Mississippi will miss you, Brad!

Looking so Hot yo! I think nyc will equally enjoy the new dreads...or lack of. I can't wait to visit! Here is the "free publicity" I promised you... Brad Belk, age 26 (soon), bff since jr hi when he moved in across the street from my parents house. Pursuing a career in "Being FAMOUS!" since, well, forever, but actively since making his first of many videos for the Real World casting call in 199(?). Talented (made it all the way to the finals in the casting call), Hot (see above), and about as 'cool as the other side of the pillow'. Oh! and THE best running buddy in the world...may your path be peaceful and your joy be in Zion. Love ya!

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y ! ! !

City Life.

Conversation Monday night:

setting: in a local pizza place, close to downtown in the early evening, around 5:30. The street in front is very busy with end of workday traffic.

GIRL AT CHECKOUT: "OmyGosh! Y'all look! A wheelchair! In the street!"

BOY AT COUNTER: "Woah, that's crazy!"

[I look up quickly from staring at the newspaper. And, see a dark skinned elderly woman rolling in her chair down the busiest street in the city]

[dial tone. beep, beep, beep. beeeep. Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring. Click.

dial tone agian. beep, beep, beep. beeeep. Ring, ring, ring, ring]

MAN: "Yes, uh, there is a lady rolling down State street. Could y'all please send someone out to check on it? [pause], Yes, and, yes, there's a retirement home real close by"

[pause]

MAN: "Uh, Operator, uh, Ma'am, there is an ELDERLY Woman ROLLING down STATE STREET in TRAFFIC. She could easily be hit by a car. YES, YES Ma'am, I would most definitely consider this an urgent emergency."

[girl and boy still standing at the counter frozen in an elongated stance, gazing out the front window. I walk to the glass door, and step outside]

No Boxes! Mom's 60th was last week and I wanted to give her a painting. Finally a finished painting for her.
* H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y ! *

Dad was moving a birdhouse that he made and put out in the yard about 10 years ago. It had become old, so he decided to take it down. And, when he pulled the post up out of the ground, the bottom, which was solid wood when first planted, had rotted away into the image of a face. Mom hung it on the fence making it a permanent part of the "sculpture garden". The photo here is kind of blurry, but you can still make out the face. C U H - R A Y - Z A Y !

You Can Help.

www.helptay.com

A friend was recently diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma - a rare bone cancer. The cancer is in Stage 4 and has already spread to her lungs and spinal canal, and paralysis has set in. Please take a moment to pray for her as she endures this battle against cancer. And, if you can, make a donation at the above link.

Home.

3 Baby Blues!

d4()D6oD30O–––D80

"I'm looking into buying a camera" seems like a promise I've had for a couple of years now, yet keep rationalizing that I don't really need one, and romanticizing that I'm being like the musician Sufjan Stevens. Who once said in an interview, as he talks about not owning any instruments: "I don't really record in a studio. I record where musicians and instruments are available, because I don't have a lot of my own. I don't even own a guitar or a banjo. I just take my portable recording device wherever instruments are, so I don't get stuck with a static tonality for every track I put down."
But, if I did purchase a camera (besides the disposable that's made it almost 2 years without being taken to the store and developed, at this point, it's pretty much ransom, like "ok, step away or I'll take your picture!), the one that I'd get is the Nikon, D80. So, I'm still thinking about it. Until then, I dug up these funny old photos:

on the boat with the fish eye lens

Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.

"Then I saw in my dream that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and led him into a place where was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it always casting much water upon it to quench it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter."
Interpreter: "This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it to extinguish and put it out, is the devil: but in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that. So he had him about to the backside of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast, but secretly, into the fire." "This is Christ, who continually with the oil of His grace maintains the work already begun in the heart: by the means of which, notwithstanding what the devil can do, the souls of His people prove gracious still."
- John Bunyan, The Pilgram's Progress

Summer Re-Reads.

John Bunyan
The Pilgram's Progress. It had a huge impact on me when I first read it in 4th grade (condensed version). I can't wait to read it again-unabridged.

Tennessee Williams
I haven't decided, but I may read "Period of Adjustment", or "Orpheus Descending".

Pat Conroy
"My Losing Season" was great, and "Beach Music" is suppose to be even better.

Il pleut de petits chats noirs.

I'm teaching Buddy, French.
This is the first lesson. Yesterday morning she wanted to go out and play. It was 3 am, and raining so hard.

Next lesson:
Ne prenez pas les oiseaux dans la maison!

