Something to think about, maybe?

PressPausePlay from House of Radon on Vimeo.

My husband shared this video with me almost a year ago. Its cinematography is captivating, but it's discussion is thought provoking enough to linger in your brain for years to come. The filmmakers interview artists, musicians and digital mavens about the future of creativity, in light of the Digital Revolution. The main question that PressPausePlay keeps coming back to is, "Is it cultural democracy or mediocracy?" 

"It might be a bit bold to do a film about something that’s in such rapid transformation, where nothing is set and where you really can’t distinguish between the villains and heroes. But we didn’t want to give a definite answer. We simply wanted to make a snapshot of today - documenting both the positive and negative aspects of democratized culture. You will not walk out of the theatre with more answers, but hopefully with more thoughts."
— David Dworsky & Victor Köhler (PressPausePlay Directors) 

Lilly's 6 seconds of fame

Lilly Sketch from MandaSophia on Vimeo.

Last night, I tried to fit in my "sketch a day" by drawing this quick little ditty before heading to DFW to pick up my bearded man. As always, I attempted to film process shots on Vine until the app crashed when uploading to my feed. So, I transferred the little 6 second video to Vimeo, didn't want to let the tiny footage go to complete waste. I named her Lilly only to keep track of all the different, big-haired, vintage ladies that seem to litter my sketchbook. I'm thinking about posting all my other Vines to Vimeo soon. Well, maybe just the prettier ones. 

peace is beautifully complex

I think all of us have the recent tragic events of the Northeast on our heart or at least somewhere in the darker recesses of our mind. I also think of the Venezuelan side of my family and all of the political trouble they've been facing. I wasn't looking for a message of hope, but found one while listening to an old sermon today. What struck me was a passage quoted from an American theologian that was noted at the end. I think being reminded of the beautiful complexity of the Lord's peace is profoundly encouraging, especially in the midst of a frightened world who's simple version of peace isn't substantial enough to have a solid connection to hope. I hope the passage below finds you well as it did me.

 Below is the passage regarding John 14:27 from Frederick Buechner's Journey Toward Wholeness.

Picture Jesus at the Last Supper: he had every reason to believe that the end was upon him, and we see him looking around at his friends who will all betray him and saying, "Peace I leave with you," he says, when you would have thought he had no peace at all anywhere. "My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (John 14:27).

The kind of peace that the world gives is the peace we experience when for a little time the world happens to be peaceful. It is a peace that lasts for only as long as the peaceful time lasts, because as soon as the peaceful time ends, the peace ends with it. The peace that Jesus offers, on the other hand, has nothing to do with the things that are going on at the moment when he offers to give it, which are for the most part tragic and terrible things. It is, instead, a peace beyond the reach of the tragic and terrible. It is a profound and inward peace that sees with unflinching clarity the tragic and terrible things that are happening and yet is not shattered by them. It is a peace that looks out at the friends, whom he loves enough to be concerned more for their frightened and troubled hearts than he is for his own, and yet his love for his friends is no more where his peace comes from than his impending torture and death are where his peace will be destroyed. The place that his peace comes from is not the world but something whole and holy within himself, which sees the world also as whole and holy because deep beneath all the broken and unholy things that are happening in it, even as he speaks, Jesus sees what he calls the kingdom of God.

WONDER

Tonight, while test-driving a "spring soup" (oh Pinterest), I played another Isaac Anderson sermon like I have been the last week before dinner. I've been working my way up the archives list of Jacob's Well audio sermons, specifically Isaac's. I enjoy his unique perspective and vast references he seems to insert into every sermon. Isaac's creative writing background becomes obvious as he illustrates every story and scripture that exits his bearded little mouth. It's hard to describe the impact of a good sermon, so I hope that you'll listen to it to understand what I'm babbling on about. It spoke so directly to me that I scribbled some quotes that he used to illustrate the importance to continually be in sincere awe of God. I love the idea and the imagery of a child's wonder as it observes the of the grandeur of the world. 

