Today has got off to a good start. Here’s my journal entry and picture for the morning. Started before breakfast, and finished after my morning walk and prayer time.
I shall stick the picture in my journal. It was one of the paintings I started before the challenge. I had added some yellow paint and th black lines to it yesterday. So when thinking about the verses from Proverbs I decide to write them on it.
Whilst walking I was again drawn to the tree growing through the wall and thought about how my picture’s wall has faded into the background. I did a tree in front of it. After all the work I did on the wall, you can hardly see it now. Oh well….. such is art!
We build walls to keep our fears at bay, to keep others from getting too near. Perhaps my walls have faded too? I no longer fear what others think of my work, although I do hope that people find the work helpful or inspiring etc. The tree in the photo below reminds me that my art will grow, not in spite of obstacles, but because of them.
The words from Dawana Markova that I copied into my journal were the meditation from Celtic Morning Prayer that I’d used, as was the verse from John 14. I noticed some cobwebs and was reminded of my mum. She did lacemaking and one of the ladies from her lacemaking group sent a card for her funeral commenting about the cobwebs being mum still at work. Or something like that. I am about the same age that mum was when she died. I want the rest of my life, however long or short it may be, to be in line with God’s purposes for me. I believe that art and creativity are part of that.
I decided that I wanted to an abstract stylised version of the tree growing through the wall. So that is what I started on whilst listening to the video for today. As I pondered what words to put on the upper part I wrote a poem. It’s a French Pantoum so comprises 6 phrases with each one repeated in a certain order.
THE TREE OF MY ART
I submit my art to Jesus
I trust Him with all my heart
I want my art to feel alive and joyful
Inspired by nature, fed by prayer
I trust Him with all my heart
Sacred and secular together
Inspired by nature, fed by prayer
It will grow slowly through obstacles
Sacred and secular together
I want my art to feel alive and joyful
It will grow slowly through obstacles
I submit my art to Jesus
I hope you find this poem helpful, especially if you, like me feel there are obstacles in the way of doing art. Here’s the picture for Day 5 with the 6 phrases plus the two bible verses. I could do more – but feel that I need to learn when to stop. I stuck on pieces from my preparation paintings and some shavings from the pencil sharpener.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 