Pleasing God

"His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor is his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him (reverence, awe), in those who hope in his steadfast love." ~Psalm 147:10-11

So, I don't need to be this...

or this...

 

 

for God to be this...

 

 

I just need a little bit of this...

 





 

 And this...

 

Trusting God

 

"Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord." ~Jeremiah 9:24

 

Room with a View

It starts with a photograph...

 

The objective: create a room with a view with abstracted levels of space and contrasting colors.

 

 

Streaky window to abstract one view of the outside. Impressionistic strokes out second window.

 

 

Realistically painted objects on the table to contrast the inside and outside.

 

 

As a final touch, stars are added to the inside walls. Stars added by flicking a brush with white paint on the canvas. Gets a nice effect of clustered stars.



 

 

The Sparrow's Providence

I have recently noticed the adorableness of sparrows. While visiting my hometown, I sat on the porch one morning when the fattest little sparrow perched himself on a clothesline post. As he sat there chirping, his little feathers ruffled up and down his body. He was so serious in his delivery of the twittering song.

 

 

It was too cute to behold. I wanted to peel out with laughter at how precious that little bird was.

The verses in Matthew 10:29-31 and Luke 12:6-7 both describe God's tender watch over sparrows, and the song "His Eye is on the Sparrow" also describes a creature that is preciously watched over.

The reference is to God's tender watch over his children, as well as the sparrow. However, I have recently found out an interesting fact about sparrows that deepened the narrative to me.

More than any other bird, sparrows prefer to live near human dwellings. They're drawn to the availability of food from bird feeders and gardens, as well as the warmth provided from streetlamps during the winter. They are drawn towards human providence.

Isn't that a beautiful picture? I see the sparrows each morning outside of my apartment, happily plopping along the balcony stairs. They start out each morning in search of the day's nourishment. It brings me so much joy to see them draw near to my own establishment in search of food and shelter.

How much more God must feel when we draw near to him to provide for us and shelter us. It just reminds me how much God has to offer, that we would be drawn to him again and again, discovering each time how rich His heart is.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are more valuable than many sparrows."  ~Matthew 10:29-31

 

Sculpture Self-Portrait Part 3

Orual's Struggle

 Orual, the elder sister of the beloved Psyche. The following is a description of the encounter she faced on her way to discover what has become of her Psyche, who was sacrificed to the god of the mountains. She expects to find and bury her sister's bones.

And my struggle was this. You may well believe that I had set out sad enough; I came on a sad errand. Now, flung at me like frolic or insolence, there came as if it were a voice – no words – but if you made it into words it would be, “Why should your heart not dance?” It’s the measure of my folly that my heart almost answered, “Why not?” I had to tell myself over like a lesson the infinite reasons it had not to dance. My heart to dance? Mine whose love was taken from me, I, the ugly princess who must never look for other love, the drudge of the King, the jailer of hateful Redival, perhaps to be murdered or turned out as a beggar when my father died – for who knew what Glome would do then? And yet, it was a lesson I could hardly keep in my mind. The sight of the huge world put mad ideas into me, as if I could wander away, wander forever, see strange and beautiful things, one after the other to the world’s end. The freshness and wetness all about me made me feel that I had misjudged the world; it seemed kind, and laughing, as if its heart also danced. Even my ugliness I could not quite believe in. Who can feel ugly when the heart meets delight?

 Amazingly, once Orual arrives at the place where Psyche was chained to a tree and left to the god, there are no remains to be found. She and her traveling companion look over the hills to the god's country, where no man dares to enter. But enter she must to find out what has become of her dear Psyche.

They enter into a luscious valley between the mountains. As Orual stoops to the river to take a drink, who does she see but her own dear Psyche! Alive and well, only... clothed in rags... but otherwise radiant.

The two embrace and rejoice, crying how they had hoped to meet again someday. Orual cuts Psyche off short and demands they must leave at once, before the god can stop them. Psyche, however, replies, "Dear Maia (good mother, nurse), I am a wife now. It's no longer you that I must obey."

Things turn bitter between the two as Psyche tries again and again to tell Orual about her love for the god of the mountains. Orual, however, cannot accept it. She is embittered by the fact that, although she herself has been wasting away, mourning the loss of her dear sister, Psyche apparently has not experienced this same centration. In fact, Psyche has been filled to the brim with an adoration and love for her dear husband, although she is not allowed to look on his face.

This story appears to me tragic and heart wrenching, that these two sisters are unable to enter into the same kind of joy. The one embraces her new found love; the other holds grudgingly onto what she thinks she should possess, leaving no room for joy.

It is a heart wrenching story, beautifully told. I've never felt so much hope for a character as I have felt for Orual. The following song by the Oh Hellos captures the feeling of Orual's Struggle...

