Friday in art class we painted our own unique designs on t-shirts for Monday’s Total Eclipse of the Sun. Anticipation of an event is characteristic of young children, while adults often feel over saturated with the early build up of attention given to an important event. By the time it gets here, we go, “Wow, what a letdown.” Children, who have fewer years of experience and anticipation comparison, can still marvel at the alternate reality of the total eclipse.
In the sixth century BCE, Anaximandros believed “the moon has a false light and is illuminated by the sun, and the sun isn’t smaller than the earth and it is pure fire.” The Greeks in 290 BCE knew the moon was unlike the sun. Anaximenes wrote it “didn’t shine with its own light, but with the reflected light of the sun,” as Eudimos wrote in his book History of Astronomy. The Chinese also studied the skies and stars. They used bones heated in fires to divine messages from their deceased ancestors as early as the 12th century BCE.
Chinese oracle bone depicting lunar eclipse of 12/27-28/1192 BCS.
The Death of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels has the record of an eclipse occurring during the time of the crucifixion. John’s Gospel, which comes from a different source, doesn’t mention this time of darkness.
Egon Schiele, Crucifixion with Darkened Sun, Oil on Canvas, 1907.
When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ~~ Mark 15:33
From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ~~ Matthew 27:45
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ~~ Luke 23:44-45
When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ~~ John 19:30
Yet the Gospel of John tells us more about the miracles of Christ and his dual nature (both human and divine), so that we might believe and have everlasting life through him. New Testament scholar Ernst Käsemann is correct when he says of the Fourth Gospel: “Judged by the modern concept of reality, our Gospel is more fantastic than any other writing of the New Testament.”
Bruce Metzger, noted New Testament scholar and lead translator of the NRSV said, “The more often you have copies (of biblical texts) that agree with each other, especially if they emerge from different geographical areas, the more you can cross-check them to figure out what the original document was like. The only way they’d agree would be where they went back genealogically in a family tree that represents the descent of the manuscripts.[104]
Tim’s Eclipse T-shirt: very simple due to his rehab from arm surgery. He uses his arm until it hurts and then he rests. We do what we can, not what we can’t.
We modern folks are used to looking at the world through the eyes of science and education. We look for repeatable patterns and consistent evidence. We have “grown up minds” with calendars, schedules, to do lists, and multiple people who make demands on our time. Often, we are thinking about our next meeting or chore before we even finish the one we’re currently working on at the moment.
We aren’t practicing Brother Lawrence’s admonition to “Practice the present moment.” Our constantly chiming cell phones don’t help us be present, even though we could set our notifications to silent. Indeed, we’re never present or still enough to know the peace of the God whose name means “I AM.”
Lauralei’s Eclipse T-shirt: experimenting with fabric paint
What is “reality?” How can we know the present moment and come closer to God? With the advent of photography people began to think super realism in painting was preferred to some degree of emotional expression. Today, with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, we can make computer generated photos and paintings that go beyond our wildest dreams! This means our new generations may likely begin using tactile materials and hand-built techniques to create future art works. Instead of fantastic other worlds, they might find their inspiration in the environment or in social justice concerns.
Gail W’s Eclipse T-shirt: first stage in class. She came with a design in mind and brought her sewing chalk also.Gail W’s Eclipse T-shirt: the finished product. Some of our inspirations are too grand to be completed in a few hours. We need to have the desire to carry the effort forward to meet our goal.
As with the icon, the artwork is only a reflection of the image which is painted. The icon isn’t holy, but the person depicted is holy. As the writer of Hebrews 1:3-4 says:
“He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”
I didn’t get a photo of Mike’s “Crawford Law Eclipse T-shirt.” Work called and he had cats to herd. He was generous as usual to bring fabric paints for the group to share. We used old newspapers inside our T-shirts to keep the paint from bleeding through to the backside. We had an opportunity to share stories and eat my birthday doughnuts which Tim blessed me with.
Cornelia’s Eclipse T-shirt: I collapsed all the moments of occlusion into three, so I could finish in one sitting.
If we take time to practice our art, we may realize our own works may be only a reflection of the glory of what we saw, but we we can continue to practice our skills in prayer, for God will bring us ever closer to perfection if we commit our work to God’s glory.
