A Life of Mystery and Hope

adult learning, arkansas, art, brain plasticity, Creativity, Faith, hope, Icons, Israel, mystery, Painting, Spirituality, suffering, vision

Our weather is changeable. Last week I had the heat turned on, but this weekend I have gone back to ceiling fans and my air conditioner. I was so ready for cooler temperatures, but I am not in charge of the thermostat outside, only the one inside. Of course, while the calendar may say it is autumn and the northern states may get their first snows, we southern folks should know better than to put away all our lightweight clothing just because we have had a first frost. That first frost freeze is just a tease, since an eighty-degree day or two will soon follow.

I talk about the mysteries of our weather because when we try a new art medium for the first time, we sometimes think, “Oh, this has some similarities to a prior experience.” Then we get into it and come to the “unknown land”—the place where we realize we are lost and have no idea which way to turn. We cannot go back, we do not know how to go forward, and we think if we stay in this place, we might starve to death.

We are like Abraham, who heard God’s call to “go to a land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1), but we have no idea how long that journey will take or where we will end up. We go from our safe place as an act of faith, travel in faith, and meet every obstacle and detour with the faith God will bring us through. Every artist is an Abraham in their heart, for they are always on a spiritual journey. Even when we reach the promised land, we always are moving spiritually “from Dan to Beersheba” as we hone our craft, just as Abraham and his family followed their flocks to the seasonal pastures. Like the ancient Jews, we too can confess:

“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor…” (Deuteronomy 26:5).

If we wander, we need a guide. Beginning artists have always sought more experienced artists as their guides and teachers. For the basics, we more experienced persons act as teachers by giving instruction and directions. Some teachers give their students works to copy so each person produces an approximation of the teacher’s image. Since this method does not encourage creativity or intense attention, I have always taught people to use their own eyes to see the image, rather than have me prescribe and define it for them. That would take the greater part of the “seeing and imagining” work away from the students. This would build my neurons but not do all that much for theirs. The more difficult task challenges us and keeps our brains from becoming numb from disuse. Art is one of the best exercises for stimulating the brain.

Marie Woods: Seeking Serendipity II, Mixed media on birch panel, 12″ x 12″, 13″ x 13″ overall, Framed in a tray frame

To start the class, I showed some multi-media art works using words and found objects. Because everyone has a different learning style, I find showing images for visual learners helps those who learn through sight, while talking about these examples helps those who are auditory or hearing learners. I sometimes need to take the tools in hand to show the haptic or hands on learners. No style is “better” or more “advanced” than another, but our unique style of learning has to do with the design of our brains. We can train our brains to work in a different fashion, but our preference will always be easier.

I had begun working on a piece the week before when Mike and Gail were in class. Mike had to go away to handle a work emergency and Gail wanted to finish a pumpkin painting. Since they had known what we would work on, and we had a week off, they were ready with a fleshed-out idea. These two also have experimented with other media in the past also. Gail’s granddaughter brought a variety of materials to work with and already had an idea. Marilyn had a promising idea, but needed technical help to bring it to life.

This is where we become those who say, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). We might look at our canvas, the paint we have put on it, the gauze we tied to it, and say to ourselves: “Well, this is a fine mess I’ve gotten myself into!” This is when a call for help, the lack of activity, or the smoking of a brain working overtime makes me look up from my own work and ask, “You need some help?”

I do not read minds, but my old schoolteacher skills never really die. If the room gets too quiet, someone is either in trouble or fixing to cause trouble. In our Friday art class, we do not have the latter. When I went to help Marilyn, she was at a decision point over what to do with her image without the netting. To begin with, she had tied it on tightly and did not have scissors on hand. In our class, we are willing to share, so no one has any need. As the writer of Hebrews 13:16 reminds us,

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

My scissors broke when one of our group tried to cut a cork, so I borrowed Gail’s X-acto knife. Plan A was not available so we moved to Plan B. First the blade fell out, but I put it back in. Marilyn may have been wondering if we ever were going to find a working tool to cut away her netting. She had tied it very securely on the canvas board. Once we got it off, we could look at the paint texture on her board. There was always plan C—arm wrestle the netting off the canvas by sheer force of will, but Plan D would have been better: use the shears in the kitchen. Nothing stops us when we are going to make art. We will find a way.

“Talk to me about your goals here,” I said.

“I was trying to get some green here, like a green ground.”

“You have plenty of green colors on your palette. Do you want solid greens or washes, like transparent greens?”

“More like transparent greens.”

“So, use your big brush and water.”

“I did not bring my big brushes. Just my small ones.”

“You can borrow mine.”

This is how the art studio life goes. We chat things out for a bit until we get over a hump, and then we let a person explore on their own some more. Some things they will discover for themselves. The more water you put into a color, the thinner it is on the canvas. The more paint put on your brush, the more opaque it is. If you want transparency, you thin your paint with a medium or water, but if you want to cover an area, you paint straight out of the tube. Keeping your brushes clean by changing the water often is also important. Otherwise, you are dragging colored water into your other colors. None of your other colors will be true colors, but will take on the color of your water.

Jimmie Durham: “Still Life with Spirit and Xitle”, car being crushed by a volcanic boulder with a comical smiley face painted on it.

When we journey, we sometimes need to take a detour along our well-planned route because a boulder has rolled down into the middle of the road or a recent flood has washed out the bridge. My map reading skills before GPS were so suspect, my daughter was frightened whenever I announced, “I’ve found a shortcut to save us some time.”

“Oh, no! Not the long cut!” She would wail. Unfortunately, she was usually correct. The shortcut might have been true, but my map reading skills always turned these short trips into long journeys. I do get to see the “unknown lands” off the beaten path of the scenic tours of whatever place I visit. “Oh, the places I have been!”

Learning how to paint, create art, make pottery, play a musical instrument, or any other creative activity does require attention, practice, critiquing, and patience. We must be pilgrims on a journey, knowing the long walk is part of the spiritual process of becoming the person we want to be. Our works will reflect our inner journey as we get closer to our destination. An artist never quits learning, so the artist’s journey never ends until they can no longer create physical works here on earth. As Anselm Kiefer, a modern German multimedia artist says,

“Art is longing. You never arrive, but you keep going in the hope that you will.”

Anselm Kiefer: Feld (Field), 2019-20, Emulsion, oil, and acrylic on canvas, 110¼x149% inches (280 x 380 cm)

Gail tried laying her paint on with a painter’s spackling knife. Normally she thins her paint out with water and treats it like a watercolor painting. She will build up layers to add depth and color. She also has a good clean edge to these works. She brought none of that vision to this painting, but laid on the three primary colors so thickly, they glistened. She tried printing the words with a rubbery shelf paper, but they did not stand out enough. I asked, “Do you think those words would read better in a different color?”

Her reply, “Peace is elusive these days. It is hard to find.”

“Form follows function” is a design principle, so Gail must be on to the metaphor of her theme word.

Harper came to visit and made an ocean with sea foam bubble wrap and a heart floating on the water. She also brought her latest fancy bead bracelets.

Mike was making up for missing art. He sat down with all his materials and worked his background in paint. After listening to my intro, he returned to cut up his purple cloth, arrange it on the canvas, and set the two pieces of scrap wood into a cross shape. Then he used spray fixative to hold the lot together. I saw him trying to get the wood to stick, so I suggested putting spray on both surfaces. This way the two would bond together. That piece of information was a technical revelation.

“I just need it to stick together long enough to get it home,” he said, “and then I can glue it for real.”

I noted his background colors reflected the unusual auroras which graced our evening skies this past week.

I had started my small canvas the week before when I was half sick. My hand, heart, and mind never feel quite connected when I feel bad, but I still work anyway. The beauty of acrylics is I can paint over them later. In fact, this is a repurposed canvas. If a work does not “speak to me” after a few months, I either cut it up to reweave it or paint it over entirely. I always think I will find hope for it in another form, but it may need to take its own journey to find its best self.

Jeremiah once said to the Jewish exiles in Babylon,

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (29:11)

When we have forgotten what our home looks like, God still remembers where we once lived. When we have lost our memories of the ancient Temple practices, God still knows the rituals. God will remind God’s faithful of our service. If we have lost our knowledge of how to walk with God, God will send us teachers once more. God always provides us with what we need.

Christ the Redeemer, 16th CE, Gallery of Art, Skopje.

Hope is part of our GrecoRoman heritage also. “Dum spiro spero” is Latin for “While I breathe, I hope.” Some form of this saying has been around since the 3^rd century BCE. My grandmother sewed her antique crochet trim onto pillowcases for wedding gifts. This is a scrap I found in her sewing kit. I stenciled the letters HOPE and glued down the wooden letters H, P, and E. I used an old metal circle for the O. Torn corrugated paper added a touch of texture, as did a few string prints. Sometimes hope appears to slide away or seems raw and unvarnished. The colors are blue and violet because Advent is the great season of Hope. Matthew quotes the Servant Song from Isaiah in 12:18-21—

“Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,

my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my Spirit upon him,

and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not wrangle or cry aloud,

nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

He will not break a bruised reed

or quench a smoldering wick

until he brings justice to victory.

And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

This is the Messiah of Hope of Israel and the Anointed Christ in whom we hope today. We can best share the hope of this Christ to our suffering world by serving the suffering, the grieving, the hungry, and the overlooked.

Joy, peace, and hope,

Cornelia

Four Pears Still Life

art, Cezanne, Creativity, failure, nature, Painting, Pompeii, Transfiguration

We painted a still life of four pears and a handmade blue bowl in our recent Friday art class. After looking at some art prompts and reminding the class, “Pears are just variations on spheres piled on top of each other,” we got down to business. In art class this means spending some time looking. Unless we’re designing an abstract creation, we usually have a desire to make our images reflect what we see. Yet each of us sees from a unique perspective and we each have a special creative use of color and line. This is our creative genius which lives within each of us. My goal as a teacher is to lead this genius out of each person and set it free to feel confident to exercise its own voice.

The genius is a Greco Roman idea like our guardian angel, in that each person has a guardian spirit. The Romans put the father at the head of the family, so the genius was the spirit of the male head of the household. In the family altar areas lares, (guardians of the family, who protect the household from external threats) stand on either side of the genius, who wears a toga and makes a sacrifice. Beneath them all is a serpent. The murals often depict snakes in the lararia because the Romans believed they were also guardian spirits of the family and as well as messengers to the underworld.

The poet Horace half-seriously said only the genius knows what makes one person so different from another, adding the genius is a god who is born and dies with each one of us. Individuals worshipped their own individual genii, especially on their own birthdays. Today we use the term genius to mean “gifted or special,” but each of us has special abilities of our own genius, just by the grace of God at birth. As Romans 12:6 reminds us,

“We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”

Some of us may be rich in gifts, and some of us may be letting our gifts lie fallow, but we can all work at increasing the gift we have. Some of us may discover a hitherto unknown gift! None of us would ever want to be like the third servant who received the one talent and promptly buried it out in the back yard in a coffee can, only to return it to the master without even added interest. He was so afraid of failure and loss, and worried about future punishment, that he did not even loan the money out at interest. (Matthew 25:24ff)

Samuel Beckett in in Westward Ho (1983), said:

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again.

Fail again. Fail better.”