 

Sculpture Self-Portrait Part 2

The Mold



So, after the clay model was finished, it was covered in silicon. The silicon came out as a gel onto the statue, and I had to put soap and water on my hands to smooth it against the statue without sticking to my fingers. If it sticks to your fingers, it lifts off the statue and creates air bubbles in the mold, which will mess up the statue. The idea is to clear out the clay from beneath the mold and then pour wax or plaster into the mold. Needless to say, although I was super careful, my mold still came out funky... this will be revealed later on in this post...

After the silicon mold had dried, it was time to make the mother mold, which would support the silicon mold once a substance was added in. This mother mold would be made out of plaster. Plaster is an interesting substance... You mix it together with a ratio of one part plaster to one part water. It's very runny at first as you mix it together, but then it sets up suddenly after you feel it start to thicken. So, we had to build clay walls around our sculpture to support the setting plaster.

 

 





After the 3 walls of plaster were built... it resembled an egg.

Shhh... she's sleeping ;)

Pouring

I decided to pour wax into the mold first. The flower that represented the heart, was painted with melted red wax. I layered wax inside the flower with a spoon, and the wax dried fairly quickly. After the flower had set up, I poured in melted cream-colored wax, which took a while to melt down. I melted regular candles in a crock-pot, having removed the wicks before melting.

I let her set up over the weekend... then on Monday morning it was time for the unveiling :)



The silicon mold was cut down the center to remove the wax bust.

I had hoped for a nice, smooth, wax statue, but instead...

 

Not what I had expected. But I couldn't bring myself to remove all the bizarre, porous blemishes...

 

She reminded me of a character from Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis. The narrator, Orual, is described as being very ugly, but the only description of her was given through dialogue and what the character thinks of herself. I wondered what could possibly make this girl so "hideous" and wondered what she could possibly look like. She is called "curd face," so I wondered if she had some kind of skin blemish. Therefore, when my sculpture came out like this, I thought, "It's Orual!!"

 

The story behind Till We Have Faces is based off the myth of Psyche and Cupid. Psyche is Orual's younger stepsister, and becomes the only thing in life that Orual lives for. Although Orual is mistreated her whole life due to her appearance, she finds joy in nothing other than Psyche herself. Therefore, when Psyche is sent off as a sacrifice to the mysterious god of the mountains, Orual is devastated. Some say the god is a hideous monster that devours the men and women who are sent as sacrifice. Others say the god falls in love with the human sacrifice. Either way, Orual is horrified at the prospect of her sister being taken away by the god. Oddly enough, Psyche is not worried or covered in dread. Ever since she was a child, she looked over those grey mountains and dreamt of marrying the great king who lived there.

 

These two sisters interest me because they both react to the same god in different ways. To keep this post from getting any longer than it already is, I'll write more about the effects these two statues made in the next post and some of the reactions my classmates had to them.

Sculpture Self-Portrait Part 1

Time to start including artwork in this blog!

I like to explain about the ideas behind each piece, what went into the inspiration, what problems I encountered and why certain things change through the process. That's what's exciting about being an artist :)

But it does get wordy, so feel free to flip through the images and explanations.
Right now I'm working on a self-portrait in my Sculpture class. It will first be sculpted out of clay, and then we will make a silicon mold around our clay model. We'll make two sculptures from this mold, one out of plaster and then one out of a material of our choice.

We begin with the concept idea.



 

"If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." ~John 14:23.

 

I wanted to create an open cavity in the chest to represent the sense of Home I find with God. I haven't settled on what I will use to symbolize this, but I may end up going with a flower that is tightly in a bud. It would be based off of the following poem by Tagore:

 

No, it is not yours to open buds into blossoms.

Shake the bud, strike it; it is beyond your power to make it blossom.

Your touch soils it, you tear its petals to pieces and strew them in the dust.

But no colours appear, and no perfume.

Ah! It is not for you to open the bud into blossom.

He who can open the bud does it so simply.
He gives it a glance, and the life-sap stirs through its veins.
At his breath the flower spreads its wings and flutters in the wind.
Colours flush out like heart-longings, the perfume betrays a sweet secret.
He who can open the bud does it so simply.

You may have noticed the funny, little quark of a smile depicted in the concept drawing. I wanted to get across this sense of restrained joy that is bursting through, like a bud that is slowly opening.

The second part of our assignment was to use historic influences in our sculptures. I chose the Egyptian and the Hellenistic styles, which contrast each other

The Egyptians were known for their solid statues made out of stone- expressionless and enduring forever. The Hellenistic style, however, is much more humanistic. The Hellenists valued truth in their sculptures, catching every wrinkle and sign of old age.

Hellenistic

Egyptian

Here is a progression of the process.


Step 1. The Base

 

We started by adding wire around the base of the sculpture like a skeleton, securing the neck and then wrapping newspaper around the wire. This gives us a solid but pliable base. A traditional bust usually ends at the beginning of the shoulders, but mine will be a bit taller since I want to include the chest cavity.

 

Step 2. Basic Clay Structure

 



 

Now we just add clay to the newspaper base. We will not be firing this clay, so we used a recycled clay that was not very high quality. It still gets the job done though! We let the clay set up and harden for a few days so that it would be sturdy.

