Living in the uncertainty and unsettledness of these days, struggling with the swirlings of deaths piling up whether of covid-19, accidents, or lynchings…I wonder how much more can we hold, O Lord?
How do you find rest for your soul?
Resting place …
Hope
Hope is the simple trust that God’s Spirit still hovers over the waters, the formless void and darkness and says “Let there be light”.
Expanding image
On a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, I was inspired by Ed Clark’s words,“Our eyes don’t see in rectangles. I was interested in an expanding image, and the best way to expand an image is the oval or ellipse. It seemed to me that the oval as a natural shape could best express movement and extended beyond the limits of the canvas.”
How does the shape change our seeing?
In the beginning
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. “ Genesis 1:1-2
In times of chaos, I need to know that God’s spirit is still hovering. In that space before creation, my eyes see the chaos while my soul knows the breath of God. How does one paint what the eyes can not yet perceive?
What emerges as you sit with these words from Genesis 1?
Beauty is Oxygen
I inhaled deeply when I heard Bruce Long say “Beauty is Oxygen”. The coronavirus is taking our breath away, literally and figuratively. Do I wonder why I paint when people are dying? What helps us catch our breath these days? How do we breathe deeply the breath of God?
What is the role of beauty?
Splattered
“Beauty is breathtaking, yes, but it is most evident in the midst of suffering, alienation, exile. Beauty, Fyodor Dostoyevsky said, will save the world.”
The “I am from…” reflections are the gifts we bring to our lives, our community and our world with both their beauty and their brokenness. This season of covid-19 these pieces rise as pain and creativity within us like splatters on the canvas. What do you notice rising within you? Around you?
With the Eyes of the Heart 