This quote was written on the back of a envelope in my grandmother’s art studio up on the second floor of the big wooden Victorian home my granddaddy built for them when he was promoted to conductor on the railroad. He had an eighth grade education, but made sure his boys had more. My grandmother was not going to let anything stop them.

Failure is how we learn what we don’t know. Then we learn some more things and discover we still don’t know everything! We become lifetime learners because the world is always changing, whether we want it to or not. We too will transform, because this is the truth of the Christian life.

Test of Vanguard launch vehicle for U.S. International Geophysical Year (IGY) program

Most of life in the art studio is a process of failing upward. Most people think failing is always a negative activity, but children always fall before they can consistently walk. We give them joy, cookies, and hugs. I am old enough to remember rocket ships blowing up on the launchpad more often than streaking into the great beyond. NASA had a few kinks to work out before we sent chimpanzees or humans into space. Even then, space has claimed its heroes. We don’t call NASA a failed organization. These sacrifices taught us much. We are infinitely more careful and do not want to move so fast that we break humanity. Break the technology but care for the humanity.

In my own work, I can learn so much on one painting, I will look at it a month later and want to “fix it.” I realized long ago I needed to let that feeling go. If I were to work with new insights on the old work, I would have to totally repaint it. I would be better off beginning all over. I’m now in a new place and have new skills. My individual genius is ready for a new challenge. I will learn so much on the new work, I will be eager to start on the next one.

Art is like life. We get a new day to do better and another opportunity to do better. There are cynics among us who believe people cannot do better, or they will never change. Those of us, who afflicted with incurable optimism, believe change is possible and a better life awaits. We would have no teachers, healers, or community leaders, much less no clergy of any faith, if we didn’t believe in transformation or think we have no part in bringing it to fruition. I am not one to settle for chaos and despair. I keep saying this world has enough negativity, and I will not contribute to that excess.

Henri Rousseau: Pears, Apples, and Teapot, c.1910, oil on canvas, private collection

Simplifying what we see before us is a first step in drawing from life. The KISS Principle works in art class too: “Keep It Simple Silly.” Most of us try to eat the elephant all at once. We look at a houseful of boxes and collapse: where to start? After years of itinerating, I can say with certainty, “The one nearest to you at the moment.” If it took three weeks to pack, expect the same amount of time to unpack. Hooray, you get to eat out until you find the kitchen gear. Likewise with a painting, we make a mark with a light-colored wash. If it is in the wrong place or the wrong size, we can overpaint it. No one will ever know.

Mike kept his pear painting simple. He made a study of the one pear which called his name. Just because I brought four pears and a blue bowl didn’t mean he felt the need to paint the whole still life. This is his unique genius. In his work life he can find the primary truths and key facts to support his clients’ cases. Those same attributes will show up in his artwork. At the end of the class, he was unhappy, however.

“Use your words,” I always say, “or at least point to where you are unhappy with your work.”

Pointing to the waistline of the pear, he said, “This section here looks wrong.”

“That’s where you quit looking at the pear and were just putting paint on the canvas.”

“OK, I thought that was what was bothering me about this, but I didn’t know why.”

“We have to keep looking at the objects while painting. Our memories aren’t that good to keep the image in mind for long.” We can train our memories by the technique of blind drawing, which is the technique of only looking at the objects, but never at our drawing. This trains our hand to connect to our eye. Our first drawings are very lopsided because the right side usually won’t match up to the left side. Yet with practice, these blind drawings will look somewhat realistic.

Gail S has a more reflective and introspective approach, so she will dissect the major elements of the still life before she makes a mark on the canvas. Some people can imagine three dimensional objects as two dimensional patterns without making marks visible. I consider this a particular form of genius, for they also can usually access their thoughts without having to write them down, which is what extroverted thinkers need to do. This is another example of how different people approach art from their own specific genius: if we all were all alike, we would produce indistinguishable results as if from a factory. Art class isn’t a factory production line, but an experience and opportunity to get in touch with our creative selves.

I managed to catch the personality of the different pear species. I was painting on a raw, unprimed canvas, so my first layers of paint soaked into the weave. The successive layers built up the colors. I ignored the drapery and the busy background of the actual setting, but I added the rainbow clouds of my own. The violet grey of the tablecloth might read to some eyes as a mountain. Then the size context of the pears and the bowl becomes questionable. Are they normal sized pears on a table or giant-sized pears on a mountain? The tension is part of the painting.

Once the artist makes their work, they give it a title for what it is meant to say to others. That is its “birth name.” Much like a sermon, once the word or image gets out into the public, people interpret it according to their own lived experiences and prejudices. As an example, historians have misinterpreted Rembrandt’s Night Watch, which wasn’t its original title.

Contrary to popular myth, the commissioners did not reject painting, but it has suffered many indignities in its almost 400 year history. In 1715, the townspeople pared it down to fit between two doors in Amsterdam’s Town Hall, and its current name arrived at the end of the 18th century on account of varnish and dirt that had darkened it into a nighttime scene. The action takes place at dawn’s first light, a fact revealed after a recent 2013 cleaning.

Paul Cézanne: Still Life with Apples and Pears, ca. 1891–92, Oil on canvas, 17 5/8 x 23 1/8 in. (44.8 x 58.7 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.

The same goes with any spoken word or sermon. If we wonder how so many people can get so many different meanings from a preacher’s sermon, or how people can read the same Bible, but produce wildly different interpretations of the claim Christ has on their lives from the same holy word, it might be because we all come from differing perspectives, environments, cultures, and therefore have unique “geniuses.”

In the seminary we try our best to strip all our preconceived notions away from our hearts and minds and hear the texts as the authors originally spoke to those who wrote them down. Then we ask, “What meaning do they have for us today? What is Christ calling us to be? What are we to do to bring God’s kingdom one step closer?” If the scripture cannot touch us, transform us, and call us to action, we will be as John Wesley once feared, only “almost Christians.” To be fully Christian we need to have not only the outward appearance of the Christian life but also have “the love of God and neighbor shed abroad in our hearts.” That is the mark of the “altogether Christian,” rather than the one who is only just as good as the “honest heathen.”

Wesley never minced his words, as you can read in his sermon, “The Almost Christian.” When our toes tingle, we might want to give some thought to our strongly held beliefs. If scripture contradicts them, then we might want to look deeper into the background of that text and see if the rest of the Bible speaks with the same voice. We also might want to consider if this word has meaning for today (for instance, we no longer make animal sacrifices to God, since Christ made that need irrelevant by his gift on the cross).

Cezanne: Still life with three pears, Pencil and watercolor on paper, 1880-82, 12.6 x 20.8 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Koenigs Collection

When we struggle in learning a new art technique, we are also undergoing a transformation. We sometimes must unlearn an old comfortable habit to learn a better one. Anyone who has played a sport knows the difficulty of making a swing change or adjusting their throwing motion. We are creatures of habit and want to take the well traveled path. We fear any disruption from the ordinary. Yet it’s in the challenge of the new where we learn. Iron sharpens iron. We never hear the metaphor, “Wool sharpens steel.”

We will do Day of the Dead T shirts next and turban pumpkins after that. It is always an interesting time in Friday Art Class. You can join us and begin at your level. Bring your own acrylic paints, brushes, and a small canvas or canvas panel.

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

Genius | Ancient Beliefs & Practices

https://www.britannica.com/topic/genius-Roman-religion

Revealing the Secret History of Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/secrets-of-rembrandt-the-night-watch-2627404

BBC – History – Ancient History in depth: Pompeii Art and Architecture Gallery

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/pompeii_art_gallery_08.shtml

Wesley’s Sermon Reprints: The Almost Christian | Christian History Magazine

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/wesleys-sermon-reprints-almost-christian

Test of Vanguard launch vehicle for U.S. International Geophysical Year (IGY) program to place satellite in Earth orbit to determine atmospheric density and conduct geodetic measurements. Malfunction in first stage caused vehicle to lose thrust after two seconds and Mission Control destroyed the vehicle.

HALLOWEEN HAPPENINGS

adult learning, art, CharlieBrown, Halloween, holidays, Imagination, Ministry, Painting, picasso, pumpkins

Michael Jackson: Thriller Video still, 1982

Let’s party like it’s 2025! Nothing takes our minds off the stresses of the real world’s ghouls and goblins like pretending to be a ghost, zombie, pirate, princess or superhero in the All Hallows’ Eve hijinks of the holiday we know as Halloween. Especially if we have the license to eat candy or drink purple fluid to slake our thirst after our door to door “threats of trick or treat.” With all that masked mayhem in the cities, towns, and county seats of the country, the forces of ICE and Homeland Security won’t know which to turn. The INSURRECTION they conjured out of thin air will suddenly become real, only to disappear shortly after sunset. And before troops can surge to all points involved.

Portland ICE protest—October 11, 2025—gives people an opportunity to wear costumes early

How many people in America will celebrate Halloween? Across the country 132.6 million households purchase about 745.8 million pounds of candy during the Halloween season every year. This works out to the weight of 33.9 billion bats or 62.16 million jack-o’-lanterns. Also only about 20% of people don’t celebrate Halloween at all. While I don’t eat loads of candy, I also don’t expect to micromanage other parents. My folks put a limit on our consumption back in the dark ages, plus we only went to a single neighborhood. Once we made the circuit of our city block and arrived home, we were done. The concept of “haul” was nonexistent in the days when dinosaurs lurked in the shadows, along with actual ghosts and other scary creatures.

Vintage Card, reminds me of the Headless Horseman

Most Halloween shoppers (79%) anticipate prices will be higher this year, specifically because of tariffs. Despite these reservations, nearly three-quarters of consumers (73%) plan to celebrate the holiday, in line with last year’s 72%. Top holiday activities include handing out candy (66%), dressing up in costume (51%) and decorating their home or yard (51%).

Economist’s Pumpkin, noting the scary prices of everything

Also, chocolate costs more because of cocoa prices, which have soared in recent years, have hit record highs amid adverse weather conditions, pest outbreaks and supply tightness in West Africa, which produces around three-fourths of the global supply. Cocoa futures have remained choppy but overall eased this year, falling from $8,177 per metric ton at the start of January to around $7,855 in August. That compares with $2,374 three years ago. Your basic Hershey Kiss is up 12% in price. If your favorite chocolate seems a tad lean on the chocolate, remember a warming climate means pests, droughts or floods, and fungi, all of which impact growing food.

Even if candy costs more, it continues to be the most popular purchase, with total spending expected to reach $3.9 billion. Across other categories, 71% plan to purchase costumes and spending is expected to reach $4.3 billion. Another 78% plan to purchase decorations, up from 75% last year, and will spend an estimated $4.2 billion in total. And 38% plan to purchase greeting cards, an increase from 2024’s 33%, with total spending estimated at $0.7 billion.

Picasso: Blue period, The Family of the Blind Man, 1903

Compared with last year, more people also plan to carve a pumpkin (46%), throw or attend a party (32%), visit a haunted house (24%) or dress up their pets (23%). October also means our art class works on a pumpkin still life. This year instead of making a realistic rendering, we looked at Picasso’s different styles. He began as a classically trained artist, and then broke all the rules of realism with cubism by fragmenting his subjects into multiple surfaces or flat geometric patterns. Later he did return to a “balloon” neoclassicism, but reverted once more to flat patterns of color. Picasso was always reinventing and responding to the creative genius within him. He didn’t feel constrained to continue to produce art to please others.