Leonardo da Vinci: Study of the technique for observing solar eclipse, Codex Trivulzianus, 1487–1490
Also, Marilyn, who was working with some other ladies of the church on the potato bar posters, had brought the warm-gooecrescent roll-cream cheese-vanilla-cinnamon-sugar dessert. If you ever have a chance to put this into your mouth, you will be transported into an alternate reality. This is the stuff from which dreams and visions arise! If you eat it, and you merely remark, “Good,” my thought is you’re dead to this world or you’ve lost your sense of taste. The child in me screamed for MORE!! The adult in me will see if I can reduce the calories with no depreciation in taste.
Paul Nash: Eclipse of the Sunflower, 1945
I hope we get a break from the clouds on the Great American Eclipse Day. The last one I traveled to in 2017 was very impressive and worth the journey. Watch it on television if you can’t be outside. Only look at the sun with certified eclipse glasses. Some experiences are such that we can only say “Awe!” And we may want to stop time forever, but time will march on, for we can’t move the sun either forward or backwards. No matter how important we are, we aren’t gods, and we aren’t even Time Lords. If we manage to grasp only a portion of the holiness and beauty of God’s creation in this one event, we will better experience the joy of the passing glory of our God:
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” ~~ Psalm 8:3,4 (NRSV)
View of the Great American Eclipse 2017 at Lake Barkley through a pinhole
Bruce Metzger was the master of several ancient and modern languages and ended up teaching at Princeton for 46 years after he received his PhD there. As one of the editors of the standard Greek New Testament used today and the senior editor of the NRSV, his scholarship has proved to be almost impeccable. His specialty was New Testament textual criticism, the field whose primary goal is to ascertain the wording of the original text. Many considered him the finest NT textual critic of the 20th century. His death in 2007 left giant footprints for the next generation to come.
Paul Nash, British Military artist, died in 1946 of complications from asthma. He didn’t see the total eclipse, but knew of it and was very connected to nature.
All things will renew themselves in good season, yet we have only the present moment before us. We can’t live in the past, nor can we control the future. We have to recognize even our present moments aren’t always in our control, as we witnessed in the big Super Bowl game last Sunday.
Random Actions Often Determine the Outcomes of Sporting Events
Who would ever believe a punt would hit a receiving teammate’s foot, and suddenly become a live ball? Then get recovered by the Chiefs for a quick touchdown? If you think you can control your circumstances or the actions of others, just watch the NASCAR races at Daytona this weekend. The wonder is they don’t wreck in every turn, but only occasionally during the 500 mile race on Sunday.
Watercolor is more difficult medium to manage than acrylic paints because it’s wetter and refuses to dry as quickly as we want to paint in that same area. It’s not being obnoxious; it’s just being its own true self. Cezanne used watercolors to think out his ideas beforehand, and then worked in oils. Often, he tossed aside the watercolor work, sometimes even leaving it out in the landscape which he’d just painted. He’d learned all he could from it and now was ready to paint his new image, but not a copy of the original painting. This mountain shows up in sixty of Cezanne’s artworks.
Paul Cézanne: La Montagne Sainte-Victoire, 1888, oil, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
The stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote a series of meditations on life. In one he speaks of all life experiences as being the same. This attitude keeps him from getting too high or too low about what happens in his life. He takes it as it comes. Even death, which some fear as a loss, doesn’t bother him, for if he isn’t bothered about the present, he can’t be bothered about losing that too. Marcus Aurelius wasn’t a Christian, but his quest for equanimity is admirable. Take life as it comes and worry not:
“First, that all things in the world from all eternity, by a perpetual revolution of the same times and things ever continued and renewed, are of one kind and nature; so that whether for a hundred or two hundred years only, or for an infinite space of time, a man see those things which are still the same, it can be no matter of great moment. And secondly, that that life which any the longest liver, or the shortest liver parts with, is for length and duration the very same, for that only which is present, is that, which either of them can lose, as being that only which they have; for that which he hath not, no man can truly be said to lose.”
The Still Life in Our Classroom
When we work in watercolor, we have to take what the watercolor gives us. While we can plan, design, and control the outcomes to a certain extent, watercolor often goes its own way. If we work over the whole surface, rather than noodling around in one little space like a puppy sniffing a single spot while out on its morning constitutional walk, we get more done, just as the puppy is more likely to get its “business” done.
One of the reasons we work in a new medium is for the challenge. In school, when I was bored, I’d take notes in class by writing upside down. When that got too easy, I began using my left hand to write upside down. This was a true challenge! I didn’t have any ingrained pathways in my brain for left-handedness, much less the upside-down images. I was truly bored, however, so I struggled on until I got serviceable images. This was the year in which I went to art school as a midyear junior and was taking a freshman level history course.
