Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring - FINISHED!

Hallelujah!

In case you aren't familiar with this piece allow me to enlighten you. I was given this canvas last December by the worship pastor at our church.

Original canvas

He asked me to create something along these lines. Hymn pages, music and doves. So I set the canvas aside and went with a board because I knew my surface would need to be pretty sturdy to hold what I had in mind.

Panel with first layer of carved dove.

 After I carved the dove, I dyed some of the pages from the hymn Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring brown and red with food coloring. I attached them to the board with a combination of glue, water and some tinted stain I had left over from another project.

Dove attached to board.

I got "stuck" many times on this project trying to figure out what to do next... most of the time I was just over thinking things. I decided to paint a landscape in olive trees on top of the dove in oil paint.

Dove with olive trees.

At this point, I decided it was too busy so I tried to flatten the painting with some simple stenciled white doves.

Here I became stumped again and decided to try photo shopping a few different ideas on the photo that I took with my phone. I like using photo shop because it allows me to work out different ideas to see how the painting could look.

Option 1: Removing the top layer of the carved dove.

Option 2: Shellacing (made up that word) the whole painting.

Option 3: Shellacing the whole thing and repainting some of the stenciled doves in an off white color.

I ended up going with a hybrid of Option 1 & Option 2 choosing to remove the top latyer of the dove and then shellacing the whole thing.

Ready to shellac!

Note: Shellac is one of my favorite things in the world. Basically it is a sealant that you can put on any wood. I like to use Shellac though because I can buy it in this tinted amber color. If you want to know how obsessed I am with Shellac check out my portfolio on my website any painting that has a shiny amber look to it... most likely is covered in shellac.

Shellaced the whole thing!

The only thing that remained was to build a frame. I love frames I think they give a painting a nice clean finished look that you just don't get from a bare canvas edge. In this case the painting also needed a frame in order for it to hang. This painting will also need about 20 wall anchors and D-Rings because it is HEAVY.

Doneskies!

Here it is complete and ready to go! So glad this is done and so excited to give it to our pastor. I enjoyed doing this painting and I learned alot about how I work and why I work through it. I'll explain later but for now enjoy the photos!

Spurgeon Piece Update

In a sermon given at Exeter Hall on January 8, 1860, Charles Spurgeon addresses stumbling stones that form on the sinners way to the city of refuge. This whole sermon was an encouragement to my heart with each stumbling block that Spurgeon addressed, The Lord addressed an issue in my heart.

I love spurgeons sermons because he is very visual. He uses imagery to eloquently illustrate his point. One "stumbling block" that stuck out to me was the third. He says,

"Oh saith some poor soul, "I do not know whether I believe or not sir. Sometimes I do believe; but oh it is such little faith I have, that I cannot think Christ can save me." I often feel that my shortcomings and sin are too great for The Lord. This is a lie. Spurgeon illuminates the lie by saying, "Remember it is not the strength of faith that saves thee, but the reality of thy faith. What is more, it is not even the reality of thy faith that saves thee, it is the object of thy faith. If thy faith be fixed on Christ, though it seems in itself a line no thicker than a spiders web, it will hold thy soul throughout time and eternity."

So I used my faith knot and webs to process through this portion of the sermon. I cant decide if it is done. I rendered the big knot in the middle to different levels of completion because I wanted it to look like different thicknesses of spider webs.

Spider Webs

 Sprugeon continues to illustrate his point by saying, "For remember, it is not the thickness of this cable of faith, it is the strength of the anchor which imparts strength to the cable, and so shall hold thy ship in the midst of the most fearful storm." I love that it is the strength of the anchor, not the cable that holds the ship in the storm. It is the strength of the Lord my anchor that holds my faith in tact through storms of doubt. I've painted an anchor that is supposed to be sinking into the ocean floor. I added cables to the chain that you would see on a suspension bridge. I added the lightening to illustrate the storm but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I need to knock it down a little bit, make it less drastic. Anyways, I have progressed from constructive thought to rambling so I will stop.

Anchor

Have a good night. 

Design, Design, Design!

So I do graphic design work on the side. Sometimes for money, sometimes because I like you. I have done a whole slew of things this past year from softball jersey designs, to save the dates to wedding invitations to stuff for my own personal interest.

Graphic design is great because it keeps those creative juices flowing, helps bring in some extra cash and allows me to use my creativity to serve those around me in a really practical way.

I am including some samples to show you what I've been up to...

First up my brother-in-law Peter is marrying the lovely Kristin England. Seriously these two are really, really, really, ridiculously good looking.

Alexandra Jordan Photography out of Tulsa took some stunning photos of these two and they then asked me to design a save the date magnet for them. How could you not when you get to look at these two pretty faces...?

Lovely.

I love the balloons such a fun touch!

In the spirit of weddings I designed a few invitations because wedding are fun, I can and I've been asked to design one for some friends who are getting married at the end of the summer. Couldnt think of good fake names so I went with some old favorites.

Don't judge.