 

Step 3. Rough Facial Features

 

 

I'm prone to get attached to details too quickly, so it's important to remember that clay dries quickly. It's best to get the basic forms down first and then go into detail as the clay enters its "plastic" state. That is after the clay has set up a bit, but is still pliable. Never let it get bone dry! *Also, do not become discouraged if your sculpture begins to take on very creepy expressions. She'll mellow out after a while...

 

Step 4. Details!!!

 

Yes, details... this is my favorite part :) Once the basic forms are down and in the correct place, you can begin adding the... details :) Such as hair, ears, and refining the nose, eyes and cheek bones. *Hair does a lot to de-creepify a statue.

 

 

My sculpture was getting dry, so I had to score the scalp with a sharp tool and spray water to remoisten the clay. I used fairly moist, new clay for the hair, and wet my fingers down and ran them along the individual clumps of hair as I attached them to get the look of waves.

 

Final Steps.

 

 

Here she is, mostly finished. I have recently added a flower bud to the chest cavity and refined the neck and shoulder area. The finished clay sculpture will be included in the next post about making a mold.

 



The Rainmaker

Matt Damon plays young lawyer, Rudy Baylor, who is interested in the law for the sake of civil justice. He is a lawyer who gets to experience the good only the good know.

Fresh out of law school, he goes to work at a shark-tank law firm, where the boss is involved with shady business, but promises to take care of him.

He goes to work for the boss chasing ambulances and studying for the bar exam in his spare time at the hospital. Rudy Baylor battles his first case as a not-so-official lawyer against a big insurance company. Inexperienced and unlicensed, he and his partner (who has failed the bar exam six times) represent a poor family whose son is dying from leukemia. Their insurance company, whom they have been paying good money to, "it wasn't big money, but good money," informs them multiple times that they will not cover him. Their final letter went something like this:

"Dear Mrs. Black, on seven prior occasions the company has denied your claim in writing. We now deny it for the eighth and final time. You must be stupid, stupid, stupid."

Not surprisingly, she decides to hire a lawyer.

On the day of their first case in court, Rudy's boss bails on him, leaving him and his partner alone and unlicensed, to defend the case. Stepping into the courtroom for the first time he says, "I've memorized the black files cold, I've read all the books on jurisprudence, the Rules of Evidence and Discovery. But I take one look around the courtroom and I realize, I haven't even been born yet."

The old judge nearly throws him out of the courtroom, demanding he get a license before he shows his face again. However, one of the elderly opposing lawyers turns smoothly in his chair, rises and says, "May it please the court... For the record, my name is Leo F. Drummond of Tinley-Brit, Counsel for Great Benefit." He approaches Rudy and pats him tenderly on the shoulder, as one who is indulging a small child; "And I say, if this young man has passed the bar exam, Your Honor, let him argue the case." He smiles and says, "We welcome him to... Big-Time Litigation."

With that, Rudy Baylor is sworn in on the spot.



Sworn in by a fool and vouched for by a scoundrel. I'm a lawyer at last.

The judge sits down with the two lawyers for a meeting in chambers and begins to mumble on about "frivolous" lawsuits and how tired he is of these types of lawsuits. Rudy quickly finds out the two intend to tag team him out of the case, as they convince him it would be better to settle the case for $75,000.

As Rudy confers with his clients, they ask him whether he thinks they should settle. He pauses for a moment before a look of determination crosses his face. "No way." he says, "I want to expose these people."

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ~Eph. 5:11.

And so the battle begins.

Fortunately, a new judge is appointed to the case (think, Angels in the Outfield), who is hard on insurance companies and pro-civil rights. He quickly evens the playing field, but there's only so much he can do. Before Rudy leaves his office, the judge asks him, "You in over your head, son?" Rudy stands and replies, "Absolutely."

Soon after, Rudy calls for a deposition, or out-of-court oral presentation of the witnesses, and finds that he is still coming up against impossible odds. Rudy begins calling for witnesses from within the company that have, oddly enough, "resigned" or have been "downsized." The opposing side uses underhanded techniques and schemes to cover their tracks, making them seem impossible to take down. But there is one truth that stands up to it.

"Everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible." ~ Eph. 5:13-14.

This next scene showed me just how important it is to know the truth. The opposition begins by trying to hijack Rudy's deposition. They slyly insinuate his inferiority and lack of experience while welcoming the "Young Rudy Baylor" and telling him not to be intimidated by their number and experience.

Fortunately, Rudy knows very well that it is his deposition, and he is the one who is going to be calling them into account. Rudy could have easily fallen prey to their tactics. Instead, he knew the truth of his position, and what sort of authority he was given. He had the right to expose darkness for what it was.

"Everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible."

This movie was satisfying and intriguing to watch. It showed that, while others may do their best to hide and distort the truth with lies and "half truths," darkness truly crumbles once the light exposes it.