Pablo Picasso, *Mother and Child*, 1921, Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA. © Estate of Pablo Picasso.

Our pumpkin paintings reflect this creative energy. Gail S chose various red hues and deconstructed the pumpkin, as well as imagining it from above. She added some gourd shapes to the mix.

If Picasso had an orange period in addition to his blue and rose periods, my pumpkins would fit right in. They certainly look like his balloon neoclassical period! I confess I spent more time visiting with a stranger who graced the church door and who seemed to need to talk, but could not find her words.

Cornelia’s Orange Period Pumpkins and Leaves

She didn’t want a pumpkin muffin either, so we let her sit. After a bit, I began to talk about how some of my well meaning friends give me advice that doesn’t make any sense. Like if I make one small mistake, they think I’m ready for assisted living!

“What are they thinking?” was Gail’s response.

“Exactly, this comment says more about them than me. I ignore it and go on. Some folks are perfectionists.”

We painted for a while and then I spoke up again, “You can’t please everyone. If you make A happy, B gets upset, or if you make B happy, then A is upset. Group C is just contrary and nothing ever pleases them. I try to make God happy and let people know that is my only goal. I’m not here to choose sides in their puny fights.”

I must have said something that helped her out, for she said she now felt strong enough to deal with her day and its problems. We thanked her for stopping by and wished her well. We didn’t have much attendance in art class, but if there had been more people, this lady might not have felt free to be with us. God must have provided this quiet space for this woman who had an unvoiced need that day. We aren’t always open to the human needs of those on the margins, but we should recognize they struggle with the same need for autonomy and authenticity as everyone else does.

Speaking of pumpkins, the Wôpanâak are a Native American tribe from the eastern coastal region. Their language gives us the loan word for the ubiquitous fruit that “grows forth round,” also known as a Pôhpukun or pumpkin. Marion Webster posits the derivation of this word as follows: “alteration of earlier pumpion, modification of French popon, pompon melon, pumpkin, from Latin pepon-, pepo, from Greek pepōn, from pepōn ripened; akin to Greek pesseinto cook, ripen — more at COOK.”

Of course, this pedigree prefers the Eurocentric derivatives because Native Americans were once considered savages, and therefore unworthy of their historic contributions to our language. We know better today and celebrate the gifts and graces of all persons who contribute to the vast melting pot of the great stew we call America.

What a dull soup we would be if we were just the pale watered down broth with no pumpkins or spinach, no tomatoes or onions, no garlic (to ward off werewolves), and no corn, beans, chicken or beef to provide substance to our stew. We need a variety of spices to make a good soup, just as we need a variety of people’s to build a great community.

One night a year, we can dress up in the costume of our shadow fears or our innermost desires. We get to act like our inner child. We carve our pumpkins with scary faces and put them on porches decorated with all sorts of ghoulish things. The Halloween holiday is cathartic, for it allows us to share with others our innermost selves, an act many of us have difficulty doing.

If we eat a bit of candy here and there, it’s ok. It’s one night, and we can plan for this. The goblins do not win, for they are not real. They are here today, and gone tomorrow. I usually set my candy haul into the freezer where I can’t see it. Out of sight, out of mind. I have a piece now and then, “for medicinal purposes,” as my nanny would say, when she took a nip of the bottle stashed in the linen closet. Always with a table spoon, a measured dose, of course, because she “didn’t drink.”

If it helps to keep your cravings in check, you do what you have to do. I just ask, remember our life is short upon this round ball, so don’t rob yourself of the joy of this time. Find something to celebrate daily. On Halloween, we can celebrate our inner child. Even better, we can give the gift of magic to a small child by entering into the fantasy of the night.

Joy, peace, pumpkin spice, and magic,

Cornelia

USDA List of Retail Prices for Fruits and Vegetables, page 11, pumpkins.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/fvwretail.pdf

NRF | NRF Consumer Survey Finds Halloween Spending to Reach Record $13.1 Billion

https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/nrf-consumer-survey-finds-halloween-spending-to-reach-record-13-1-billion

The states most mad for Halloween — and candy — revealed in new survey

https://www.scrippsnews.com/life/holidays-and-celebrations/the-states-most-mad-for-halloween-and-candy-revealed-in-new-survey

Chocolate lovers, brace yourselves: Prices are rising, but not forever

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/22/chocolate-set-to-get-more-expensive-but-2026-outlook-looks-sweeter.html

How Americans Are Celebrating Halloween Despite Rising Prices

How Americans Are Celebrating Halloween Despite Rising Prices

Fun with Words | WLRP Home

https://www.wlrp.org/fun-with-words

Two Types of Color Wheels

adult learning, art, color Wheel, Creativity, flowers, Painting, picasso, Rumi

Rumi, the 13^th CE Persian poet and theologian, once said, “Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about…say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning of the universe.” Most of us live unawakened to this talent. When we were children, we had no thoughts of “trying to be an artist.” We picked up colors or clay and made our shapes and designs without a care in the world. Our loved ones praised our projects, and we felt good.

Somewhere along the 4^th or 5^th grade, many of us lost touch with that artist within. As Picasso said, “It took me my whole life to learn to draw like a child.” What Picasso meant is he learned all the adult rules for a good painting first and then unlearned them so he could create something completely new. When children are between 9 to 13 years old, they try to draw more naturalistic figures and landscapes by using shadows and perspective. They also start comparing their work with others, but this discourages those who are not discovering the new visual language of realism.

Picasso: Great Still Life on Pedestal, 1931, oil on canvas

As a result, by the time many children reach middle school, they are no longer in touch with their inner artist. Young children do not worry about whether they are wrong. They will forge bravely into unfamiliar territory, even knowing they may make a wrong decision. However, as we mature, we quickly learn that being wrong often has negative consequences. We learn quickly in school that making mistakes brings negative consequences. Not studying for the test brings a bad grade. Talking too much might get a time out in the dark cloak room (traumatic 3^rd grade experiences).

Teaching art to middle school students who say, “I can’t draw a straight line without a ruler” always got my retort, “We don’t have straight lines in nature, so you won’t have that problem in this class!” They learned working would bring improvement. This is a lesson learned well by the folks who have been with me for the last five years since Pastor Russ Brashears invited me to teach classes here. While we are saved by faith, not by works, in art class we need to have faith that our work will bring us closer to perfection. (Of course, there’s always an exception …)

Frank Stella: Harran II, 1967, Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas

At work, the boss penalizes us for being wrong. According to Sir Ken Robinson, an expert in creativity, “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never produce anything original. Since creativity inherently requires a willingness to be wrong, we begin to avoid it. For many of us, we become so good at avoiding it that we convince ourselves we are “not creative.” Another destroyer of creativity is current need to teach to the test standards. The one right answer for this important test leads children to think many questions have one answer, when in truth, multiple answers might be worthy.

In addition, many factors that seem related to the self-controlled aspect of ourselves—like research, facts, or being grounded in reality—feel like they are helping us mitigate the risk of being wrong. Therefore, we rely more on our executive function skills and behaviors, and less on our imaginative behaviors. Psychologists at Cornell University conducted a study that showed that we have an implicit bias against less conventional, practical-seeming ideas. We tend to like what everyone else likes, rather than original or creative ideas.

Johannes Itten: Bau Haus Color Star with Shades, 1921

This tendency runs deep since studies going back to the 1950’s have shown people are prone to conforming to popular opinions and perspectives. Research suggests that the rote learning and direct instruction used in schools often drives out whatever nonconformist tendencies we may have as children. This type of instruction may counteract our more exploratory and creative modes of thinking and learning. The Fauves, or “wild beasts,” were a group of French artists who scandalized the Academic standards by painting in wild and unnatural colors to evoke emotion, rather than observable reality. Of course, we love their works today.

Mike: Age of Aquarius: moon in 7th house

Half our class has been doing the color wheel multiple times, while the other half is getting their first exposure to it. Gail and Mike have made enough color wheels that I would not ask them to make another unless we changed our medium. Then it is always worthwhile to see how a new set of colors behaves when mixed. I gave them the guide, “Choose any design you want, and mix up the colors to make an interesting design.” Of course, they are two different personalities, so they produced two different paintings.

The basic premise for the beginner’s color wheel exercise is to take the 3 primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, and mix them to form the 3 secondary colors of orange, green, and violet. The tertiary colors are the “in between color” of each primary and secondary color. I was pleased that both Jeannie and Tonya mixed the colors well and kept their brushes clean in between the varied colors. This showed concentration and care, which are attributes of good craftsmanship. This will pay off in the future when we paint more complicated three-dimensional objects.

They also took time to add backgrounds. Jeannie made her color wheel into a giant flower on a green stem, with a softly sun kissed leaf. Tonya set hers against a night sky, as if it were a cosmic wheel of time. I enjoyed the burst of enthusiasm from their hearts when they added these parts of their own imaginations.

DeLee: Doves returning with green leaves after the flood

One of my goals as a teacher is to release the artist within each person. Some people keep a tight rein on that creative genius living within them. Society has acculturated us adults to conform to the common denominator, so most of us have lost our spark of creativity. This is not an individual problem, but a societal fact. Creativity scores among adults have been declining since the 1990’s, even though intelligence scores are rising worldwide due to better health care and nutrition.

If I can have a second opportunity to help create minds which are more flexible, more imaginative, and more productive over the long term, I will have fulfilled my call to teach another generation the joys of the creative life. My own example is from the Genesis story (8:10-11):

“He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.”

The square is a symbol from the language of the icons for the earth, so I painted it primarily in earth colors. The surrounding is in various shades of blue or blue blacks. The abstract doves hold an edge of green in their beaks. Is it too abstract to understand? This is a creative solution to “color wheel,” not a travel book. It is a painting, not a map. If you need to find Mount Ararat, ask your GPS for directions. Not everything has to be functional. Some things can be “art for art’s sake.”

Leaving you with thoughts and the hope you dream more,

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

Why Art — Give Kids Art

https://www.givekidsart.org/why-art

7 Surprising Facts About Creativity, According to Science – Fast Company

https://www.fastcompany.com/3063626/7-surprising-facts-about-creativity-according-to-science

Kyung Hee Kim (2011): The Creativity Crisis: The Decrease in Creative Thinking Scores on the Torrance

Tests of Creative Thinking, Creativity Research Journal, 23:4, 285-295

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2011.627805

Frank Stella, Harran II, 1967. Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas, 10 x 20 feet (304.8 x 609.6 cm), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Gift, Mr. Irving Blum, 1982. © 2023 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Picasso: Great Still Life on Pedestal, 1931, oil on canvas, Picasso Museum, Paris France. 195 x 135 cm

Solid Geometric Perspective

adult learning, art, Attitudes, Creativity, Faith, Holy Spirit, Leonardo da Vinci, Love, Ministry, Painting, perfection, perspective, picasso, shadows

Steps in drawing a Geometric Still Life: sketch, refined sketch, shadows, intense shadows and cast shadows

We are back in art class again on Friday mornings at Oakland United Methodist Church. Our first lesson is in solid geometry, but it’s not a math class. Art is more like learning a visual two-dimensional language to be able to render three dimensional objects on a flat plane. This isn’t as easy as you might think, but once you learn to see in perspective, you never can unsee it again. Art class is like an old fashioned one room schoolhouse, in which a teacher has students of varying ages and experience levels to instruct. I provide one lesson and modify it for each student according to their needs.

