• OAKLAWN FRIDAY ART CLASS

    WE’RE BACK!!! Ready or not, the creative juices must be stirred. If the brain has lain fallow all summer, or it’s been overworked keeping the youngsters occupied, now you can find your own groove again. Our first meeting will be Friday, September 8, at 10 am in the old fellowship hall. Bring your own acrylic…


  • I See the Icon—The Icon Sees Me

    The icons of Christ radiate a sense of calm, a spiritual experience created countless times by various artists over the ages. Each one channels the spiritual force which lies outside of language, mystery, and mysticism. Over the years, we’ve come to understand the icon serves as a window into the world beyond our own. In…


  • Rabbit! Rabbit!

    Welcome to August! In the long summer evenings, after an extended car trip, and way beyond the too many times I’d asked my mother and daddy rabbits, “Are we there yet?” I would get their firm reminders I wasn’t to bother them any more, for they too were hot, tired, and daddy had to pay…


  • Rabbit! Rabbit!

    Welcome to June 2023 Since we’re now past Memorial Day, the unofficial beginning of summer has arrived. Yet the summer solstice, which is astronomical summer won’t be here until Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 9:57 AM CDT. Weathercasters use this alternative meteorological definition: “seasons begin on the first day of the months that include the equinoxes…


  • THE FLAGS OF MEMORIAL DAY

    Our next to last art class before summer break was right before Memorial Day. I had my last cataract surgery on the Tuesday before, so Mike gave me a lift into class. I wasn’t quite ready to drive yet. I thought we’d be finishing the work we began last week, but that wasn’t on the…


  • New Eyes, New Visions

    This week as I recovered from cataract surgery, a memory from my childhood finally surfaced. In the late 1950’s in my hometown, I had met an artist who could barely see to paint anymore because of her vision loss due to cataracts. Doctors hadn’t yet invented the modern replacement lenses and use of small incisions…


  • Chaos and the Order of the Day

    Morse Peckham, author of Man’s Rage for Chaos, believed “Order is humanity’s freedom; but the rage for order creates its own limits on that freedom.” Art, he maintained, enabled the artist to fight that rage, which destroys what it would create. Only the rage for chaos can balance the rage for order. As one who…


  • Growth in Faith and Art is a Risky Business

    Oscar Wilde famously said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” This is because the self-conscious aim of life is to find expression and art offers it certain beautiful forms, through which it may realize that energy. Yet most people who look at artworks judge them for the degree to which they represent…


  • From the Shadows to the Light

    Rabbit! Rabbit! Welcome to 2023! This old bunny may not see the clock strike midnight, but I’m recovering from a bad cold. Rest is more important than ringing in the New Year. Every year has its own character. Zeitgeist is a word that comes straight from German — zeit means “time” and geist means spirit,…


  • Reflections on America

    Today marks one week since our most recent election. Many races have been decided, while some are due for an automatic recount due to the close vote. At least one senate race will have a runoff between the top two candidates (Georgia), as some races haven’t been decided at all, since the vote counters took…