Behold the River

Every time I watch any sort of video/movie I dissect it. I can't help it, it's just what I do as a result of my schooling. On the rare occasion that some especially inspired piece crosses my path, especially simplicity done well, I want to create something of equal beauty. These two pieces have particularly inspired me with their perfection in simple camera movement combined with a good shot, all in an effort to support a good core idea.


Fifty People, One Question: Brooklyn from Crush + Lovely on Vimeo.

A Heart Has Asked for the Pleasure

Usually when I go to the WAG I'm impressed by one exhibit or a few pieces only. This week I was privy to visual inspiration of a magnitude I have never experienced before. The Impressionist prints, Albrecht Durer, the photos of Arno Rafael Minkkinen. It was my most enjoyable visit to date. Below is only a taste of what crossed my palette.


Count LePic by Marcellin-Gilbert Desboutin


The Knight, Death, and the Devil by Albrecht Durer


Self-portrait, Fosters Pond, 1989 by Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Christmas 2.0

The Christmas tree is still up and twinkling while the piano is still decorated with garland and glass angels. Being late January this would speak of pathological Christmas cleanup procrastination if it wasn't for the smell of turkey and stuffing filling the air. With Jon and Danelle visiting it is time to have the Christmas we would have had if they had been here on December 25th.

Visitor

We have a small hirsute guest at our home right now. He's only a few weeks old, but is already adept at stealing hearts. Meet Baron, or Bear for short.

Open box policy

The theme of God outside the box (outside the temple, church, service, etc) has risen its provocative head many times during the heated and engaging discussions of my biweekly bible study. We all concur and deliberate over the events of Gods movement in the bible outside of the containment of the temple. "But of course," we all pompously think and speak aloud, "how absurd the priests were to think that God could be controlled and contained by the temple." Our own boxes invisible to our searching as we have grown so familiar with them, so comfortable and worn. Then God takes you by the hand, if he is in a gentle mood as sometimes he kicks you in the butt, and leads you over to the spot where you have kept the box. He picks it up, blows the dust from its top and places it in your hands. "Sorry," he says, "it's a very nice box I'm sure, but I just don't fit in it."

I’m honestly afraid of anything in the category of “signs and wonders.” I’m very suspicious of any and all personal religious experience of this sort. I’m a skeptic when I hear most testimonies of miracles or signs. I tend to think that it isn’t true, is exaggerated or won’t last [...] I believe that religion, as a human phenomenon and by its very nature, creates a world where people believe that things happen that haven’t happened. The line between fact and reality goes very thin and takes a good bit of the week off [...] Am I frightened by the unordered, uncontrollable aspect of God the Holy Spirit? Have I fled to the security of God working through chapter and verse so that I can understand him? Does my skepticism give me the illusions and delusions about God that keep my feeling safe and in control?
read the full article here

These words might as well be mine. So often we get used to experiencing God "there," that we don't see when God is "here."As well, there has been so much misleading in the church using flash and flare that as a protection I feel my cynicism has often categorized babies under "bathwater".

I hope I can have a more open heart and a stronger belief in God beyond the page.

The thin lead line

I started sketching again as of two or three month ago. I think its stuck this time. There is a discipline to actually getting myself to draw with so many other distractions in life looking to take my hours. Over the past seven years I start sketching for a week or two and then end up forgetting to for large stretches of time. I love the time spent putting pencil to paper, so it's so strange that it takes conscious dedication to do it. If I was to be self analyzing about it (and I guess this is) I think it's that I'm not happy with my ability as it is. Then the discouragement from within defeats the motivation from the knowledge that drawing more is what will make me better. So right now my little moleskin is the focus of equal parts pride of accomplishment and frustration at standards unmet. Here's to shaping this frustration into the fuel of the machine of motivation.

Orange

Go waste some time with some beautiful design.

antennas to heaven

There is this particular feeling. I only get it every once in a while, and only when when experiencing a particularly good piece of art. I'm detached from my body as I feel I am beyond it, like my very soul is what is being engaged. I'm wrapped in a warmth that oozes joy, excitement and inspiration, invigorating my very being. My emotional boilers are to bursting. I want to at the same time hold this thing so close, treasuring it for my very own, and share it with all the world so that they can feel this to. The feeling becomes a milestone as you feel somehow changed as a result of this encounter. This is the feeling of reading The Prowler. This is the feeling of listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This is the feeling of looking at the work of Alphonse Mucha. This is the feeling of reading GK Chesterton's Manalive. And this, was the feeling I experienced again as I read Craig Thompson's Blankets for the second time. A story of love, and belonging, loneliness and loss. If anyone questions the merit of the graphic novel, I present you this.





These are the chinese covers. I like the art work they chose.