Gail S.—Pencil Drawing of Solid Geometry

The first day of class, I had three brand new students and one who has done this exercise at least three times before. Two others were out doing family obligations, just as I was missing in action last week due to attending my niece’s graduation ceremony for her MBA in Business Administration. Life and family watershed events are always important to make our presence known. The life of the artist is as important as the art itself. We aren’t just people who make beautiful objects for others, but people who make life beautiful by being present at their most important moments.

Vermeer: The Art of Painting, 1666-1668.

When we look at the painted floor in the Vermeer painting above, we know in our minds these stand for black and white square tiles. If we take a moment to closely observe them, we realize these are more like diamond shapes. This optical illusion is the result of perspective. Perspective comes in multiple forms. Linear perspective has one-point, two-point, three-point, and multi-point vanishing points. Aerial or atmospheric perspective uses color, clarity, and value as objects overlap each other and recede into the background. There’s also reverse perspective in which objects are larger as they grow more distant and foreshortening, in which nearby objects are emphasized.

Pop Tarts from the Pop Tarts Bowl Toaster Trophy in 2024

Can we teach all of this knowledge in a single two-hour lesson? Absolutely not. Michangelos aren’t turned out like pop tarts from a toaster. In the Renaissance era, a family would place a youth between the age of 7 to 14 with a master artist to learn the trade. This child would do the chores of the studio and learn to grind the pigments and mix paint. Then they would progress to drawing and composition. After a training time, they might get to do the backgrounds of the paintings or the landscape. After eight years, if they were any good, they would be entrusted with an entire commission. Then they would venture out on their own or take over from their master’s studio.

I started taking art lessons when I was eight years old from the city parks and recreation art teacher on Saturday mornings, and then after school from a former art teacher in town. My grandmother was a portrait and still life painter. I have been taking or teaching classes for over seven decades. Art is not a skill or a product a person can ever perfect. It is more like a journey of faith, one in which we are always going on to perfection, but by the grace of God, will only be completed at our last day. Even at my age, I have more than a few “needs improvement works” left to create.

The more you know, the more room for improvement you can find. I always ask students to first find three positive critiques of their work to praise before they begin to talk about their “improvement areas.” In this lesson, if they drew all three shapes, used two distinct colors for light and dark, and used up the space on the canvas, rather than drawing an inch tall image, those are positive points. Then they can point out their troubles.There’s enough negativity in this world. We need to overcome that in our own lives. What we learn on this canvas will carry over to the next one. Then we will find new opportunities for improvement yet again!

No one who gets a significant health condition finds making a wholesale change overnight easy or achievable. This is why people who try extreme diets like Whole 30 that restrict too many foods discover they can’t stick with it or must continually start over. People looking to make lasting, healthy changes must start small and focus on progress over perfection, according to nutrition coach Brady von Niessen. “You start feeling so good about them that you can’t even imagine not doing them.” The same principle applies in art. Over time, a student’s skills will improve if they trust the process. Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Another important aspect of art class is relationships. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, “The most empowering relationships are those in which each partner lifts the other to a higher possession of their own being.” As a teacher, I try to help each person find their own creative voice, rather than trying to copy an idea of what “good art should look like.” Beginners in tennis don’t get to play on the same courts as Wimbledon or the US Open, or at least not at the same time as those who claimed the trophies! As Picasso once said, “It took me my whole life to learn to draw like a child.”

I consider this first class a success for each student. First, I got to hear some of their stories, which helps to build relationships. I got to hear their fears about not being perfect—none of us are perfect, but as United Methodists we are all going on to perfection in love by God’s grace and that’s the only perfection we concern ourselves with in art class. Can we love ourselves and give ourselves the grace to come up short? As the great Leonardo da Vinci said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

I look forward to next week when we mix colors for the color wheel for the first time students. The returning students will get a lesson that uses geometry and mixed colors also. The more seasoned students project is a step up because they have more experience, so they have a greater challenge.

The one room art schoolhouse meets at 10 am on Friday mornings. It’s never to late to join.

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

Rublev’s Holy Trinity

art, epilepsy, Faith, generosity, Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, Icons, inspiration, Painting, Rublev, salvation, vision

Rublev: The Holy Trinity, 1411 or 1425-27, Russia

One of my favorite icons is Andrei Rublev’s Holy Trinity because it not only has the theological theme of the Trinity, but also the message of hospitality to strangers. As Hebrews 13:2 reminds us,

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

This subject of this icon is the three angels for whom Abraham spread a feast in the wilderness where he and his barren wife Sarah lived while they tended their flocks. The angels appear with their walking staffs and sit at Abraham’s table set with a dish of food. In the background is a mountain, representing the wilderness and a tree, locating the scene at the oaks of Mamre.

Koulouris Iconography House: Saint George Greek Orthodox Church, West Bank Territory, Holy Land

Rublev’s palette is full of light with a predominance of gold, shining ochre, delicate shades of green, pink, and violet, and his inimitable sky-blue, too, in combination with the fine rhythm of lines and perfect composition. Altogether this produces an image of unearthly beauty and a heavenly harmony. This isn’t just a banquet in the desert wilderness, but a meal in the inbreaking moment in which we experience the timeless realm of heaven.

On earth, we count the minutes, days, and years, but in the company of God, we enter into the eternal and timeless experience in which God lives. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are the same for the God who is known as I AM, for I AM lives always in the present and I AM is always becoming. There never was a time when the I AM was not. God always IS, even if we think God is not.

We may forget God, and our love may fail, but the steadfast love of the great I AM never fails because God’s love is, as the prophet Isaiah describes it (43:25):

“I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

Copy of Rublev’s Holy Trinity, iconostasis at the monastery, 16th CE, St. Sergio’s Lavra, Russia.

Andrei Rublev painted the original icon in the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery in either 1411 or 1425-1427. An artist made a copy of the Holy Trinity icon in the 16^th CE. The Orthodox Church certified the Rublev Trinity as miraculous in 1626 and gave it a place of honor in the church, as well as metallic and jeweled embellishments. Over the next 500 years, artists restored the original Rublev icon several times. The early 1900’s saw two professional restorations: each one removed more layers of paint and lacquer until they revealed the original. The restorers decided hiding with a frame what was an “exclusive, in its worldwide importance, work of art” from the palette of Andrei Rublev was unacceptable.

Dating this important icon is more difficult than deciding its painter. Some think the icon was originally meant for the wooden Trinity Cathedral erected in 1411 and believe after the stone church was built, the congregation moved the icon there. Other art historians believe Rublev painted the “Holy Trinity” at the same time as his workshop painted the iconostasis in the new cathedral in 1425-27.

Rublev received a commission to paint this icon for the image of the Holy Trinity from St. Nikon of Radonezh: “an image for the Holy Trinity to be painted in his time, to venerate His Holy Father, St. Sergius the Wonderworker,” the monk who founded the monastery at Radonezh.

Since a cathedral dedicated to the Holy Trinity should have an icon of the Holy Trinity in it as its primary icon, the obvious choice was to select the best image that would convey the spiritual essence of the cathedral. This icon would embody the name of the Holy Trinity in color.

Icons have a purpose in worship, beyond mere mere beauty or illustration or teaching of doctrine. St. John of Damascus spoke in his “Apologies against Those who Decry Holy Images”, with which he addressed the Seventh Ecumenical Council calling on renowned painters for brave deeds, to set forth in their art the images of the Old and New Testaments, so that those who were not learned and could not read the Holy Scripture, would be able—by examining those stories—to enjoy the lives of holy men and their good deeds, for

“What the book does for those who understand letters, the image does for the illiterate; the word appeals to hearing, the image appeals to sight; it conveys understanding.” (Treatise 1.17)”’

Betsy Porter: Holy Trinity icon with Holy Communion

In other arguments against those iconoclastic believers, those who advocated instead for the use of images in worship reminded people the icon represents the truth of a spiritual reality. Some have compared the icon to a “window into heaven.” No one then or now worships the icon itself, but they do venerate the holiness of the person represented in the image. They hope to recognize the presence of God with them when they come to the quiet and stillness before the icon at their home altar and when they share in the presence of God in public worship in the sanctuary among the holy icons.

Abraham and the Three Angels, Mosaics in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome (432-40 CE)

Theologically, the Western church has treated all three members of the Holy Trinity as coequal members, as seen in the mosaics of the 5^th CE basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. By placing all the heads on one level, or the use of isocephaly, the artist tells us the figures are equal in stature. Abraham is therefore lower than the heavenly visitors. Isocephaly is the art term which originates from the Greek words “isos” meaning “equal” and “kephalos” meaning “head”. We already know this word from our common knowledge: isosceles triangles have two equal sides and encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain, which is within our heads. (Sorry, old schoolteachers never die, but keep on explaining our 50 cent words; it must be that “back to school” time of year!)

Commercial Paper icon appliqué on wood panel “after Rublev,” but lacks the background architecture and has a substantial table without a cloth covering.

The Rublev icon has the heads of the three angels arranged in a triangle. They represent the Triune God. The center figure is slightly higher than the other two figures’ heads. This is because the Eastern Orthodox Church holds a slightly different view of the Holy Trinity. The incomprehensible God has indeed revealed God’s self in a manner that is incomprehensible.

All errors in trying to explain the Trinity come down to the following issue: we try to explain the living God, using a method of human thought—rational, natural, or philosophical—instead of witnessing to the reality and the truth of an encounter with the living God. To ask what God is, is the wrong question. Rather, who God is, is the primary question.

The answer is—God is Triune. We know God by God’s activity in the world, or energies, which we can see and can understand. In fact, all our understanding of God or what we say about God, comes from what God has done in the world, from God’s energies. The essence of God is still beyond our understanding, inaccessible to our understanding. If we could understand it, it would not be God, for God is beyond our understanding, as Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Both the Western and the Orthodox Churches are in agreement as regards the unity of the Trinity as to the persons and their shared being. They also agree the Trinity isn’t three separate gods or three different revelations of one singular god. The Eastern Church and the Western Church did split over whether the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Son alone (East) or from the Father AND the Son (West).

The earliest creeds from the 4^th CE didn’t even mention the Holy Spirit, mostly because the early church was combatting heresies about the nature of the Son (such as he was actually human, only appeared to be human, only parts were human, and other variations other than he was a full member of the Trinity and in Christ being fully human and fully divine).

By 381 CE in Constantinople, the creed included the words:

“And in the Spirit, the holy, the lordly and life-giving one, proceeding forth from the Father, co-worshipped and co-glorified with Father and Son, the one who spoke through the prophets; in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.”

The first Latin council to add the phrase “and the Son” (filioque) to its creed was the 447 CE Synod of Toledo, Spain. The filioque formula was also used in a letter from the Catholic Pope Leo I to the members of that synod regarding opposition to a form of the fifth century manifestations of the Arian heresy which was prevalent among the Germanic tribes of Europe.

Stage 4, the draperies are taking the shape of the bodies

As football season heats up in the USA, we fight our culture wars on social media, not in the streets. The latest heresy for some is professional football teams now have male cheerleaders on the sidelines. The conservative rabble rousers destroyed their coffeemakers and burned their team jerseys in the past. Wearing paper sacks to maintain anonymity at the games is too yesterday. The recent announcement of the heroic and rugged Minnesota Vikings football team’s addition of two talented and athletic young male dancers is more than they can take. The keys of their favorite social media platform have been clicking and clacking. Radio waves are sizzling and heating up our already too sweaty summer.

