Artandicon's Blog

  • Holy Fire in the First Cathedral

    Revisiting a theme for a new painting. I’m in a different mood and this painting’s bright colors reflect this. Working on a painting over several days allows me to build my ability to concentrate over longer periods for reading or listening to conversations.

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  • Icarus and the Sun

    After a long dry spell due to attending to other important matters, such as the taxman and the excitement of my annual conference, I have returned to my studio with pent up joy for painting. While all of us need to take care of the business of everyday life, I am finding I move more…

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  • JOURNEY TO THE CROSS

    In the season of Lent, the forty days before Easter, Christians walk with Jesus toward the cross as he prepares for his death and resurrection. Luke 9:51 tells us, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Luke relates many of the miracles, parables,…

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  • Rublev’s Holy Trinity

    My artistic and spiritual journey with the Rublev icon of the Holy Spirit left me wanting to return again when I am in better health. I’ve made my way into the common pitfalls which result from inattentive observation and will be in a better frame of mind at a later date.

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  • Never surrender!

    “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…

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  • Weaving a Life Story

    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…

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  • The Creating God

    In the dead heat of summer, our gardens aren’t putting forth the fruit of our planting. Maybe the animals of our neighborhood have made their too frequent nightly visitations, so our harvest is skimpy. We can forget God is a both a creating god and a recreating god as well. The first words of the…

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  • The Witness of the Cross

    We are a people who follow Jesus, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and (who) has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God,” as the writer of Hebrews 12:2 reminds us.…

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  • Entertaining Angels Unawares

    One of my favorite icons is the Rublev Trinity of 1411, which represents the three angelic visitors who came to Abraham and Sarah’s tent in the wilderness. They stopped there on the way to Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities known for their lack of hospitality to strangers, so the largess Abraham showed by preparing a…

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  • Music of the Spheres

    One of my favorite hymns growing up in the church was “This Is My Father’s World,” by Maltbie D. Babcock, a Presbyterian minister. Written in 1901, to the tune Terra Beata, or Blessed Earth, the song was originally a traditional English folk tune, but composer Franklin L. Sheppard arranged a variation specifically for this text.…

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