Tim’s Painting
Tim has voluntarily switched to his left hand because he will have surgery on his right side, which will knock out his ability to use that arm for several months as he recovers. This is a good effort for his non dominant hand. You can tell he focused on the scoop, for it has the most detail. Training our alternate hand to do the work of our dominant hand requires resetting the brain to prefer the new hand. If you try brushing your teeth with your other hand, you’ll see exactly how strange it feels to use a different hand. This is because you have no well-worn pathways in your brain circuitry that makes this routine effort possible.
The fancy pants word for this is neuroplasticicy. We meet this concept with stroke survivors who do physical therapy to rewire their brain connections to make new pathways so they can speak, write, or walk. Everyone who tries a new game, learns a new language, or tries a new hobby also builds new pathways in their brains. Be learners for life, if you want to keep your mind healthy.
Gail’s Painting
Our still life was challenging today. It had solid shapes, a clear bottle, and a metal scoop. Not only were there multiple colors, but textures and transparency also. Gail has had several years of drawing under her belt, so she was able to render the perspective of the still life well. Note the clear blue bottle, which has a wonderful oval bottom. The lemons and limes are distinct also. The grey shape is an antique scoop, sans the handle.
In 2008, J.K. Rowling spoke at the Harvard commencement exercises, telling the graduates, “Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates.” Because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, taking care for today is the best preparation for the future. Rowling studied the Classics at Harvard, a subject most people would consider useless for this modern era. Yet after a divorce, as a single parent working for Amnesty International, she began writing her wizard novels. Harry Potter is now part of our cultural heritage.
As Jesus said in Luke 12:25-26–
“And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?”
Worry is stressful, for sure, and it’s an example of “bad stress,” along with traumatic events, such as adverse childhood experiences (ACE), disease, divorce, and death of a loved one. We also endure “good stress,” as when we challenge ourselves to lift heavier weights, cook a new recipe, or learn a new language. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his 1841 essay Heroics, paragraph 14:
“The characteristic of a genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have chosen your part, abide by it, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic. Yet we have the weakness to expect the sympathy of people in those actions whose excellence is that they outrun sympathy, and appeal to a tardy justice. If you would serve your brother, because it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you.
“Adhere to your own act and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age. It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, —”Always do what you are afraid to do.”
When I was in high school, the ancient Latin teacher, who had taught my daddy when he went to school, tossed out the challenge, “No one has ever made 100% on my final Latin exam.”
I bit on that challenge like a starving dog bites on a bone, even if it has no scrap of flesh remaining on it. I made flash cards and studied for an hour every night before bed, I was so determined to be the exception to the rule. On the test, I got all the Latin correct, but lost ½ point for misspelling an English word. I never followed up on her retirement, but I fully expect her record remained unblemished. Also, I’m still spelling challenged. I’m thankful for SpellCheck in our writing apps.
Gail W.’s Painting
Gail W. paid attention to the still life and took care to lay down a close image in a pale wash before she began to add darker washes of color. Her left lime is most successful, with at least six shades of green and yellow in the shape. I also like the highlight on the central lemon. These two images capture the essence of the watercolor medium. Her perspective on the bottle bottom indicates it sits well on the cloth.
Failure teaches us what we don’t know, so we can improve the next time. This is what we call resilience. When I taught art, my students had to find three things they did well in their work before they named anything they needed help on. This was to build up their confidence. For some of them, just making a mark on the page was a start. If we fear making a mistake, we can sketch in a pale-yellow wash. This is very forgiving, like a whisper in the wind. If it’s not quite right, the next few marks may be nearer our desired outcome.
This Is Fine—Leave Me Alone, I’m Having a Crisis
Our mindset is what controls how we react to events in our lives. As one of my friends would remind me, “Not everything is a hair on fire moment.” Of course, when I was a young teen, the least slight or distress caused me to fling myself over my bed in a paroxysm of sobs, wailing loudly, “I’m going to die!” My parents would look at each other and shrug, “What boy is it now?” Fifteen minutes later I’d be in the kitchen looking for a snack, having cried my eyes out, and now I was on to the next thing. As I had more experiences, I learned to roll with the moment. Sometimes you need to wait for the next wave to rise before you take your ride. God’s timing is always right, for our experiences, both the failures and successes, prepare us for what comes next in our lives.
