Believe Painting - CRI Fundraiser

I am kicking myself. I didn't get a better picture of my recent painting that was auctioned off for a fundraising event for a pre and post-release program for inmates serving in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. AKA California Reentry Institute (CRI) This amazing program works with men to make their transition from incarceration a successful entry back into society. "Believe" 14" wide x 22" tallAcrylic, Charcoal on stretched artist canvas 14" wide x 22" tallAcrylic, Charcoal on stretched artist canvas Inspiration:

This original painting came from what becomes of a seedling as it grows.  When a plant finally sprouts through the surface, there are things that have already taken place before what occurs above ground.  

The sprout keeps moving and growing regardless of what is happening around it.  

Our life spiritually is the same way.  God calls us to move in His sunlight and HE provides living water.  The light of his only son, Jesus Christ and the living water by His Holy Spirit within us as his children.  We must believe that through Christ we can do anything God calls us to.  

That is especially true for those going through transition after prison.  Seeking God's strength and admitting that one cannot do it on one's own efforts is key to allowing God to provide his power within the individual.  

The three circles in the painting represent God, our Heavenly Father; Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Holiness.   

The painting has many layers of paint just as our lives have many layers.  

Materials:  

Charcoal
Liquitex Phalo Blue
Americana Marigold
Polycrylic clear-gloss protective finish which provides UV protection as well has protection from water and common household cleaners.  This sealer provides protection from damage from abrasion or chipping.

A New Beginning

We have books all over our house, we love books.  Especially now that the kids are reading they're in every room of the house...kids books, Bibles, coloring books, paperback, hardback, some with words i have no idea what they mean....and I'm okay with that because they're my husband's books...but this morning I found a treasure!

In the book The Only Nessary Thing - Living a Prayerful Life,  Henri Nouwen (a Dutch priest and author) saw himself as "vulnerable but beloved child of God, who in communion with the Beloved, knew transformation and salvation."  I want to share with you what I read (pages 85-86).  This seriously, was like, better than my mug of Peets Espresso Forte!

I think this is especially appropriate as we've just gone through the 2012 Elections. I don't know about you, but I found myself anxious and biting my nails.  Why?! That doesn't help anyone (except maybe my kids - they get scratched by my nails when they're longer. I remember one time I was helping my oldest get her pjs on when she was about two years old and I poked her in the eye, I felt so bad!)

I'm excited to see what God does with this new term for our President and while we all have different political views - I hope we can all agree that we serve a bigger God - One that calls us to Him and calls us to pray for our leaders.

Listen.

We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new.  Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life.  imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises.  imagine that we could walk through the new year always, listening to a voice saying to us:  

"I have a gift for you and cant wait for you to see it!"

Imagine.

Is it possible that our imagination can lead us to the truth of our lives?  Yes, it can!  The problem is that we allow our past, which becomes longer and longer each year to say to us:  "you know all; you have seen it all, be realistic; the future will just another repeat of the past.  try to survive it as best you can."  there are many cunning foxes jumping on our shoulders and whispering in our ears the great lie:  "There is nothing new under the sun...don't let yourself be fooled..."

So what are we to do?  First, we must send the foxes back to where they belong:  in their foxholes.  And then we must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resound through the valleys and hills of our life saying:  "let me show you where I live among my people.  My name is 'God-with-you.'  I will wipe away all the tears form you eyes: there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness.  the world of the past has gone" (see Revelation 21:2-5)

We must choose to listen to that voice, and every choice will open us a little more to discover the new life hidden in the moment, waiting eagerly to be born.  

-Here and Now

Henri Nouwen

it's not about the destination...

I am still moving down this new road.

There are times when I'm not sure that this is what God has for me. 

Like I have been driving down a beautiful scenic highway, and then I realize I haven't seen a road sign since ...I can't remember when.

But I am still moving.  I know that.

And every now and then, when my faith is just beginning to feel weak, or I just when I start needing a new burst of encouragement, a miracle like the one I am about to describe is choreographed by Grand Designer Himself.

Or at least it revealed to me so I can see it with my human eyes.  

Because the reality is there are always miracles being choreographed.  He is always designing.  Always working.  Always creating.  Always redeeming.

And I wonder why I ever doubted.

I wonder how I could even forget all that He has already done.

I guess what it comes down to is this: I begin to doubt because I didn't see it the day before.

But who's problem is that?

Not His.

The problem is that I forget to open my eyes.

Or I forgot to pray for a heart that seeks the Designer... 

...instead of always seeking to understand the design.



And so I paint.

Sometimes I paint things I don't understand.

Other times I paint things I wish I could understand better.

But ultimately I paint because I wish to be closer to my Father Painter.  I want to participate in Creation, and long to relate to HIM more.  And in doing so be closer to Him.

What takes place here is very real and something I believe God does all the time.

We just need to have the eyes with which to see.  Eyes like His.

So it came about that I was reading through James...

In his great mercy  he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power  until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Then, FIRE came to me as I listened to a speaker at our church, Donna, speak on "Living life with a heart BLAZING with love for God."  

I want to be on fire like this!

Moreover, I want to blaze!

Layers of charcoal and acrylic paint

I want the desire within me to be unquenchable.

"A fire shall always burn no the altar; it shall never go out" -Leviticus 6:13

I want to let go of sin, malice, deceit, envy, slander, hypocrisy, anything that smothers my longing for God's word.  

I've been offered a trade in the Cross.  So I accept.  

All my "junk" in exchange for LOVING DEEPLY, being filled with HOPE, and completely TRUSTING in God. 

The fuel source to my fire, is Jesus, the living "cornerstone". 

So I got out my canvas, and went out in the backyard - so I could get messy! I used warm colors and the word - BLAZE - as my foundation.  

After the paint dried I applied a charcoal sketch of a silhouette praying, soon it became a woman.

Now, I should explain once again here that every time I am commissioned with a painting, with every brushstroke, with every drying layer of paint, and every brand new wet one, I am soaking the canvas in God's Holy Word, and praying His Will over the recipient - as I have learned long before not to pray my own thoughts and mere wishes.  So everyone who gets a painting from me receives not just a painting, or a portrait but an "altar" of sorts that prayerfully reveals another part of who God is.

It is so amazing the way God places someone on my heart.  In this particular time, I wasn't working on a painting that someone asked for - unless you count it from God Himself.  But my point is that no human asked this of me.  And this where the miracle begins to take shape.

The woman became someone I know.

As I began sealing the charcoal into the canvas so I could apply another layer of paint, I began praying for her.  As the painting started coming together, I thought more and more about her sweet family.  I prayed for them; specifically, my friend, the woman in my church and her Holy calling as their mother.  I prayed for her two beautiful daughters and their hearts.  The Holy Spirit brought this woman to my heart and throughout the whole process of the painting I prayed for her.

As the colors begin to mingle, I put in light blue, yellow which turned to green for growth and continued with the warm tones.  I painted circles around the silhouette that resembled the Holy Spirit that is around and in us as believers in Christ.  

A cross emerged.

This is amazing....I posted the unfinished painting pics on my facebook page, I wanted to share it through the process.  Immediately, I received a message from the woman I had been praying for!!  

I etched into the paint cross hatches that resembled scars.

She shared that she was reminded of God's love for her and that we are as close as a prayer and that it really touched her.  

Now,  I don't need to explain the Holy Spirit and how God speaks to us to tell you this was ALL His work!  God's holiness and power is way beyond my comprehension...all I know is that God is amazing and works in each of our lives when we surrender to His calling.

I had several offers for the painting but I already knew that she was the one God was calling me to sell it to.  

"Blaze" 30 'x  40"  Acrylic on canvas