Next we have the cover of my schools 16 page graduation program (yes you read that right.) Part of my role at my school was to help with the graphic design of various things. The school underwent a rebranding before I arrived and has some pretty slick new crests and a unified color scheme. So I was asked to update the graduation program with the new logo. (This was seriously fun to design because I had a lot of the senior girls in my art class this year and was able to make their graduation program really classy.)

Classy.

After that we have a softball jersey redesign. One of our friends from our old home group at Providence plays for the churches softball team and hired me to help him out with some of the design. I really enjoyed recreating this font Neutra Inline. Neutra Display Titling is quickly becoming a new favorite.

Finally we have some designs that I have created for myself. Part of the way I take notes in church is through illustrating the sermon. It helps me understand and process what my pastor is saying as he is preaching. May is missions month at IDC and to kick us off, David Sitton founder of To Every Tribe ministry shared a bit of his story and challenged our church with Matthew 9:35-38 which says...

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

He explained to us that it is a privilege to share the gospel. Saying that if we are called to Christ then we are called to His mission which is, spreading His name and His gospel. The word used in for the phrase "send out" in vs. 38 is ekballo. Ekballo means to forcibly expel. So when we are asking for the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers out it is strong and forceful sending out. The hubs and I discussed the idea of "go" and where are we called to "go" right now. We came to the conclusion that the way we can "go" right now is by continuing to pray and support our friend Matt Maloney who is serving in Peru with Pioneers. We can also pray for those in the IDC church body who might be feeling called to go plant a church and/or go overseas. As I thought about "go" more on my own I realized that I can "go" to my students it is very easy for me to get to school and focus on the lesson I am to teach or the project we need to finish. Rarely do I pause to think of my school as a mission field. So I made this graphic for my desktop to challenge myself to go and engage with my students.

In addition to challenging us to go. Sitton also challenged us to think about the worldview of scripture. Explaining that the worldview of scripture is one of warfare. It makes sense if you think about scripture and the way believers are challenged to put on the armor of God to face the enemy. Not that we are to go out and bludgeon others with our bibles but more that we are called to go and die. If we are modeling our ministry after Christ's he came into the world and died for you and me. His death led to victory. I do not need to fear death nor the praise of man because the battle has been won. He said, "We are not on a Christian cruise ship we are on a Christian battleship." He lost me for a second because I began visualizing a battleship running over a cruise ship at sea. I immediately began sketching and started to make the vector battleship you see below. I'm pretty proud of this bad boy it took a lot of time and detail to render it with basic shapes and five different shades of blue and gray. I have included my source photo. 

Source photo.

Vector

I'm not done. My next step is to create the cruise ship that the battleship is running over but I thought it was finished enough to post on the blog. 

 

Austin Trip, Art Show and Group Projects.

Update on life...

1) Austin was great. I didn't have to send any kids home. By the end of the trip the kids started saying...

"I don't like that face your making."
"What face?" I asked.
"Your scary face."

Apparently up until this point I had never been truly scary. All I needed to be truly scary was a lack of sleep and spending more than an hour and a half with them, go figure. I enjoyed the effects of the scary face their eyes would get a little big and they would quickly say, "Yes ma'am."

We surprisingly had the most fun at the cemetery. It was due entirely to our tour guide Will. Will was hilarious and he knew the most gruesome stories which the kids ate up. For example, he told us about Josiah Wilbarger.

"In August 1833, Wilbarger was a member of a surveying party of four that was attacked by Comanche Native Americans about four miles east of the site of present Austin, Texas. Two of the men were killed and scalped by the Native Americans. The other two managed to flee. Wilbarger was scalped and the Indian left him for dead, but he was still living when he was found the next day by Reuben Hornsby and taken to the Hornsby home for treatment. Wilbarger managed to survive by crawling into a nearby stream to wash his wounds. According to legend, Wilbarger was thought to have been killed, but later that night Hornsby's wife saw Wilbarger in a dream sitting under a tree. She gave her husband a description of the tree and he was found there the next day. Wilbarger never completely recovered from his wound although he lived for 11 more years. He died at his home near Bastrop in 1845 after an accident in which he struck his head on a low support beam inside of his cotton gin. His exposed skull eventually became diseased, causing him to die."

Wilbarger post scalping.

Students reacting to Wilbarger's story.

2.) Art Show was AWESOME! 

I was so proud of my kiddos and enjoyed the time to talk to parents about what their students have been doing in class. It was also a really encouraging time. I received great feed back from parents about the program and was given more ideas for next year. I've posted some photos below. 

Final version of the Rauschenberg Project. Completed by an 11th grader.

Some elementary students discussing the Rapunzel project inspired by John Latham.

Lower School Gallery.

Second graders vase that she made on her own.

Second grader with his macaroni stegosaurus.

Tigers Curse, Latham project.

Close up (sorry for how dark the photos are...)

Food! So proud of myself for ordering "just enough."

9th grader with her paintings.

11th grader with her Big Ben print (which took second in the printmaking category at district.)

Some of my seniors looking at the print gallery.

3.) Group Projects. 