Cornelia’s Watercolor
I had some of the same perspective problems as everyone else, especially with the base of the bottle. Actually, it’s a challenge to get a “transparent three-dimensional object on a flat surface” to appear as if it’s actually sitting on a flat surface in two dimensions. Learning some shading techniques and remembering a round bottle bottom becomes an ellipse helps to bring off this sleight of hand. I got my paint too dark on the front of the bottle base and had to let it dry so I could come back in with some clear water and an almost dry brush to pick up the color. This gave me the highlight I needed.
Cornelia’s Drawing over the Watercolor
When I got home, I noticed my eyesight seems to be going amiss with my increased age. Lately I’ve not been careful to paint my verticals straight. Either I’m being lazy, or I’m tilting my head as I look at the subject. Maybe my neck injury has something to do with it. I duplicated the photo and used the Apple Pencil to straighten up the bottle and even up its symmetry. I also touched up a few of the lemons and limes. Maybe I’m still the puppy that likes to noodle around and sniff about until I can wrest all I can get from a work. This way I learn all I can from it. Like a kindergartner, if my work ends up a huge grey blob, I can say, “That was a great learning experience!”
My grandmother, who painted portraits and still lifes, kept a saying written on the back of an envelope, near her easel: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again.” She passed in 1970. Years later, Samuel Beckett, in his 1983 story, Worstword, Ho wrote:
We need to be like great artists and athletes, or the Michelin chefs who just keep trying, falling short, until they get close enough to qualify for their stars. Persistence makes all things possible, and if we “fail,” we’re only getting closer to perfection.
“Transfer of Learning” is a concept in which anything learned in one situation or environment can be applied in another. When I taught art, I would have my students use mathematics and fractions when they cut mats to present their work for exhibition. “Why do we have to use math in art?” they whined, “We’re never going to use it in our lives again.”
“Are you going to buy a house, a car, or shop for clothes or groceries? How will you know you’re getting a good deal?” They got out their pencils and rulers, even though they hated fractions.
Step 1: draw a light under painting
This was decades ago, before “Train for Today’s Workplaces” became a mantra among some politicians. The only problem with training for today is the ever-changing nature of the modern workplace, which can make skills obsolete in a mere two years. Executives believe nearly half of the skills that exist in today’s workforce won’t be relevant just two years from now, thanks to artificial intelligence. However, human creativity will always be needed to guide AI. Folks who want white collar jobs today will need to buy into continuous learning, since the current job market will require ever changing skills.
Step 2: add some thin washes to build up the solid surfaces
We’ve all heard the saying, “Jack of All Trades vs Master of None,” but this might be the best possible scenario for our modern world. In our highly professionalized society, we all want the best physician and the top-notch lawyer on our case. Not everyone has the goods to acquire their services. We get the best we can afford. This is the capitalist society in which we live. In a utopian society, the poorest among us would get the same high quality medical care as the President of the United States.
Step 3: add details once surface is dry enough the paint won’t bleed. Doing background while waiting for objects to dry allows you to tighten up the edges of the objects.
“Those who can’t, teach” is a misconception, similar to the Jack of All Trades. Art Teachers can’t stick only totheirspecialty, but also must offer the gamut of skills from drawing to painting, paper cutting to plaster sculpture, clay pottery to cloth dyeing, and even more multimedia experiences. They have to be able to reach students with a wide range of talents, interests, and expertise, as well as encourage those who are ashamed of their work. Plus, they need to convince the talented to work and improve so they fulfill their promise.
This background discussion brings me to our class’s second experience in watercolor. I noted some instances of Transfer of Learning I can point out when we meet again.
Gail’s Still Life
When we paint a house, we dip our brush in a bucket of paint, apply it to the wall in one stroke, and then go back to the bucket for another dip. We don’t keep wiping the same spot on the wall over and over trying to make this one spot look better. In fact, the damp brush is just picking up the paint off the wall! Move along and cover the wall.
Tim’s Still Life
Don’t take your eye off the ball. If you want to catch a ball in any sport, you have to track it into your hands or the mitt. I noticed the ones who looked up, drew, looked, drew, checked, drew again, adjusted, and drew some more, had closer proportions in their drawings.
