Dance

"Dance"
Acrylic on Canvas

Okay, so here it is, what I dread writing. This is a painting of a body in freedom. It makes me happy and makes me ask the question: "Is he merely dancing or is he flying?" Personally I feel heavy most of the time... When you have a weight problem, most of the time you don't have a spring in your step. When I was at Asbury we had this ramp leading down into the chapel and the chapel office and I dreaded walking down it alone because you could always hear this thump thump thump as your feet hit the floor. Now this happens with everyone but with a weight problem it feels like it my thuds and thumps are louder than other peoples. I had this insane worry that it was echoing down the hall behind me. It's just my imagination but still this picture points to a body completely unashamed. I have been continuing to lose weight since I left seminary, in fact tonite I have a Weight Watcher's meeting. It is going well. In many ways this painting points forward to something I have only glimpsed. I like how my friend Isaac Hopper put it:

Understanding that I see this with eyes irrevocably changed by an intense and ongoing encounter with the Christ of salvation, I see such tragic beauty in this piece that I can hardly contain myself. I see in the dancer a life that has been freed to become the Father's joy. He explodes with motion as he expresses the joy he feels at the warm embrace of the Father. He does so against a backdrop of sacrificial love - the blood of Christ. It envelops him, holds him, suspends him in his eternal dance.

Hmmm... well put Isaac... I didn't know why this painting made me so happy until you said that.

Poet Warrior

"Poet Warrior"
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

"The poet warrior is not afraid to bleed. A poet warrior knows it is not a sign of weakness but a sign of compassion that the world need not struggle on it's own. Poet's struggle."

Francis de Sales - In my own words

Hey here is a quote from Francis de Sales that I got from a Maxie Dunnam book:

"We must begin with a strong and constant resolution to give ourselves wholly to God, professing to Him, in a tender, loving manner, from the bottom of our hearts, that we intend to be His without any reserve, and then we must often go back and renew this same resolution. "

In my own words, this same quote looks like this:

"First thing's first, with vigilience and single-mindedness I must give my complete self, cobwebs and all, to God, writing poetry to him with utmost love and tender devotion, from the depths of my soul, holding nothing back, constantly over and over again, like a litany."

My Advanced Degree Choice

You Should Get a MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)

You're a blooming artistic talent, even if you aren't quite convinced. You'd make an incredible artist, photographer, or film maker.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

I Forgot The Rivers Name

Somewhere in the middle way I forgot the River's Name.
Somewhere on the journey, I forgot that first sweet taste.
The sound of waters gushing, the sound of driplets fall,
The suffocating glory, of the newborn babies call.

Somewhere in the pursuit of dignity I forgot humility.
I turned my eyes to fallen things, so that I cannot see.
I forgot the spray of water, I forgot the blood born pain.
Somewhere I forgot it, I forgot the River's Name.

Damnation kills creation, imagination stands condemned.
Paint and tone, and poet's voice, and art and light are dimmed.
In lurid dark and gravestone, in pain and storied fear,
Cheapened hope and promise, are swallowed in His tears.

I forgot the River's name, the tears that from Him flow.
I forgot the River's name, that saints and seers know.
Among them a centurian, a virgin, and a whore.
Turn and cry and weep for me - "Go and sin no more."

This was my first Lenten reflection. March 5, 2006.