Trinity, stage 5: two steps forward and one step back

The bishops at Toledo affirmed the Holy Spirit’s procession from both the Father and the Son to exclude the Arian notion of the Son being something less than a co-eternal and equal partner with the Father from the very beginning of existence. Street protests were common during this time over theological beliefs: the Catholics chanted, “There never was a time the Father was not a Father, the Son not a Son, and the Spirit didn’t proceed from both!” Against them, the Arians marched, “The Son was born, not begotten!” Exciting times, the late 5^th CE.

Several of our past GOP presidents were college cheerleaders, including Ronald Regan and George Bush. On a personal note, six decades ago, my big city high school in the Deep South had a tradition of boy and girl cheerleaders on a team of equal numbers to do exciting and complicated stunts. We were not aware of being “woke.” We were, however, always seeking to bring out the best of each person to reflect well upon our school and our city, which we represented.

Unfortunately, accusing the present NFL teams of being “woke” ignores American history, since the USA FEDERATION FOR SPORT CHEERING recognizes the first cheer in America as occurring on November 2, 1898 at the University of Minnesota, when student Johnny Campbell got up from the seats and took the field to lead the student body in a chant. If 127 years is too far back for people’s minds, we can turn to more recent history.

DeLee: Holy Trinity after Rublev, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20”

Cheerleading is a metaphor for hospitality, which is one of the great attributes of the Holy Trinity. Hospitality is only possible where love resides and where community is experienced and practiced. Los Angeles led the way in 2018 by including two male dancers on their NFL Ram’s team. They were part of the Super Bowl LIII in 2019. Tryouts have always been “open,” but only women had shown up before. Like the strangers who showed up at Abraham’s tent, the cheer squad welcomed the men into the family and brought them under the protection of their group. When we practice hospitality, the “other” is no longer a “them.” The “stranger” becomes one of “us” because we reflect God’s loving nature to the vulnerable and we offer the bounty of our table to nourish their body and spirit.

I began working on this icon during social and personal distress. The social distress is obvious to anyone who reads a newspaper or watches a television newscast. Never have I seen so many professing Christians refuse to “love their neighbor as themselves,” or “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” I don’t know how they sleep at night, for my own heart hurts for the pain inflicted upon the strangers who walk among us, who very well may be the Holy Trinity in earthly disguise. If we treat them like their next stop on their journey, only a few of us will walk away unscathed.

My personal distress comes from the blessing of living long enough, thanks to excellent medical care and the ability to live a structured, carefree life. As we age, medication affects us differently. My neurologist dropped the amount of my seizure medication, and my cardiologist upped my blood pressure medication. I was taking too much magnesium, so that was making me lethargic as well as lowering my blood pressure. Now that I’ve gotten stabilized, I feel a lot peppier.

Unfortunately, I began painting and drawing this icon while all this unwellness was going on. I can see “room for improvement,” as I always remind folks to say when critiquing their own art works. I have learned much from this time and have seen the icon in a new and closer light. I will come back to it again when I feel I’m more competent to give it my best.

A masterpiece always deserves the best we can offer, yet I rest secure knowing God has grace for those of us who are wounded, weak, or broken in any way. Whatever we bring in this time and place right now is the best we can offer upon God’s altar. God refuses no honest gift. If we spread peanut butter sandwiches on the table for the visitors as the offered feast because this is what we have, God will bless this gift.

The Holy Trinity of God lives in a loving community of self-giving hospitality and generosity within its unity of being. All three persons love, support, and care for one another in equal measure. As we humans would understand this: no one in the Trinity carries a heavier burden than another. In like manner, each person shares all the energies and work of the others.

The work of salvation may be through our faith in Christ’s work on the cross, yet it was the Father who sent the Son to redeem all creation and the Holy Spirit who brings us to the understanding of this saving grace. The whole work of God in Three Persons saves us if we have Trinitarian faith. And it is by the power of all the Holy Three we can stand against the hatreds and evils of this age.

Indeed, if we can offer any service well-pleasing to God, following the admonitions of Hebrews 13:1-2 would help all:

“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Abraham’s angelic visitors blessed him and his wife Sarah with the promise of a longed-for son. We might learn to love our neighbors more if we shared our hospitality and opened our hearts to the people we meet. May you meet angels in your daily life and share whatever feast is in your pantry.

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

Andrei Rublev: Image of the “Holy Trinity,” The Tretyakov Gallery Magazine. Andrei Rublev painted the Holy Trinity icon, which is the central image in the cathedral’s iconostasis. One of the most famous Russian icons, he created it “in praise of St. Sergius.” The original is in the hall of Old Russian painting of the Tretyakov Gallery, in a special glass case with controlled humidity and temperature. In Trinity Cathedral you can see a copy of the icon to the right of the royal doors in the first (lowest) tier of the iconostasis.

https://www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com/node/7196

Excerpts from Three Treatises on the Divine Images by St John of Damascus, translation and introduction by Fr. Andrew Louth, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003.

https://www.svots.edu/blog/st-john-damascus-divine-images

A Miracle of Knowledge: St. Sergius of Radonezh / OrthoChristian.Com

https://orthochristian.com/41950.html

Venerable Nikon, Abbot of Radonezh, disciple of Venerable Sergius – Orthodox Church in America

https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2016/11/17/103316-venerable-nikon-abbot-of-radonezh-disciple-of-venerable-sergius

Daily readings from the lives of the Orthodox Saints:

https://www.oca.org/saints/lives

Home – Icons: Windows Into Heaven – LibGuides at Duquesne University: This is a reputable source for orthodox icon information via the Duquesne Library. Links to outside sources are broken. Reference books are available elsewhere.

https://guides.library.duq.edu/icons

Mosaics in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome (432-40): if you’ve never been to Italy, you can see the entire beautiful interior of this 5^th CE basilica here.

https://www.wga.hu/html_m/zearly/1/4mosaics/1rome/3maggior/index.html

Introduction to Orthodoxy 4: The Holy Trinity – Orthodox Catechism Project

https://www.orthodoxcatechismproject.org/introduction-to-orthodoxy/-/asset_publisher/IXn2ObwXr9vq/content/introduction-to-orthodoxy-4-the-holy-trinity

First Council of Constantinople 381 – Papal Encyclicals

First Council of Constantinople – 381

First Known Cheerleader was a Male Student

The First Cheerleader

Vikings Respond to Male Cheerleader Backlash – Newsweek—12 NFL teams are reportedly set to have male cheerleaders on their squads this season. The teams as the Vikings, Ravens, Rams, Saints, Eagles, 49ers, Patriots, Titans, Colts, Chiefs, Buccaneers and Panthers.

https://www.newsweek.com/minnesota-vikings-respond-backlash-male-cheerleaders-2113864

The Two Domes of Creation

art, Creativity, Faith, Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, Icons, Imagination, Love, nature, Painting, Prayer, purpose, Spirituality

I had Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) neck surgery at the end of March to correct a damaged disk. A very fine surgeon removed it, replaced it with a new one, and fused it for strength. Two days in the hospital and I went home to recover. I was tired for several weeks, but I soon felt well enough to start painting again. Each week thereafter I could see improvements in my hand steadiness and mental focus as the pain left my body and my healing progressed. I had been through physical therapy and shots in the neck for a year since my original injury.

The old saying about boiling a frog by raising the temperature of the water gradually also applies to pain: if it rises incrementally, you don’t realize how much you’re tolerating. I feel like a new creation, for I have a new lease on life. Most importantly, I have my sense of humor back. I know this is true, for one morning a friend sent me a funny meme. I laughed so loudly, my Apple Watch gave me a High Decibel Warning alert! Silly watch, you’ve never heard my joy.

As part of my ongoing creation series in the studio, I’ve been working with the imagery from the beginning of Genesis (1:6-8)—

And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

I also had in mind the creation imagery of The Gospel According to John (1:1-5)—

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias III.1;
The One upon the throne, Rupertsberg MS,
fol. 122v, manuscript
illumination,
12^th CE.

These two texts, one from the Old and one from the New Testament, remind us the Triune God has always been creating our universe and our earth. From this we understand what the Trinity has created, it will be by the same love, desire, and compassion the Trinity will sustain creation and renew creation in the proper time. Humanity is a cocreator of beauty alongside the Holy Trinity. While our works aren’t infinite or perfect, we humans hold the desire to create and surpass our best works, even as the Creator of all things saw all the work before the creation of the first human beings as “good,” but the creation of humans in God’s image as “very good.”

Too often our Christian theology hinges on some form of “sinners in the hands of an angry God,” rather than the doctrine of “God so loved the world.” This dualist contrast of sin/redemption versus love/renewal is a difference of viewpoint between those who focus on judgment and those who focus on grace. The old story of “God loves me in spite of my fallen and wicked ways” doesn’t make sense to a new generation who has gotten affirmations for all their efforts. As part of the old generation, that traditional story barely made sense even to me and my generation. Between 2000 and 2020, Gallup reported church attendance for people born before 1946 declined 11%, attendance for Baby Boomers declined 9%, attendance for Gen X declined 12%, and the facts aren’t in yet for the Millennials or Gen Z. Moreover, speaking only to “personal salvation” is not on most younger people’s minds. They are more interested in the great causes of justice for the weak and the oppressed, and in liberation for the unjustly imprisoned, just as Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah (4:8-9):

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Hildegard of Bingen is a good person to help straddle this dilemma. After all, Hildegard is one of the only four women whom the Catholic Church has recognized as a Doctor of the Church. Only thirty-six other figures in the history of the church have earned his great honor, which Hildegard belatedly received rom Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. This title recognizes the outstanding contribution a person has made to the understanding and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures and the development of Christian doctrine. Only four on the list are women (Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, and Hildegard of Bingen). The definition of the term “Doctor of the Church” is based on the three requirements a person must fulfill to merit inclusion in the ranks of the “Doctors of the Catholic Church”:

1) holiness that is truly outstanding, even among saints;

2) depth of doctrinal insight; and

3) an extensive body of writings which the church can recommend as an expression of the authentic and life-giving Catholic Tradition.

Born the tenth child in an era where a family practiced tithing or giving a tenth of everything to God in every aspect of their life, Hildegard was ‘given to God’ and taken to live in an abbey, as a nun. There she learned faith and healing, and studied medicine, natural science, music, and writing. She wrote ten books, two volumes of which are well known: Physica, a book on natural science, and Causae et Curae, a book of medicine and remedies. These two works hold most of Hildegard’s musings on the relationship between science and faith, along with her scientific observations and medicinal remedies. Scivias, Hildegard’s main theological work, stands for “Scito vias Domini,” meaning “know the ways of the Lord.”

Her knowledge came from visions of light, what today some have called debilitating migraines, which confined her to her bed for days. Hildegard spoke of her visions of light, just as migraine sufferers often report an extreme sensitivity to light, or seeing strange light patterns, in the middle of an episode. Her science was advanced for the 12th CE, but we don’t study Hildegard for her scientific truths. She is more important for her theology and spirituality about creation and God’s love for all life.