As a recovering painter, I find myself wallowing in self-pity...a lot. Feelings of inadequacy, regret and disappointment seem to suck the living daylight out of any attempt to create artwork. Those feelings shut me down to a full halt, creating huge time gaps between works, which adds more discouragement. Remember Bob Ross's show, The Joy of Painting? Well, he was right. It IS A JOY and those trees ARE HAPPY!! Why is it so hard to remember, that when I paint, I get thoroughly wrapped up in it? I fall in love with the challenge, the mystery and I just feel privileged that I get to do it at all. After hearing this sermon, I doubt that I'll fall into my own traps of self-pity nearly as often. It was like an introduction or an articulation of the purpose that's written underneath all the crap that has accumulated on my heart.
 (click here for the sermon)

While waiting on my soup I doodled "wonder", the sermons title on the front of my sketchbook. Then I filled a page with these quotes so as to not forget that we are as Jurgen Moltmann say's "eucharistic beings", created to observe the glory of the beauty and grace of God and His creation.

"Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
-Jesus (Mark 10:5)

"It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
- G.K. Chesterton

"How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in him should ponder them."
-Psalm 111:2

"Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now."
-Bob Dylan

"THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God."
-Gerard Hopkins

“Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”
-Annie Dillard

"All creatures of our God and KingLift up your voice and with us sing,Alleluia! Alleluia!"
-hymn by Francis of Assisi

"Watching, if you do it well, watching leads to wonder, which leads to worship. Then that leads to more watching and more wonder until one day you see it.. This whole world is in fact charged with the grandeur of God"
-Isaac Anderson on Wonder

6sec video

Click here to watch

I am trying to build a habit of sketching once a day. I'm using Vine (a 6sec looping video iphone app) to document my process shots as I go along. Sometimes my sketches are not the prettiest and sometimes Vine craps out, making me start over after I've already finished the drawing. You win some, you lose some, I guess. This victorian lady was referenced from a vintage photo I found on Pinterest.

fear of decay

Recently, I decided to become more of a "serious" artist, (Read last post for reference).I took a workshop after years of putting it off due to fear of decaying skills that was a result of putting it off. What a horrible cycular pattern! Let me just tell you, fear is not only crippling, but also a WAIST OF TIME. Yes, my skills somewhat decayed, it's fine. I'll gladly trade my pride and self-righteousness for the opportunity to keep and use what's left of my skill-set for something MUCH GREATER than my pettiness. In this newfound appreciation, I realized that my heart is on a hunt to discover more thoughtful content related to connecting creativity with Christ. It's a complicated mess being a Christian artist and I need all the help I can get. With that being said, I was delighted to listen to something that gave me peace about the way I've treated my talents, and hope for moving forward. What I stumbled upon was this sermon, click here to hear Isaac Anderson's full sermon entitled, "Birth".

Below is the "snip-it" that resounded with me in regards to my hesitation of using God's gifts:

  (I DO need to have more faith). But here is the other thing that I’ve internalized as a result of having this experience over and over and over: The fact that I continue to be so doubtful, the fact that I continue to be so skeptical that God is actually with me, to be so disbelieving.. It just puts the grace of God- for me it makes the grace of God in my life so astounding to me, so ridiculously astounding! The fact that he would continue to provide for me when I continue to think he’s not going to?! And so what I’ve started to learn slowly but surely in this process is that if I’m in a speaking moment and I have something to say that ends up being a gift to somebody else it’s not because I’ve made all the right decisions along the way. It’s not because I’ve had the right spiritual posture the whole time. It’s because God made a decision to come to me where I was and to bless me as I was and to fold my skepticism into the story of his faithfulness. It’s because of His posture towards me, it’s because He has decided to show his fidelity to me again.  So ultimately the story there is not about my strength, it’s not about my ingenuity, my creativity, my intelligence. The story actually is about the opposite of that, it’s about my weakness and His strength. It’s about my faithlessness and His faithfulness. The writing on the wall in my life is GRACE, it says “Grace”.

note: I painted "Anna Melissa" summer of 2010. She's one of my last paintings before I took Dad's workshop in March of 2013.