Painting Revisited

http://thehauptgallery.com/

To begin to see myself in these paintings, is THE beginning. And, a sincere reminder of our sin and the full freedom we'll have when pride slips away and we can stand really humbled before God. I don't think, in our current form, we can really know just how much sin has affected us, or just how much Jesus means to us. We can act in a way that is a version of humble, but until we are made pure, we have no idea what humble fully means.
R. C. Sproul writes:
When Luther was asked the question, "Do you love God?" he replied, "Love God? Sometimes I hate him!" Sproul goes on to say, "Had he [Luther] spoken the full truth, he would have said that he hated God all the time."
What truth. My sister told me a funny story yesterday from the weekend spent with her friend whos son had ignored his mother's request to come inside from playing, and put his clothes back on, (funny too, he was completely naked, and had shed his play clothes while running and playing outside-some things don't change even from the Garden!) He had decided to "hide" from her by putting his face down into the back of a toy dump truck. All the while, his mother, stood amused and trying not to laugh, that her son actually thought that just because he couldn't see mom, that she couldn't see him either. We hide our faces from our sin, even as God has written his truth on our very soul, but it is in our shame and in this response of covering our eyes, that we can contrast the depth and power of God's truth and love. I think Scott Peck said that evil is the soul hiding from itself. Why else would "we" have had to beat Christ if we didn't hate truth, and hate the truth about ourselves? Thinking we would try and kill Christ, we were really trying to kill the evil we saw in ourselves when in his holy presence. Other wise we could have just ignored him. But his love is greater. As humans, we come into this world with our hands almost glued in front of our eyes, covering our vision. And Christ uncovers it, and helps us loose the pride, and bring our hands down towards the earth. I felt a flinch when I first saw these paintings, a desire to close my eyes because what I saw was true, but then the huge relief from seeing the truth comes in our freedom in Christ, when we open our eyes and hearts to it!
"Lord I believe; Help my unbelief!"-Mark 9:24

I straight up caught him, the "potter", drinking out of...(gasp) STYROFOAM!

Augh!!!!!!!

Freedom to Restore

"There is a proverb, 'As you have made your bed, so you must lie on it,' which is a lie. If I have made my bed uncomfortable, please God I will make it again."
~G.K. Chesterton "What's Wrong with the World"


What an awesome quote. Posted on Andrea's blog at flourishingmother. By God's grace, we are able to repent and learn and try again, with His guidance and wisdom, and despite our own falling short.

I went out to Dad's workshop - I'd heard great things about his diligent work there. He pointed me towards a beautiful white piece with stained glass windows and began to tell me of his particular concern. And, in efforts to spread the good Word to the community of local birds, this, his first church plant, is almost ready... he's finishing the steeple now.

Family Play

Sometimes when I go home, I feel like I'm watching a play. Everything is so exciting and dramatic. I love to hear all of the stories and see mom tell them in such an animated and funny way. And the way dad rolls in with his cowboy hat and boot with his pant leg tucked in it. Court, and her latest prank on me. These photos are so that.

Yaaaah summer!!

Dad came home Friday night with a new boat. I can't wait until summer. Bring on the sunshine and the ski-bob!!

Message From a Neighbor.

I have a friendly neighbor that lives next door, and yesterday when I went over to pay her son for keeping my yard, she told me that in Sunday school she was studying about sinners and Jesus Christ. And, how sinners loved Jesus and He loves them too. I proceeded to self-examine. And, this poem comes to mind now. The last four lines are an awesome mantra.

"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"
- Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Past Time for an Elyza pic!!

April Fools 2008

This year was definitely awesome. More pics to come...

Smart People Have Messy Desks.

I was just digging through the piles at work, and realized how messy my desk is. It's a good thing! Because, turns out, creative people have messy desks, it reflects their mind. As, thoughts are not so organized.

Wordless Wednesday

Horton Hears A Who

I was just speaking recently with someone about the simplicity of messages found in children's books. And, this film based on Dr. Seuss' simple yet profound book, is by far the best I've seen this year. It is full of great things to ponder, as well as some Christian principles like faith, sacredness, persistence in doing what's right. It's a great movie. So, even if you don't have kids to take to it, it's a good one to take yourself.

Check here for more awesomeness:

samclarkstudio.blogspot.com

Faces In Places.

Check this awesome site:


http://facesinplaces.blogspot.com/

Today, A Very Curious Box With My Name On It.

It Was A Cat Brain Scan Hat.

Now I Can Talk To Buddy!

Sweet! The Instructions.

I finally meet Elyza!

Ever feel like this?

This is a painting from my college professor over at thehauptgallery.com.
He is just as amazing at teaching as painting. He taught me the art of 30 minute sessions. Paint (or whatever your doing) for 30 minutes at a time. Then walk away and leave the room. Come back and paint for 30 more, continue to work in this way. I use the rule of 30 minutes in a lot of what I do and have found that when I am deep into a project for a long time without the break, most of what I've done becomes over-thought, over-worked, and usually wasted time.

Elyza's Funny

Bucket List.

My friend Andrea over at flourishingmother.com inspired me start a bucket list. Some items have been floating around in there for a while, and I actually accomplished them already. So here goes the beginings:

1) Meet Mose Alison (accomplished)
2) Illustrate a meaningful children's book
3) Play in a band
4) Give away a possession that I think I can't live without
5) Stay in a cabin in the Alps for 3 days with my family
6) Learn how and write a short story (s)
7) Meet a guy I like at least half as much as my dad
8) Adopt a dog
9) Be most successful at loving others
10) Become an expert listener
11) Shave my head
12) Get a masters degree in theology/counseling
13) Have many more creative/intellectual moments with my mother, a very very creative/intuitive person
14) Open a jazz/coffee bar like the Baked Potato in California and live upstairs from it like my friend Ezra's place (http://www.myspace.com/sevenstudioz) and it be an open venue for things like Bible study, philosophical discussions, educational political talks, book readings etc.
15)

sweet angel eyes©

sketch for Elyza.

How about the cutest baby you've ever seen!