We are at the point in art where we have 2 weeks left in school and not enough time to start and finish a project. Enter group projects. There is this magical room at my school called the junk room. You can find anything at the junk room. Desks, trash cans, overhead projectors, cabinets etc. So I took two old cork boards and painted them white. 

The 8th graders made a grid with 8 squares. They then drew lines all over the board and were assigned a color. They painted the shapes inside in different shades of their assigned color. 
 

Students drawings lines (and making silly faces.)

Lines.

Painting in their assigned colors.

Students outlining their shapes.

Finished product.

 My freshmen were given a bit more freedom. I let them pick an image and figure out how they wanted to break it up. Many ideas were discussed, ranging from an octopus, to a stairway to heaven and a galaxy. I deemed the octopus to creepy for prospective parents checking out the school, stairway to heave idea was ruined by Led Zepplin, leaving the galaxy. They decided to break it up by painting different sections of the color wheel letting all of the colors fade into each other.

Sketching out the galaxy and gridding out the colors.

In progress.

 

Finished product.

I am super pleased with how both of these turned out. They will be hung in the hallway hopefully by the end of the week. :)

I am truly blessed to be at my school and work with these kids.

Going to Austin...

For those of you who don't know, I teach Texas History in addition to art. Part of the Texas History teaching position is leading a trip to Austin. So today I embark on a great journey with 23 thirteen-year-olds in tow. We will go to...

1.) Health Camp in Waco. Get them super hyper with milk shakes for the last hour and half of the drive.
2.) The Capitol Building. I ran through the security measures with the tour coordinator on Friday and I'm terrified.
3.) Austin Park. Where I hope they will wear themselves out so much they will go to sleep right at 10:45 tonight... (Hey, a girl can dream.)
4.) The Bob Bullock State History museum where they will complete a Scavenger hunt and get sources for their 3 page (gasp) paper. I am their favorite teacher assigning that bad boy for sure.
5.) The Texas State Cemetary where we will see some famous dead Texans.

All joking aside I am incredibly excited about this trip. I love this group of kids, even though they are squirrely they bring joy to my day. I didnt have them this past week because they were in testing and I missed them. It was a strange realization. I found myself wanting to check in with them at lunch to see how their day was going. Weird I know but true.


I am sure I will have a post filled with some great stories for you in two days time.

Dove Painting

So the same pastor that asked me to do paintings for the church hallways asked me to complete a painting for his office.... Well he didn't really ask he just brought out a canvas that he had been working on at a worship Christmas Party, I looked at it, shook my head and took it home to fix it. Not because I think that the painting was terrible but because this pastor is a great guy. He has invested in the hubs, helped him become a better worship leader and is passionate about developing the "little church" aka the church at your home. Challenging men to lead their families in worship at home. He also is a really great hymn writer hence the pages from the hymnal.

Original Painting

The painting possessed great sources of inspiration a dove and hymnal pages. Luckily I have boxes of hymnals in my classroom that the teacher before me inherited. So I had the pastor look through and pick out the hymn that he liked the best. He chose Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.

Jesu, joy of man's desiring,

Holy wisdom, love most bright;

Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring

Soar to uncreated light.

Word of God, our flesh that fashioned

With the fire of life impassioned,

Striving still to truth unknown,

Soaring, dying round Thy throne.

Through the way where hope is guiding

Hark, what peaceful music rings;

Where the flock, in Thee confiding,

Drink of joy from deathless springs.

Theirs is beauty's fairest pleasure;

Theirs is wisdom's holiest treasure.

Thou dost ever lead Thine own

In the love of joys unknown.

So I developed this sketch (see below). I knew that I wanted to layer hymnals on top of each other and carve into them. I knew I wanted the background to be the pages filled with the lyrics from Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. I also knew I wanted to scrap the old canvas entirely because I have a personal aversion to working on canvas. I much prefer boards, the harder surface is sturdier, which allows me to do things like carve a giant bird out of hymnals.

Sketch

So I cut a 4'x2' board and carved the first layer of the dove.

 

Board, Dove and mismatched socks

Then I dyed the hymnal pages a red-brown color, attached them to the board and stained the pages blue with an outdoor stain that I had left over from a different project. I sealed the board with shellac and attached the dove to the board.

Board with dyed pages and stain.

 

Board with dove and my freaky feet.

I then added two more layers to the dove and carved in wings. However, the painting looked a little boring so I added a landscape of olive trees. The landscape follows the wingspan of the dove and adds more visual interest.

Olive tree landscape

I'm still not finished I think I need to add another hill on the right and one more tree. Right now there are four trees and I can't handle it. I don't like even numbers in a painting. I need them to be odd. I also have a thing about the number 5, multiples of five etc. I hate it when things are not scheduled in increments of five or even timing things. If I am doing timed drawings with my students I have to time them in increments of five. Sometimes I will tip extra at a restaurant so I can get then total balance to a multiple of five. What can I say I'm weird... I can leave dirty dishes in the sink but I can't handle it if things aren't scheduled in increments of five.  

I post a picture when its done. I plan on finishing it next week so I can put it in an art show that I'm hosting my school featuring the work of my talented kiddos.

Show card.