9″ x 9″, acrylic on hardboard. Painted on location 9/28-29/09. A view at the Hays road bridge.
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This was started earlier this week and I ended up taking it back to the scene of the crime to refine it a little more. I like how it turned out, I thought about taking it back there for more elaboration, but I think this is enough to get the point across. I have painted over several days on location with my larger work, but the smaller pieces I have not done that. THAT MAY CHANGE NOW. I think I am starting to relax more and start letting the art whisper to me what she wants… instead of just “expressing” and then close the door on further action.
Reflecting on this more, I have come to the conclusion that as artists go through life, we must first learn to accept ourselves, and our expressions (the fruit of our lives), in complete innocence, apart from any judgment and harsh criticism from our mind. As we are alive in a culture, and a time upon earth as the ages are transistioning, the judgment of man against himself and his work-fruits is at a fever pitch. To the point that as an artist sets out, you can barely hear your own heart amidst the racket of a culture obsessed with finding strength and power and security at all costs. So, instinctively, you begin the hard work of expression apart from judgment. Very hard, but it is the only way belvoved. So you go about painting your heart out and cherishing every drop of paint, and refuse the mind in its strength-making lust of critiqiue… and slowly you are healed, slowly you begin to understand who you are, and what you are about. Only when you have finally accepted yourself as you are, can you begin to accept the desires and dreams of others. This is the artist’s greatest work, and few ever seem to find it!
Seen in this light, penny painting abandons all thoughts of valuation in art, so that the artist might at last be free of the judgment that money carries. Have you ever noticed how in our jobs, the last thing you would ever announce to your co-workers is how much you make ($)? Why is this? It is because judgment of our lives is so utterly bound up with money. For a painter this can become a deadly combination! For as we keep our eye upon the valuation we end up seeking the ways that affirm those evaluations, and hence, we are dragged along through life continually chasing forms that prop up these assesments! And the end of that is heartache my darling, even as our storehouses grow larger and larger, and we find the “reward” of money. For our heart must lead us in paths apart from money for a time, until we find our rest in the Lord (or your heart for those of my brethren who hold no particular view of our Maker). Once the rest is found, once we are strong enough to face the judgment of our fellow man at its most basic and miniscule level, then and only then are we set free within to paint with the true spirit of craft and beauty that was in our heart all along! This is road worth fighting to lay hold upon. I can testify that thus far my heart has seen tremendous release as I have begun to entertain the notion of art that lives free of money.
I am giving considerable thought to an “open source fine art”. I think the days of trying to extract a pound of flesh from our fellow man for the work we do, is OVER. This is the way “that fadeth away” this ardent obedience to mammon. We can no longer serve two masters beloved. There is no longer a middle ground. Either you serve money or God, and upon this demarcation is the world now suspended as each citizen of this earth must now choose whom they will follow. For the artist, this should be a celebratory fact, but I fear that most will never understand (for the children of darkness never understand, but that are beloved in the eyes of God all the more). But if you are of the few, if you carry the spirit of David within, if you trust in the Lord with all of your heart, then you will be exalted in due time. There is no other way. Seek the ways of mammon and you have your reward, seek the ways of weakness and trust in God, and you will find trials now, but the end of that choice is a glory not yet seen by men upon this earth.
Siing oh earth! And rejoice in the salvation of our Father who has seen our tears, and has been greatly moved by our imprisonment. Now He comes down, now he appears at the close of the age of knowledge, to upset the money-changers tables once again. The first time He turned them over in the temple of clay. Now beloved, he turns them over in the temple OF YOUR HEART! Prepare! Sing! Rejoice! For your maker does now guide you into weakness and mists, into tears and mercy, and apart from the tyranny of money and the logic lairs. Prepare your heart to be changed! Prepare to see the Salvation of your Father, who moves now creation unto his delight.
You must turn your hearts away from a reliance upon man’s ways to chart futures and fortunes. Turn away beloved from the din of your own mind wresting control away from the Lord. Embrace His tenderness and you shall be lifted up, your art shall be made glorious by our Father, and he will bless ALL the work of your hands beloved! For art and poetry and all of the teats that come from our hearts is given by Him, and He now expresses through each of us as His Spirit wills.
For He comes. He descends. He fills all things. This is the culmination of all hope and all prayers and all faith. This is the unveling of our Maker, He who has made us as we are now appears, now steps once again into his art, and his art is existence, and you are a most cherished part of that existence.
For He is the Great Maker of our souls, and makes stars to shine upon us that we might understand how we are all the same, and yet we are each an individual creation radiant, resplendant, ravishing. Celebrate that which you are, in Spirit and Truth. FOLLOW YOUR HEART, I cannot say that enough. Rest, recline within the mansion that He as prepared for you.
Be tenderhearted at all times and seek to find the positive and the suportive and the compassion in every situation. Always look for the best in one another, refrain from judgment on any scale. For the Father guides us all now perfectly.
The end will come, and it will not be painful. It will be the pleasure of love, for man and woman now come together to enter-twine into his love. This is the resurrection
THIS IS NEW EARTH.
“This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” - Psalm 132:14
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