When God created the world, God pronounced God’s creation “good.” The world in which we now live is obviously corrupt and fallen, so many people have given up on it. The same was also true back in Hildegard’s time. The secular and religious empires of the West were at war. The Crusades tried to wrest the Holy Land from the Arabs in great battles resulting in mass carnage. The growth of cities’ merchant classes also threatened the established order of the powerful.

It was an uneasy time for all the people, just as it is today when the cultures of the east and the west are wrestling for dominance, great powers still try to expand their territories, and technocrats challenge governments worldwide for power. Once again it is “the times, they (were) are a changing,” as Bob Dylan, the prophet of our age sings for every age.

Hildegard speaks of God not only creating, but also being in the world. This is what we call Panentheism, which comes from the Greek words pan/all + en/in +theos/God. Panentheism considers God and the world to be inter-related with the world being in God and God being in the world. Panentheism affirms both divine transcendence and immanence. We can both experience God through the natural world, while God is also beyond our normal experience. Hildegard experienced God in both the world around her, even though she lived a secluded life, and she also experienced God through her visions. (This is not pantheism, which makes creation into the god or accepts the equality of many gods.)

Hildegard von Bingen: The universe (or the Cosmic Egg), from Scivias, an illustrated work by Hildegard von Bingen, completed in 1151 or 1152, describing 26 religious visions she experienced. Liber Scivias (Sci vias Domini = Know the ways of the Lord). The book, Codex Rupertsberg, disappeared during WW II. Transparencies are from a faksimile, copied by hand by some nuns from 1927 to 1933.
(Plate 4 fol-14r—The universe (or the Cosmic Egg)

“I, the fiery life of divine wisdom,

I ignite the beauty of the plains, I sparkle the waters,

I burn in the sun and the moon, and the stars.

With wisdom I order all rightly.

Above all I determine truth.

I am the one whose praise echoes on high.

I adorn all the earth.

I am the breeze that nurtures all things green.

I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits.

I am led by the Spirit to feed the purest streams.

I am the rain coming from the dew

that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.

I call forth tears, the aroma of holy work.

I am the yearning for good.

Invisible life that sustains all,

I awaken to life everything In every waft of air.

The air is life, greening and blossoming.

The waters flow with life. The sun is lit with life.

All creation is gifted with the ecstasy of God’s light.

In doing good, the illumination of a good conscience

is like the light of the earthly sun.

If they do not see me in that light,

how can they see me in the dark of their hearts?

I am for all eternity the vigor of the Godhead.

I do not have my source in time.

I am the divine power

through which God decided and sanctioned

the creation of all things.

With my mouth I kiss my own chosen creation.

I uniquely, lovingly, embrace every image

I have made out of the earth’s clay.”

I resonate with Hildegard not only because her theology speaks of God’s love for everything God created, but also because God desires for all creation and humanity alike to come to a state of perfection. Even when I was a nonbeliever, creation always called my name. I’ve always felt a peace and wholeness when I looked upon nature. The beauty of the sky, the changing colors of the seasons, and cloud patterns fascinate me to this day. Now I can read Psalm 19:1 with a heart of faith:

“The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament (dome) proclaims his handiwork.”

Hildegard of Bingen’s final and greatest visionary work was the Liber Divinorum Operum, the “Book of Divine Works.” Each of her recorded visions elaborates the dynamic Word of God, present before and within Creation. The Word first became a human being to bring the Work of God—humanity and by extension all creation—to perfection. This grand vision is the culmination of Hildegard’s entire theological project and represents her most mature formulation of the themes central to her thought.

Hildegard believed the fundamental human vocation was to understand both ourselves and all creation as the work of God, and our place as cooperative agents of that work. Also in this “Book of Divine Works,” Hildegard considers rational understanding as the means to know our Creator and properly fulfill the work for which we were created; the relationship between humanity and the rest of creation as microcosm and macrocosm; and the eternal predestination of the incarnate Word of God irrupting into and unfolding through time, as revealed in both Scripture and the life of the Church. Our Library of Congress has a fully digitized copy of Hildegard’s final tome of 353 magnificently illustrated pages, which is accessible at the link at the bottom of this post.

DeLee: Christ Offers the Word, acrylic on canvas,
8” x 10”, 2025

Nature has always revealed the presence of God to me, not just the in the act of creation and the beauty of nature, which I see presented daily from sunrise to sunset, but also in the transits of the stars in the night skies. From the myths of our ancestors trying to make sense of their world to our current search for the mysterious ninth planet (sorry, Pluto, I still love you, even if you’ve been demoted to a dwarf planet), and to the great nebulas and galaxies beyond our Milky Way, we humans have experienced God among these other mysteries.

While we believe one day we can know all the unknowns, we nevertheless awake to discover we stand on the precipice of yet more mysteries and the need to refine our former truths. The more we know, the more we discover we’ve barely scratched the surface of the depths of what can be known. This search for knowledge is what keeps the curious alive and ever on the quest for the outer boundaries.

*Hildegard: Scivias* III.1: The One upon the throne.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 122v.

The creative mind believes a heart touched by God’s creative spirit has unique insights to give to the world, which needs beauty to confront the mess we can see outside our doorsteps and on our nightly newscasts. Creating an icon is one way to pray and enter a holy space. The circle stands for the halo, but also to identify the image portrayed as a holy or important figure. When I need to recenter myself, I always paint an icon. I pray twice—once in the act of painting and again in observing and meditating upon the image of the icon. This icon has not only the halo of Christ, but the cruciform halo, which serves to differentiate the Trinity from the non-divine saints, dignitaries, and angels. It appears on images of God the Father and the Hand of God, Christ and the Lamb of God, and the Dove of the Holy Spirit.

Rebecca Boyle describes the science of creation in “The Universe’s First Light Could Reveal Secrets of the Cosmic Dawn:”

Everything started in the tremendous burst of energy known as the big bang. Within a few seconds the universe cooled enough for the first protons, neutrons, electrons, and photons to spark into existence, and within a few minutes those building blocks came together to form the first nuclei of hydrogen and helium. After about 380,000 years, the universe was sufficiently cool for those protons and neutrons to grab free-flying electrons and form the first electrically neutral atoms. For the first time, photons stopped colliding with free electrons and were able to flow through the universe. This process, confusingly called recombination—it was actually the first true combination of atomic components—released the cosmic microwave background (CMB) light that pervades all of space. The most detailed map of this background is from the Planck satellite, a European space observatory that launched in 2009 to study this light.

DeLee: “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” —John 1:3

I made this second creation painting during this healing time by intuitively wrapping strings around the stretched canvas. Then I took assorted sizes of plastic lids which I couldn’t recycle, but I was “needing to find a use for them” before I relocated them to the trash heap. I belong to the generation of “waste not, want not.” (Yes, my nannie had the famed ball of string and one of tinfoil also.)

As I placed the various sized circles around the canvas, I thought of the many hours my childhood friends and I would pass the leisure of our hot summertime days with scribble challenges. One of us would make random marks on a paper for the other to decorate or to discover a magical creature of our imagination. As we grew older, these became more developed into different textures and patterns. As I painted the circles and straight lines, I saw the bright cross amid the heat of the great power of creation, with all the elements created in that first burst of light.

Hildegard: Liber Divinorum Operum II.1: The Parts of the Earth: Living, Dying, and Purgatory. Biblioteca Statale di Lucca, MS 1942, fol. 88v (early 13^th CE.).

As Hildegard reminds us, “Humankind, full of all creative possibilities, is God’s work. God calls humankind alone to assist God. Humankind are co-creators. With nature’s help, humankind can set into creation all that is necessary and life-sustaining.”

One of our last days in the art class I teach at a local church to adults who are willing to pursue the challenge of treading beyond their comfort zones, I was fooling around with a compass and a straight edge. It wasn’t a ruler, but I found the center of the canvas with the compass intersections instead. I used a piece of cardboard as my straight edge. I ended up with multiple intersecting lines, all of which I left on the surface.

When I got home, I found them interesting. These I pursued, but not all of them. The art is in deciding which ones to ignore! While painting, I reflected on God’s creation. The Holy Trinity has always existed and has always shared the work of creation. Also, there is no such entity as a “Holy Binity” or just the Father and Spirit only. The Son has always existed and has always shared the work of the entire Godhead, which we often refer in a shorthand as “God.”

DeLee: The Dome of the Waters, acrylic on canvas, 10” x 10”, 2025

As I painted more, the dark blues above the light blue represented the waters above the “firmament” of the pale cerulean sky. When it rains, the holes in the dome of the sky let the water leak out, or so I’ve heard the old folks say. I never heard their explanation for why it doesn’t rain all the time, but perhaps “angels are involved.” They might be busy plugging the holes in the dome with their fingers, but God must have many angels working hard on our behalf.

The area below is in greens for all the growing and thriving things. There is an upside-down dome, or a Cheshire Cat smile pale green eighth moon shape for the underground water sources. All the intersecting compass marks are the energy signatures, which God’s power unleashes when God makes a new thing or renews an old thing. If we are sensitive to God’s creative spirit, we cannot help but be in awe of the magic and mystery of not only the minutiae of nature, but also the grandeur of the cosmos.

Ansel Adams: Wilderness, California. Afternoon Thunderstorm, Garnet Lake.

The great landscape photographer Ansel Adams was one of the voices of those who found inspiration in nature, especially our national parks. He spoke the same sensible words for our age: “As the fisherman depends upon the rivers, lakes and seas, and the farmer upon the land for his existence, so does mankind in general depend upon the beauty of the world about him for his spiritual and emotional existence.” (From a speech to the Wilderness Society, May 9, 1980).

The natural world is meant for humankind to care for, tend, and enjoy with respect, just as we would care for a beloved partner. Not everyone sees the world with the eyes of God, who so loved the world—both the humans, the creatures, and the earth itself—God gave God’s only Begotten son to save the world, “For God did not send his Son into the world (kosmon|κόσμον) to condemn the world (kosmon|κόσμον), but so that the world (kosmos|κόσμος) might be saved through him.” (John 3:17) What God created, God loves and will sustain. Can we do anything less and still be faithful to God’s calling on our hearts?

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time

https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx

Trans. by Nathaniel Campbell, from the Latin text of Hildegard of Bingen, Liber Divinorum Operum, ed. A. Derolez and P. Dronke, in CCCM 92 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996), pp. 47-9. (Musical Score)

International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies: Karitas habundat

http://www.hildegard-society.org/2014/11/karitas-habundat-antiphon.html

Panentheism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panentheism/

The Universe’s First Light Could Reveal Secrets of the Cosmic Dawn | Scientific American by Rebecca Boyle

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-universes-first-light-could-reveal-secrets-of-the-cosmic-dawn/

Neumes | Music Appreciation 1

Neumes

International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies: February 2015

http://www.hildegard-society.org/2015/02/

The Book of Divine Works. | Library of Congress: Fully digitized copy of Hildegard’s final tome of 353 magnificently illustrated pages, late 12^th century CE.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_21658/?st=gallery

Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Star Talk: Could One Electron Explain the Universe?

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1859416304571349?fs=e&fs=e

Is a River Alive? By Macfarlane, Robert. Available as audiobook, kindle, and paperback

Pillars of Creation

art, cosmology, Creativity, Holy Spirit, Israel, Israel, Painting, Silence, Spirituality

The Bible has many creation narratives. We’re familiar with Genesis 1 and 2, but our scriptures also include creation stories in Job 38-41, Psalm 104, Proverbs 8:22-31, Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 and 12:1-7, and excerpts from Isaiah 40-55. Some believe God created the world and all of creation in seven 24-hour periods. Others believe God had nothing to do with creation, but nature alone birthed itself in a great explosion. Some believe God created the world and left it to its own purposes. For these deists, God isn’t involved in human affairs in this current world.

