Blog

Evening Lagoon

I’ve been working on revising and refreshing my website in the last few weeks.  Kinda like online housekeeping! 
I realized that I had more to say about why I am drawn to creative work than I had previously written.  I’m intrigued as I dive deeper into the reality of my faith and how it informs the things that I create. These things are difficult to articulate – but they drive me to seek a deeper understanding.

I see a thread of mystery to follow.  If you know me, you know that I believe I’ve been created with a specific design.  I believe all of us have been – our interests, our abilities, our experiences, our personalities… all play a role in our unique shaping.  And there is no piece of it that God has not planned and supervised. Even what we would call negative elements, they too are woven in.  But in it all, there is a purpose and plan for good… for each of us and for those whom we touch.

Part of the mysterious thread also includes the work we do; the kinds of work, the different ways we work and the unique outcomes of that work. From surgeons to astronauts, bakers to teachers, homemakers to executives, farmers to artists… and everything in between…it is all meant to bring goodness and beauty and wellness and provision to this world for the benefit of all of us in it.

Maybe because the things I’m called to in this season of life reside in the arts, I have come to see how much the arts are needed to bring depth and joy into a world in great need of it. They act, in a way, as a counterbalance to what often feels heavy and uncertain.  The arts are a powerful agent that speaks, often, to the soul in a different language.  I’ve been reading what some influential thinkers have had to say about the role of the arts, and it’s an encouragement to embrace the idea of our artistic purposes.

“The arts are not the pretty irrelevant bits around the border of reality.They are the highways into the center of reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way.”  
N.T. Wright, Theologian and Biblical Scholar

And this from an article by Joel Clarkson in Christianity Today (April 30, 2021) quoting Makoto Fujimura, contemporary artist:

“God’s design in Eden, even before the Fall, was to sing Creation into being and invite God’s creatures to sing with God, to co-create into the Creation.” 

These thoughts are energizing, don’t you think?  They present a different view of creating and why we create than is typical in an age that gravitates toward what is practical and efficient.  This way of looking at the work I do, gives me room to breathe and think, imagine and create with God.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!  Leave a comment below ~ how do these ideas excite your imagination?

Here are a few links that I think you’ll find to be an encouragement.

A podcast I really enjoy: Mere Christians with Jordan Raynor Jordan has great interviews people from all walks of life about how their faith influences the work that they do.

More on N.T. Wright, an English New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Durham from 2003 to 2010

Christianity Today article I referenced and more on Makoto Fujimura, American contemporary artist.

Of course, this is a personal invitation to visit me right here at my website that I’ve been updating, you'll see many artworks that are both available and sold.   And, I'd also love to invite you to join me as an art-lover friend!  You'll get a once-a-month colorful note from me right in your inbox! Every month, I include something fun and exclusive just for my friends... like a contest to give away an original small painting, or downloadable and printable art, or a special discount!  It's free and super easy to join!   Here's the link!

 Visual art is a language.  It communicates non-verbally and universally.  The world opens up to me in a new way as I observe, explore and celebrate the truth and beauty of God’s Creation.  I never cease to be moved by the grandeur of a vast and sweeping vista, or a colorfully lit sunset, or a small and intimate view of a flower.  In all of it, I’m reminded of a good and generous Creator, who for the sake of beauty and abundance has given us all this and more in the world around us.

In art and in life, my Christian faith is vital. It is my belief that each of us is created with a purposeful design, and for many of us that design includes the visual arts. Faith, informed by scripture, creates a rich pathway into the imagination where possibilities are envisioned of a more expressive rendering or a reality yet unseen.  This quote by N.T.Wright captures that idea.

“The arts are not the pretty irrelevant bits around the border of reality.
They are the highways into the center of reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way.”  

Much of my work is representational, but enhanced with a more vivid color palette.  You will often see exaggerated elements to draw attention to an aspect of the composition.  My style tends toward impressionism with a contemporary influence.  On occasion, with abstract pieces, I endeavor to express concepts that are beyond representation.  But throughout, themes from nature are a consistent inspiration.

My medium of choice is oil paint.  I love its smooth mixability, the infinite colors that can be produced and the textures that can be created.  That being said, I also create work in acrylic and watercolor, which you will see in my portfolio. 

Though each piece in my portfolio includes a description, it’s important to remember that visual art is evocative and personal.  Each piece will speak uniquely to the viewer, so I hope that viewers will linger and experience each piece for themselves.