyer as the charter school which was supposed to be moved into their new facilities in beginning September...end of September...middle of October...end of October!! It has been really hard on the teachers but they are all troopers, making heroic contributions to the capital of grace. We are all glad to be moved. I am also building a deck down by the duck pond out of redwood decking material that I salvaged via Craig's List. Oh, and I celebrated my 54th birthday. The exhibit I am currently in at the Museum of Biblical Art in NYC has had a couple of reviews and my painting is mentioned. Check it out- Prodigal Son exhibit showcases forgiveness in The Journal News and New York, America, the West: Prodigal Sons by Marvin Olansky at TownHall.com September 2007  Click
on the image for a bigger image
My wife and I have been talking about what seems to be our constant
state of loss, the grief we feel to be ever present with us. We have
lost several communities over the years not to mention deaths of
parents, spouse and other relatives and friends. Just over a year ago a
religious sister we had become very close to was transferred out of the
country due in part to some very underhanded and slanderous actions of
some folks who did not appreciate her and felt disappointed in her.I had also been reading a book by Sister Wendy Beckett, The Mystical Now: Art and the Sacred (I highly recommend it.) Her introductory essay ends by reflecting on what she calls ”the meaning of separation and out inability ever to possess, finally, what we love. This applies not only to actual partings, but to our continual state of having to leave, move away, lose. Rilke puts it memorably: Who turned us round like this, so that, No matter what we do, we have the air Of somebody departing? As a traveler On the last hill, for the last seeing All the home valley, turns, and stands, and lingers, So we live, forever taking leave.” I was very moved by this and thought it expressed my feelings. I began to wonder if I could express those feelings in a painting . The scripture where Jesus says Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. came to mind. To me this expresses Jesus sense of loss, having come from heaven, leaving behind the community of the Trinity and experiencing the limitations of humanity. So here is the painting I came up with. I call it Foxes and Birds. It is 20”x16”, oil on canvas and will be auctioned off at a fundraiser for the Austin House of Prayer on October 20th, 2007. It's funny how life seems to have seasons: a time to laugh, a time to cry; a time for war, a time for peace; a time for not exhibiting a time for exhibiting...artwork that is. The last week has been a veritable flurry of activity at the artfarm as far as lining up exhibits. First I got an email from Sandra Bowden, the CIVA exhibition coordinator, asking me to participate in a CIVA exhibit that will tour American churches for three or four years. I'm going to include Joyful Mystery #1: The Annunciation and the Return. This is the first time I have been invited to be in a CIVA show and I a pretty excited. Here is the blurb: CIVA announces a new traveling exhibition, Seeing the Savior: Images from the Life of Christ. From the Annunciation to his Second Coming, 33 insightful and colorful interpretations of the Birth, Ministry, Passion, Ascension, and Return of the Lord are masterfully portrayed by 11 artists from a variety of artistic and ethnic backgrounds. Among those represented in this show are: Laura James, New York artist of Antiguan heritage; Vuera Hloznikova, from Slovakia; Rudolph Bostic, an African American Outsider Artist from Savannah, GA; Sadao Watanabe from Japan; Anne Brink, an African American painter; Jim Janknegt, from Texas; and several well known CIVA artists such as Edward Knippers, Bruce Herman, Tanja Butler, Wayne Forte and Joan Bohlig. Next I got an email from Sonia Browder, who along with her brother Steve, runs Enye Creative in Elgin. I met her at an Arts and Artisans meeting in Elgin a couple of weeks ago. They just moved their shop to a house one block west of Main St. and their new space has a big room they are going to use as a gallery. Sonia invited me over for a visit and we had a lovely talk. Turns out she is a Christian and responded to my work both on an aesthetic level and content level which is very cool for the artist/gallery owner relationship. So I am going to be a part of their fledging operation. They are going to participate in the Elgin Art Walk which will be on October 13th from 6-9 pm. All of the Galleries will be open and some stores that don't normally show art will be displaying work. So I'll have a bunch of paintings on display. Yesterday I got an email from Dolores DeStefano, Curator of Education at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York. Several years ago a fellow from Minnesota that collects paintings of the Prodigal Son bought my painting: Two Sons. Selections from his collection along with a bunch of other work, all various interpretations of the prodigal son parable, will be on display October 4, 2007 through February 17, 2008. So if you happen to be in NYC go check out the exhibit The Art of Forgiveness: Images of the Prodigal Son. I'm also going to enter the Pearls Art Show which is in conjunction with the Elgin Hogeye Festival which will be up Thursday through Saturday October 25-27, 2007. The opening is Thursday the 25. I hope to see you at some of these events!!  Now
that the boy goats are gone Emma and Lissa have taken to milking the
goats, at least Pepper. So far they are getting about a pint or two per
milking. If you like milk it tastes great. I do not like milk so it
doesn't taste that great to me but I couldn't tell any difference
between it and cows milk. I used some to make bicuits on Sunday and the
biscuits were delicious. We also got our check from the auction. Our
four male goats sold for $440.00. Not too bad. I guess we are
officially goat farmers now. I made the milking stand, by the way.
 We have been having some fun wild ducks visiting us for a while. I got a good photo of them Sunday. They are know as whistling ducks because instead of quacking they whistle. They are odd because they can perch on things unlike ordinary ducks. They also live in holes in trees which is unusual for a duck. They started coming around when we got our domesticated ducks. I can't say they are friends with each other but the seem to coexist without too much friction. I think they are really pretty and I like having them around.  To see a larger image and check out the price click here: Joyful Mystery #1: Annunciation I
am going to keep the format consistent with a border of roses around
each painting. Besides the rose being associated with Our Blessed
Mother the original rosaries were made from dried rosebuds strung
together hence the name: rosary. The narrative of the paintings will be
traditional but in a contemporary setting. I've always disliked those
renaissance and baroque angels, all tiny pink and effeminate. It seems
angels always begin their message with "Don't be afraid". Who would
ever be afraid of a pink, floating baby with wings unless your afraid
it's not potty trained. So my angel is big and imposing. Mary is
surprised, as is her cat. She has dropped the book she is reading. She
is listening attentively to the Angel's message " Hail Mary, full of
grace, the Lord is with you."
My hope is that eventually all twenty paintings could be published together as an aid to meditating on the mysteries. But it will take a while to paint all twenty although I have started on the 2nd Joyful Mystery which is the visitation. I'm
pretty excited!! My new 4GB iPod nano arrived in the mail yesterday. I
have been iPodless for, what seems like, forever. While driving to work
one day the guy in front of me slammed on his brakes and my old iPod
did a perfect jacknife right into my half full cup of coffee. It was
instantly sooo dead.
:( So
even though it only holds less than 500 songs I am back to listening.
And what is even better is that it was free!! I got it with my credit
card reward points. Thanks be to God!!! I have really missed listening
to music as I am the only one in my house who likes listening and I
rarely get a chance to...except while I am commuting to work and
listening to my new iPod.
UPDATE:
The day after I get my new iPod
Apple comes out
with the new, improved iPod touch. But I'm not bitter. Really. I'm not. Goodbye
Goatboy, Guiness, Negra Modelo and Mocha Latte. Our 4 male goats went
to auction yesterday. I'm sure they all found a good home with a loving
family and a large bbq pit.
We kept the girls. |