We don’t have to pick a side in this argument, or throw in our lot with “God alone” or “no god at all.” We can read the scriptures with modern science in our minds and faith in our hearts. In this, I’d say “we’re better off together” than we are separated into different groups. The love of God shed abroad into our hearts can bind us in this unity. Our human, fallen condition is the anvil on which we break apart into our separate sections and groups.

God is the creator of original unity and the recreator of the coming unity of the new heaven and the new earth, which will restore the unity of our fallen and broken world. In Psalms 104:5-9, the writer speaks of God’s process of creation:

“You set the earth on its foundations,

so that it shall never be shaken.

You cover it with the deep as with a garment;

the waters stood above the mountains.

At your rebuke they flee;

at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.

They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys

to the place that you appointed for them.

You set a boundary that they may not pass,

so that they might not again cover the earth.”

Later, the same author notes God is always at work in the world: “When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” (Psalms 104:30)

This renewing Spirit, which proceeds from the heart of God, allows us to live in hope, even when we see brutal wars decimating innocent civilians. When nations deprive their marginalized populations of equal rights, we trust that God’s spirit will move to bring a renewing justice for those who are denied their legal rights. When famine and destruction strike, the ones who suffer have hope that those who hear God’s voice will have compassion for them and will come to relieve them.

Of course, if we believe “the voice of God is rarely heard in our land anymore,” or “God helps those who helps themselves,” we are admitting our disbelief in a living and involved deity who is willing to interfere in the affairs of human life.

**HERCULES AND THE WAGGONER.** A Waggoner was once driving a heavy load along a very muddy way. At last he came to a part of the road where the wheels sank half-way into the mire, and the more the horses pulled, the deeper sank the wheels. So the Waggoner threw down his whip, and knelt down and prayed to Hercules the Strong. “O Hercules, help me in this my hour of distress,” quoth he. But Hercules appeared to him, and said: “Tut, man, don’t sprawl there. Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel.”
*The gods help them that help themselves*

The God we see revealed in the Old and New Testament helps those who can’t help themselves. This God has done this very thing throughout all of human history! Otherwise, God would have chosen the strongest instead of the least to carry out God’s mighty purposes. Instead, God always chooses the least, the last, the lost, the lonely, and the “losers” of our world to lift up. This is why you will not find anything like “God helps those who help themselves” in the Bible. It is found in Aesop’s fable, “Hercules and the Waggoner,” where the moral of the story is “the gods help them that help themselves.” The modern variant, “God helps those who help themselves,” was purportedly coined by the English political theorist Algernon Sidney (17^th CE) and later popularized by Benjamin Franklin (18^th CE) in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Pillars of Creation, strings and under painting

In the studio, the artist is always listening for the creative spirit to speak. If I’m sitting before a blank canvas and have no idea whatsoever what to do, I make a mark. I make another mark in relation to the first, for now the two need to speak and relate to one another. As I pick up some more paint to make the third mark, this one must relate to the other two, and so on I go, adding marks and colors.

Once I get some shapes defined, I begin blocking in some colors. Here too, these must speak to one another. One mark can’t shout or be overbearing, while the others fade into the background. I think of warm and cool, opaque and transparent, as well as flat and shaded. Once I get a base layer on the canvas, I remove the strings which I tied to make the shapes. I give it a rest and let my mind rest also. I can come back with fresh eyes tomorrow.

The “Pillars of Creation,” an area of intense star formation, was photographed by the Near-Infrared Camera of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Inspiration, or listening for the spirit of creation, is especially important to move a work past “coloring in the lines” into a work of art. The “Pillars of Creation,” an area of intense star formation, was photographed by the Near-Infrared Camera of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. In the Old Testament, the pillars of creation held up the earth itself, while the dome of the firmament (the sky) was above. The ancient, unscientific age was a limited world, with an unlimited divine being. Today we live in an unlimited universe, but too many people have a god too small to do mighty things beyond our poor capabilities.

When I add the silver and gold paints, the number of layers and the directions of my brush strokes determine how much of the under painting will show through. I don’t do this haphazardly, but once again I listen to that still, sheer sound of silence that once called Elijah from his cave. Elijah knew God wasn’t in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the sound of sheer silence (1 Kings 19). I may have music playing in the background, but I don’t hear it at all. I’m in another realm entirely. I only hear the silence.

I’m enjoying this current theme and exploration. It combines my love of space and nature. I’m a firm believer in the providence of God: if God cared enough to create all there is, God will not forsake God’s creation. God will provide, and as God’s faithful people, we’ve been entrusted with the care for God’s world. Therefore, we must join God to keep the foundations of creation stable and the resources of our world available for future generations.

Joy and Peace,

Cornelia

William P. Brown: The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder, 1^st Edition, Oxford University Press, 2010.

Does the Bible say, “God helps those who help themselves?”
https://aaronarmstrong.co/everyday-theology-god-helps-those-who-help-themselves/

The “Pillars of Creation,” an area of intense star formation, has been captured by the Near-Infrared Camera of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Never surrender!

Altars, art, Carl Jung, Creativity, crucifixion, Easter, Easter, Faith, Garden of Gethsemane, Good Friday, Healing, Holy Spirit, Holy Thursday, incarnation, inspiration, Ministry, Painting, suffering

“Never give up! Never surrender!”

This is my favorite quote from the 1999 sci-fi parody film Galaxy Quest. As a fan of Star Trek, I love the heroics of the storylines and the movie’s devoted fans. What sets this spoof story apart is how an alien culture has modeled its entire identity on the “historical documents,” or the weekly tv series videos. The aliens arrive on earth and spirit away the crew to fight against their enemies. The actors protest, but discover their true selves through this challenging situation. They not only play heroes, but they become heroes. They have to surrender to their former false selves to become the best and the truest of who others have known them to be.

We are not a people who believe in surrender. If our back is against the wall, our inclination is to fight all the more. Most of us believe in climbing upwards, not in moving downward. Taking a lateral move is just as bad as a demotion for most people’s egos. If you talk to any clergy person during appointment season, many are hoping for a church with a bigger steeple. While if you talk to their congregations, they’re hoping for preachers who wants to stay for a while. Obviously between moving and staying, someone is going to be disappointed. Someone will need to surrender to a greater plan.

I remember in my early days I got my nose bent out of shape because my church asked for a new pastor. My bishop at the time was frank with me: “I don’t have anyone to send here. You need to suck up your feelings and make sure this church is ready for next year!” Elders vow to be ready to pray, preach, move, or die at a moment’s notice in the United Methodist Church. We also vow to stay if necessary. I didn’t want to surrender to my bishop’s authority, but I decided to make sure when appointment season rolled around again, she could send any average pastor in my place.

I also knew other experienced clergy had thought I’d been “over appointed” straight out of seminary. They had told my superintendent they “deserved that appointment” where I was. My answer was often on some days, “I’ll trade you straight across, no question.” Those were the suffering days, but then would come the days of joy and grace, and I’d forget my rash willingness to hand over my charge to another sight unseen. I was truly glad for the nearby presence of an older, more experienced clergy person who would buy me a coffee and doughnut. He helped me keep the perspective of the long view, rather than the immediate moment.

In this Holy Week—the time between joys of Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday—we find the events of Holy Thursday’s foot washing, Good Friday’s Crucifixion, Holy Saturday’s Vigil, and Easter Sunday’s Resurrection. In between Thursday and Friday, we find the stories of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter’s denials, and other tales of suffering.

Modern folks don’t usually like suffering. We want to treat a slight cold virus with an antibiotic, even though antibiotics only work against bacterial infections. All we end up doing is causing more suffering by creating antibiotic resistance. In worship services, “to save time,” we omit the third verse of the old hymns, which most often contain the sacrifice and blood of Jesus on the cross. People who visit churches on the Sundays during Holy Week go from the Palms proclamation of Jesus as messiah to the risen Christ on Easter. They avoid all the turmoil, suffering and drama of the week in between.

In real life, because we avoid dealing with our dark sides and personal brokenness, we often project those same bad qualities onto others, which we then “other and marginalize.” All the “isms” of the world have scapegoats that represent their own dark side. The work of “identifying and accepting one’s shadow” is the process of assimilating “the thing a person has no wish to be” [Collected Works of Carl Jung: CW16, para 470].

Jung saw quite clearly that failure to recognize, acknowledge and deal with shadow elements is often the root of problems between individuals and within groups and organizations. It is also what fuels prejudice between minority groups or countries and can spark off anything between an interpersonal row and a major war. This certainly speaks to the time in which we now live.

I recently had anterior cervical fusion surgery on my neck due to a herniated disc that was causing numbness in my arm and fingers. It also was causing pain, but I wasn’t aware of how much pain I was experiencing. The story of boiling a frog by gradually turning up the water it’s in is true. If your pain gradually increases by fractions, you think it’s just a 3 on the 10-point scale. However, I was having difficulty doing my ordinary work, exercising, and making decisions. Writing, which was once easy, became a chore. A concrete brain full of pain signals effectively blocked my ability to think creatively. I was trying to think through a sludge of cold molasses.

My scar is healing nicely 25 days post surgery.

The good news is after surgery I have my former brain back, such as it was. I also have a set of plates and screws in my neck, so I hope I don’t set off the TSA scanners in the airport the next time I fly somewhere. I also have a scar on my neck, so I guess I’ll trade in my Wonder Woman costume for a pirate costume for Halloween. At least I’ll have an authentic scar for the day.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us Jesus is the suffering servant,

“He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” (53:3-5)

The Jewish people hoped for a messiah king, who would be a warrior hero in the style of King David. They hoped to restore the independence of Israel as a nation faithful to God and free from outside rule. Jesus was an unlikely messiah, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 21:22-24–

“For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Even today this apparent weakness in the face of power is a message popular society doesn’t grasp. Even the people closest to Jesus, the early disciples first sought power and status in the coming kingdom, until Jesus disabused them of that notion and said,

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3-4)

The best example of suffering in Holy Week is Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. There under the twisted trunks of olive trees, Jesus wrestled with his will and his mission. Being fully human, he would not choose to die on the cross. Being fully divine, he could only fulfill his Father’s purpose. Perhaps in this struggle he thought back to his wilderness experience before he set off to preach good news to the poor and release to the captives:

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.” (Matthew 4:8-11)

Our temptations come in many forms, but mostly we can sort them into three general categories: money, sex, and power. I personally think power is the overriding category and the others are mere subsets. Anything that knocks us off kilter or disrupts our sense of security is a threat to our feeling of power and control. This is likely why Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are popular attendance days, while Good Friday doesn’t seem very “good” to the average person’s mind.

Matthias Grünewald, *Isenheim Altarpiece* (closed), c. 1512–16, oil and tempera on limewood panels, 376 x 668 cm (Unterlinden Museum, Colmar, France; formerly in a monastery hospital treating skin diseases).

As the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians (2:5-11):

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Grunewald: Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512-1515, Resurrection of Christ—part of the same altar.

