But Is It Art? - 20 April 2021 - Plague Journal Day 404

Micah 6:8
Exodus 31:3-5
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is Joan Miró's birthday, he was born on 20 April 1893 in Barcelona. His paintings are interesting stuff, I suppose, but I really much prefer Salvador Dalí, Piet Mondrian, or René Magritte.

 

Note that I totally resisted making this post a play on a 404 - Page Not Found error.
You're welcome.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Art and Faith - 30 January 2021 - Plague Journal Day 324

Micah 6:8
Philippians 4:6-8
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

I attended a very interesting web conversation yesterday around the topic of Art, Faith, and the Church. It was based on the book "Art and Faith" by the speaker, Makoto Fujimura - the subtitle is A Theology of Making. What an exciting conversation it was!
As I noted to the organizers, I can't remember the last time I pulled out pen and paper and took notes from an online discussion (and I took quite a lot, really).

Fujimura was saying that when we Love, we Make - that's his distillation of his book, really. My musings on that phrase took me back to a definition of Love that seems very helpful in a lot of ways. Love can be seen as a will to reality. What I love, I want to be real to me - to be as real to me as I am to myself. That's why when we love people we want to learn about them, we find ourselves thinking of them.
That's why I want to know everything there is to know about Heidi - so she's as real to me as I am to myself. That's why I think of her all the time.

Them, moving on to the subject of making or of creating or of art, it means that what we create - what we're making real - is what we love. We want it to be real to us, so we think about it ... a lot. Another point I made in the conversation is that one way of judging our creations is to ask "where does it point?" If it points to God, then it's definitely worthy. Even if it's a work of less than mediocre craftsmanship, it's still doing what it's supposed to do. If it points to me, or another person, or to the world, it's almost certainly flawed - much as I am. Even if it's a stunning work of the finest craftsmanship, it's not doing what it's supposed to do. (Remember - this was a conversation about the role of creativity and art in the church.)

That brought to mind the line Paul wrote to the Philippians - "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." When our minds are focused on those things, what we create will be as well.
In a similar vein, just before that he tells them that they should "not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." There it is again - living in that peace that passes all understanding keeps our hearts and minds in Christ. When that's where our hearts and minds live, only good works can be made - only the fruit of the Spirit will be found. (Even though I can't write like C.S. Lewis or Charles Williams, nor paint like Van Gogh, nor compose like J.S. Bach, I can still do what I can with what I've been given to the glory of God. Amen.)

S.D.G. indeed

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Art History! - 11 December 2020 - Plague Journal Day 274

Micah 6:8
Ephesians 4:28
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

First off, I'd like to wish a very Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. May the Light continue to shine forth in the darkness!

Next up, on this day in history, 11 December 1913, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, La Gioconda (Mona Lisa), was recovered after having been stolen from the Louvre two years before. It's interesting to see what's going on at the Louvre these days in the absence of visitors:

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, today is National Noodle Ring Day. Regular readers of this blog know that food is one of my passions. In fact, I actually eat food nearly every day, rain or shine. Today's food item is kind of fascinating. It's essentially just a pasta dish that's baked in a Bundt pan (or other ring-shaped pan, such as an angel food cake pan). I have to admit that I've never had this, but I'm thinking I'd like to give it a shot.
Who knows? Maybe I try to make a lasagna ring!

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

No Art? - 01 December 2020 - Plague Journal Day 264

Micah 6:8
Exodus 31:1-5
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is supposedly the Day Without Art. There's one I won't celebrate. What a stupid concept. I mean, Earth without art is just Eh. You gotta have art; miles and miles and miles of art!

What idiot came up with this? (Unless it's supposed to make us aware of how important art is in our lives, in which case I guess I'm helping now.) I wonder (not much, really) what my niece, Kayla, would think of this day. As an artist and an art teacher, this would feel like a slap in the face kind of day. I also wonder what my friend Libby would think of this day. I'm sure there are days when she'd like to have a day without him, but it's hard to imagine Libby and Art without each other.


Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Happy Hour - 24 November 2020 - Plague Journal Day 257

Micah 6:8
Matthew 11:16-19
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

I understand that in the nearly-forgotten past, like last year and all the years prior, the day before Thanksgiving was one of the biggest nights for bars. Folks back in town to join family for the holiday would meet up with friends whom they hadn't seen for a long time for a happy hour catch-up.
So now I'm wondering if anyone out there remembers that great show on USA Network (from back when they were like the world's biggest, greatest independent UHF station) called Happy Hour, hosted by Dweezil and Amnet Zappa?
I know I do, and it was just what this world needs again.

It reminds me in a slightly oblique, yet subversive way, of Fernwood 2 Night (and the later, somewhat less memorable America 2-Night). Why don't we have great television like that anymore? Are they just afraid to do something different and good, or are they simply incapable of anything but copying and remaking what has gone before?
At least there's YouTube that has quite a stash of this classic program.
Here's the opening part of the first episode. You're welcome.

Bringing you up to date on today in history, 1265 Magnus Olafsson, Manx king died. (One supposes that means he was a king without a tail.)

As a follow-up to an earlier post on different kinds of art, I came across this quote: "I invent nothing, I rediscover." - Auguste Rodin (See, I told you sculpting was different from writing.)

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Beauty - 20 November 2020 - Plague Journal Day 253

Micah 6:8
1 Peter 3:3-4
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

 

Today is Beautiful Day - what a great idea - celebrate anything and everything beautiful! As my Canadian friends might say, "Beauty, eh?"
We can and do find beauty nearly everywhere. There is great beauty in Nature to be sure (and why not? consider the Artist who created it.), there is beauty in any of the arts you care to choose.

• Painting? check
• Sculpture? check
• Poetry? check
• Music? check
• Dance? check

There's even beauty in mathematics - ask any mathematician about elegant and beautiful proofs; it's the same thing as Nature, really. As Galileo Galilei said, "Mathematics is the language with which God wrote the Universe." (I'm sure the original was in the Italian of his day, but this is the version I've read.)

Celebrate something beautiful today.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Different Kinds of Art - 12 November 2020 - Plague Journal Day 245

Micah 6:8
Exodus 35:30-35
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today marks the 180th "birthday" of French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, perhaps most noted for his statue, The Thinker.

  

Of course the Burghers of Calais outside Parliament in London is pretty famous as well.

Well, it's November (as if you didn't know that), and that means it's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for the uninitiated). Frustratingly, you can't tell it's NaNoWriMo by my output.

Sculpting and Writing are rather different artistic pursuits. Sculptors work to take away everything that isn't what they're sculpting. Writers stare at empty pages, trying to fill them up with everything they're trying to create. I suppose editing is more like sculpting, but I don't think there are many sculptors who create their own blocks of marble to carve. Sometimes it doesn't seem fair, but then, what is? As Matisse said, "Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working." Somehow this pandemicized, locked-down, isolation-riddled year is wreaking havoc with my writing.

I did manage to get a non-fiction book out - ironically it's on how to make a writing habit - but the novel I started a few years ago is languishing in various folders, notebooks, and digital files.

"Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story...."

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.