Measure twice, cut once. This is similar to the above sports metaphor. I learned it in the art school wood shop when I was cutting wood for my stretcher strips. Using the thumb or a brush to note the proportions of the still life objects and comparing them to the proportions of your own work helps get an accurate drawing. Check once, measure, check again, measure, and then cut. Air drawing or visualization helps to imagine the proportions before drawing the lines. Drawing lightly so you can draw over the less appropriate shape is an example of measuring twice, and cutting once.
Gail W’s Still Life
Sheep will eat the grass down to the roots, but goats will move on. Actually, I have zero experience with sheep and goats. My shepherd experience is limited to leading a congregation, none of whom could be accused of being either sheep or goats. I only know this fact from Bible Study lessons, and no one rents out sheep to clear a pasture of weeds, but they use goats because goats are smart enough to move on. In art, we need to take a lesson from the goats and move on to another section of our painting to let our colors dry, so we can avoid our colors running into each other.
Cornelia’s Still Life
Our group isn’t training for a new occupation, but keeping a challenge on our plates is a good idea for anyone of any age. Whether you’re trying new recipes or learning to play an instrument or taking up an exercise routine, whatever change you make in your life is important. Doing creative writing or crafts or arts is especially crucial for keeping our brains healthy, for these activities build new pathways in our brains. As we age, having redundant brain pathways is important to keep our minds healthy.
Participation in arts interventions have been linked with improving cognitive function and memory, general self-esteem and well-being, as well as reducing stress and other common symptoms of dementia, such as aggression, agitation, and apathy. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the interventions which promote social interaction, have multiple psychosocial benefits. While none of our group are experiencing these effects, participation also staves off the same symptoms. Researchers found visual arts programs reduced depression, improved socializing, and increased self-esteem among participants.
Expressive arts activities also help individuals relax, provide a sense of control, reduce depression and anxiety, encourage playfulness and a sense of humor, as well as improve cognition and self-esteem. Making art also nurtures spirituality and reduces boredom. Art also can reflect the emotional and cognitive condition of the artist.
Watercolor with Prang Oval 8 Student Palettes
In the classes I teach, I encourage each person finding their own voice, rather than copying my style. In the art education classes I took in college, the goals of teaching were for students to recreate the closest replica of the teacher’s model, as they followed the instructional steps to the letter.
I’m thankful I never had those teachers growing up, but by the 1980’s, regimented lesson plans were all the vogue. When I began to teach, I gave certain boundaries or requirements for each lesson, such as the use of certain color schemes or coiling verses slab built in clay sculpture, but the rest was left up to each student’s creative interpretation.
My principals were always surprised by the lack of discipline problems in my class, but when young people are given an opportunity to develop their imagination in a positive direction, rather than use it in negative behaviors, life is good. They especially liked the “hand-mouth pop quizzes” I would occasionally make them take, especially when they discovered cookies or chewing gum were involved.
Years later when I went to seminary, I constantly heard the refrain, “Will I be able to put this in my toolbox and use it in the local church?”
As a person who was preparing to be a fifth career pastor, I could only roll my eyes in silence. Every job I’d ever had prepared me for the ministry: renovating old apartments, teaching, preparing lesson plans, selling insurance, studying art history and painting, and learning how to renew and retrain my old skills for a new career. The idea of having a single toolbox that would never need new tools never crossed my mind. Seminary was where my skills to be a lifelong learner were reinforced.
I was writing this on My Daddy’s birthday. He would have been 105 if he’d lived so long. He always maintained an interest in archaeology until Parkinson’s and dementia robbed him in his late 70’s of his memories and his brilliance. He would take us on arrowhead hunting field trips on Saturdays when we were children. Armed with a cooler of lemonade and sandwiches from home, we’d go out to the countryside to walk in a farmer’s newly plowed field, with his permission of course.
In his early retirement, he enjoyed giving tours to school children at the LSUS campus Pioneer Heritage Center and driving the church bus to the food pantry to pick up the monthly food rations for distribution to the neighborhood. Staying active, engaged, and eating a healthy diet are other ways we can keep our minds building new neurons.
One of the interesting research opportunities in art and the brain is the question of whether neurodegenerative brain disorders will show up in an artist’s body of work. The progressive loss of neurons causes changes in the brain, which leads to a number of symptoms, from altered multi-sensory processing to difficulty moving and using one’s body, to subtle changes in mood, emotions, personality, social interactions; to major, disabling cognitive and behavioral impairments. Although we currently only offer art therapy for the elderly, perhaps we ought to be emphasizing the arts from earlier ages and integrate it into all of our studies to help everyone develop limber learning skills to last for our lifetimes.