May your Easter season be blessed and you find ways to meet Christ in the poor among us,

Cornelia

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The Jungian Shadow – Society of Analytical Psychology

The Jungian Shadow

Weaving a Life Story

Academy for Spiritual Formation, adult learning, art, Creativity, Faith, Holy Spirit, Icons, inspiration, Ministry, Nativity, renewal, righteousness, Silence, suffering, vision

Weaving is a metaphor for our life’s story and journey. We envision the weaver in charge of the colors, designs, and textures of the finished fabric. The weaver’s goal is to produce a beautiful product. We often think we are in charge of our own destiny, as “The Weaving Song” by Carolyn Hester, in which an old 1960’s era folk singer would sing:

Choose the right color And push the right tread

Throw through the shuttle And peg down the thread

Work is all laid Before your start

To make your own pallet Of bright hue or dark

The loom of life is moving The weaving is all your own

Choose the right color And push the right tread

Throw through the shuttle And peg down the thread

Rainbow of colors Is at your command

Choose all the right shades Offered in the stand

The loom of life is moving The weaving is all your own

Life’s but a grey And heavy with care

May blooms scarlet With couragе rare

The loom of life is moving Thе weaving is all your own.

DeLee: God’s Eye and Cross, woven canvas, branch, string, paint brushes, fabric scraps, wire, packing materials, 16” x 20”, 2025.

Yet life doesn’t always work out the way we thought it would. The Bible says Job was the most righteous person of his era, and Job complains after losing everything and everyone:

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end without hope.” (7:6)

This wisdom text reminds us sometimes the righteous suffer, even while the wicked prosper, but God is still God, and we will understand this mystery of God when we see God face to face. We call this “theodicy,” (from Greek theos, “god”; dikē, “justice”), or our explanation of why a perfectly good, almighty, and all-knowing God still permits evil to exist.

God gives human beings free will. We make our own choices in life, just as everyone else does. Since we don’t live in a universe of one, other people’s choices impact our choices. Imagine a pingpong ball tossed into a room filled with mousetraps all loaded with other pingpong balls. If one ball hits a loaded trap, it sets that ball off into motion and those balls set more balls into motion until chaos ensues! If more than one person is involved, some sort of disagreement is sure to follow. Some of us are even at odds with our own selves!

As the old joke goes, a solitary man was rescued from a desert island. On this island were several structures. When asked, he said, “That one was my house and that one was my church.” And the other building? “That was the church I used to go to!”

Louise Bourgeois: Spider, metal, National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario. Her mother mended tapestries, like a spider spins a web.

When life is chaotic, creative people find solace in the quiet of their chosen deserts: the studio, the workshop, or their favorite writing chair. While we artists have the illusion we can control the images we produce or the songs which bubble up from our hearts, in truth, what we create is a shared product with our heart, mind, and the creating spirit. If we begin to lose our humility about this shared process, we lose the creative energy underwriting our works.

Louise Bourgeois: Metal Spider wrapped in yarn, Japan

We know this emotion as “pride,” and the ancient cultures warned against it. Throughout history, legendary and mythological figures have been used as examples of either virtue or a moral failing. The story of Arachne and Minerva is no different.

Attributed to Amasis Painter, 6^th BCE, Greece, clay, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A 6^th BCE Attic Black Figure Lekythos storage vessel attributed to the Amasis Painter shows the type of standing loom and the various shuttles of different threads a weaver would use for a fabric. Today we think of weavers sitting at their looms, but the ancients stood at their work.

Arachne was a mortal who excelled in the weaving arts: spinning her own yarn and selecting the correct colors to produce the beautiful images for the finished fabric. Minerva, the goddess of handicrafts and the Roman correlate to the Greek goddess Athena, had heard of Arachne’s prowess and her pride. Disguised as an old woman, Minerva visited Arachne to warn her not to disparage the gift of the gods. Arachne rebuffed her, and held her ground, even when Minerva revealed her true identity.

Minerva (Athena) and Arachne by René-Antoine Houasse (1706), Versailles

When the weaving contest began, both were even in technique and design. Minerva’s image was of the pantheon of the gods, but Arachne told the stories of the god’s mishaps with humanity. This angered Minerva, who struck Arachne with a weaver’s shuttle. Embarrassed, Arachne took a rope to hang herself, but Minerva had pity on her and changed her into a spider instead. We call spiders, ever weaving their gossamer webs, “arachnids” in her memory.

In Christian art, the theme of listening beside a well or spring is connected both to the angel’s annunciation to the Virgin Mary and to her weaving curtains for the Temple. The third-century Dura-Europos church baptistery has a fresco of a woman drawing water from a well, which Yale theologian Michael Peppard believes represents the Annunciation to Mary at a well, from a scene from the gnostic writing, Protevangelium-18.

Woman drawing water at the well. Possibly the Virgin hearing the Angel’s voice. Dura Europa.

Others think it represents the Samaritan woman at the well or Rebecca from the Old Testament. Because the fresco doesn’t include Jesus, the empty space instead represents “the bodiless voice” that Mary hears in the Protevangelium. Also, a five-pointed star appears on the woman’s torso, which could symbolize the new child in her womb. The star in later iconography was repositioned to the shoulder of her mantle, and the water vessel survives all the way into the Renaissance art as a vase with flowers.

From The Protoevangelium of James, section 11: And she took the pitcher, and went out to fill it with water. And, behold, a voice saying:

“Hail, you who hast received grace; the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28) And she looked round, on the right hand and on the left, to see whence this voice came. And she went away, trembling, to her house, and put down the pitcher; and taking the purple, she sat down on her seat, and drew it out. And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood before her, saying: “Fear not, Mary; for you have found grace before the Lord of all, and you shall conceive, according to His word.” And she hearing, reasoned with herself, saying: “Shall I conceive by the Lord, the living God? And shall I bring forth as every woman brings forth?” And the angel of the Lord said: “Not so, Mary; for the power of the Lord shall overshadow you: wherefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of the Most High. And you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” And Mary said: “Behold, the servant of the Lord before His face: let it be unto me according to your word.”

This apocryphal Greek text, which was first written in the 2^nd CE, with Syrian revisions into the 5^th CE, is important because it increases our insights into women’s history, the childhood history of Jesus, Jewish-Christian relations, and the impact of Christian apocrypha on Islamic origins. This text, which contains the infancy narratives of the Virgin Mary, John (the Baptist), and Jesus is the source many of the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox religious feast days. Moreover, it’s also the origin for the icons representing the birth of Jesus in a cave.

Duccio: The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, tempera and gold on panel, 1308-1311, National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. Part of a series of the Life of Christ, the rest of which are in Sienna, Italy.

A similar Marian birth narrative, The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, gives more details on the life of the Virgin, the miracles surrounding her marriage and the birth of Christ. It also tells the story of the Annunciation in two visits rather than one. The angel’s first greeting is beside a fountain and the second is inside while Mary is weaving the curtains for the Temple.

When I was on a recent Five-Day Academy for Spiritual Formation retreat, one of our hands on projects was a small weaving. Our package had a small loom, some yarn to weave with, and beads to attach. Of course I had to use a second packet to finish out my weaving because I tightened the horizontal rows more tightly than the organizers thought the regular attendees would do with their yarns and ribbons.

I also had my eye on a nice lichen covered branch to use as a hanging support. When I picked it up, it had red ants on it. I had to do some mad shaking to get them off! Anything for art! During one of our quiet reflection sessions, I sat beside a small lake under a pavilion to let my hands work. I’ve always needed a quiet space to process the flood of ideas and the rush of emotions when meeting new people and hearing new ideas. I operate as an extrovert, but when I get full to overflowing, I need quiet to recreate and recharge. I find new power in the admonition of Psalm 46:1-6—

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Diedrick Brackens, “prodigal” (2023), cotton and acrylic yarn

When my hands touch the different textures of the threads, and I let my spirit work with the creating Spirit of the word and world, I can shed all the strain and stress of being on a different schedule from traveling, having nerve pain in my neck from a bulging disk, and more interaction than I’m used to since I no longer work.

I always fought to carve out quiet times when I was in active ministry, for listening to God is the first calling of any leader worth their salt. I knew I wouldn’t hear God’s voice in the pell mell rush and cacophony of our world. The disembodied voice is more likely to come to us when we’re alone or in a receptive moment. It’s important to note Mary was one of the virgins of the House of David chosen to weave the curtains for the Temple in Jerusalem, according to The Protoevangelium of James, section 10. She was busy, but working for her God. It was when she took a break to draw water from a life giving well that she heard the messenger from God.

Bruce Conner, Arachne, 1959, mixed media: nylon stockings, collage, cardboard, 65 3⁄4 x 48 3⁄4 x 4 1⁄4 in. (167.0 x 123.8 x 10.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin, 2005.5.12

When I was appointed to a church, I always had a list of tasks to do, but I often never completed them because God would send “interruptions” to my well laid plans for the day. After several years, I began to understand these interruptions were my real tasks of ministry for the day. We have plans, but God has a better plan.

The prayer in my weaving supplies was appropriate for me on this retreat:

Teach us to listen, O Lord.

Quiet the noise of our lives

so we can hear your voice. Amen.

After several weeks, I’ve come back to finish this blog. In the meantime I’ve had anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for my neck pain and numb fingers. It’s for the bulging neck disk that causes pressure on the spinal cord. If this happens in the lower back, a person gets sciatica and numbness in the legs. In the neck,the same condition affects the arm and hands. I feel better than I did before, so I’m thankful for all healing mercies. I have to be careful not to overdo my activities. The instructions “Don’t do housework!” were gladly received.

I hope you seek out your quiet spaces and quiet moments to hear the sheer, still sounds of silence, the inaudible voice of our God.

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

NOTES:

Carolyn Hester: The Weaving Song, Track 10 on At Town Hall, One, Produced by Norman Petty, 1965.

Troubadour: Weaving Song: similar words to Hester coffee house ballad above. https://music.apple.com/us/album/weaving-song/400303687?i=400303767

Myth of Arachne https://www.worldhistory.org/Arachne/

Ally Kateusz: Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership,1st ed., 2019, Kindle Edition

Annunciation or Samaritan Woman, Dura-Europos Baptistery
https://www.christianiconography.info/Wikimedia%20Commons/annunciationDura.html

Charles Bertram Lewis:”The Origin of the Weaving Songs and the Theme of the Girl at the Fountain,” PMLA, Jun., 1922, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Jun., 1922), pp. 141-18, Modern Language Association. http://www.jstor.com/stable/457

Susan B. Matthews: Dura Europos—The Ancient City and The Yale Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, 1982, Yale University Printing Service. https://artgallery.yale.edu/sites/default/files/publication/pdfs/ag-doc-2378-0002-doc.pdf

Camille Leon Angelo and Joshua Silver: “Debating the domus ecclesiae at Dura-Europos: the Christian Building in context,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 37 (2024), 264–303, doi:10.1017/S1047759424000126. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/E76ED3AD86D09A74893368840DEDFA6A/S1047759424000126a.pdf/debating-the-domus-ecclesiae-at-dura-europos-the-christian-building-in-context.pdf

The Protoevangelium of James, section 11. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, section 9. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0848.htm

Horn, C. (2018). The Protoevangelium of James and Its Reception in the Caucasus: Status Quaestionis. Scrinium, 14(1), 223-238. https://doi.org/10.1163/18177565-00141P15

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Weaving a Life Story

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