Joy and peace,
Cornelia
Half Of All Skills Will Be Outdated Within Two Years, Study Suggests
National Endowment for the Arts Study: “Research Gaps and Opportunities for Exploring the relationship of the Arts to Health and Well-Being in Older Adults,” Published by the national endowment for the Arts Office of Research & Analysis
Can we really ‘read’ art to see the changing brain? A review and empirical assessment of clinical case reports and published artworks for systematic evidence of quality and style changes linked to damage or neurodegenerative disease
Our art class has worked in acrylic paint for several years, but toward the end of last year, they expressed an interest in learning about watercolors. I said, “Sure, we’ll do that. It’ll build on the color theory you already know, but you’re going to have to learn to plan ahead and learn not to rush to overwork one area. Transparencies are the mark of watercolor, so leaving your painting underworked is better than overdoing it.”
Transparent Watercolor Model
I was met with silence. Then laughter. “What the heck! We’re up for it! Bring it on!”
I love this group. They’re always up for a challenge. I think they’ve bought into my philosophy we aren’t going to be perfect, but we’re always going to learn from everything we do. As a teacher, I reminded parents their children wanted to engage with the medium to learn how far they can mix the colors before the image becomes a dark gray smudge. Then they might even push it even further until it’s solidly black. If you ask a child about their story, they might say, “The family took shelter in the house, but the storm came and blew it all away.” The story would evolve as they pushed the medium to the maximum. They learned the limitations on that day and wouldn’t go as far the next day. The process, not the product, is important.
Young children aren’t ready to draw subject matter from life but prefer illustrating stories from their imagination. They use symbols, rather than attempt to construct two dimensional designs to represent three dimensional objects. Somewhere around age 11 to 14, children begin to try to construct a realistic world in their art. While their drawings at this stage display the use of value, perspective, and light, children are extremely critical of their own success. They consider their drawing only as good as the level of realism they achieve, and they’re easily frustrated. Most people quit making art works about this age, so even as adults, their “functional artistic age” is somewhere between 11 and 14.
When my mother was teaching ceramic classes at her church, she once complained to me how her students, all senior citizens, were like “spoiled children, who each needed to have their own fresh jar of glaze to paint from.”
I asked if she was putting all the new paint jars out in the workroom, or if she kept them hidden in the supply closet. You might have thought I’d just pulled the clouds back from the sun from the way her face lit up.
“Of course! I should have thought of that! I’ll just pour out the colors they need and tell them that’s how it’s going to be. They can share.”
Paul Cézanne: The Park of the Chateau Noir with Well, 1904, graphite and watercolour, Private Collection
The old masters didn’t teach their students light, dark, shading, values, perspective, color mixing, temperature, or any other aspect of the art trade until the apprentice reached around age 10 or so. The rule when I was growing up was a child had to be able to write in cursive. That rule won’t work today, but another hand-eye coordination achievement will take its place.
It takes a while for me to know a new student’s nature, so I can give them the appropriate nurture. Some of my students will go ahead and do exactly what they want to do anyway because they have to see for themselves. They have a high tolerance for “learning,” and “experimentation.” Other students need to be kept from these excesses, because they can’t stand “failures.” Some students need to creep up to the edges of failure in order to progress, since they are so fond of being in control. Gaining the confidence to let go and let the medium have its way will be a growth opportunity which watercolor offers. Other students I can leave well enough alone, and come over when I sense they’re at a struggle point. I can recognize this when they quit working or begin to sigh loudly as they push back from their work area.
Cutting on the Fold
I’ve actually had some grownups in art classes cry because they couldn’t master a technique on the first go around. I always expected at least one child in my kindergarten class to shed a few tears when they were first learning to cut on the fold, but didn’t “hold the fold” when it was time to cut. I can repeat this rhyme, ask them to check, and then cut, but at least one will hold the open edges, which leads to two half pieces. I always have to remind them I’ve been practicing this skill longer than they’ve been alive. One day they’ll get good at it also. Effort will pay off. The same encouragement goes for adults, though most of them are too proud to shed tears.
For our first class, belated as it was due to the recent weather and my brief hospitalization for a small blood clot at the turn of the year, we chatted about the difference between acrylic and watercolor painting. Acrylic painting is more forgiving, since we can paint over our less precise marks. We saw some Cezanne watercolor landscapes to see how a real master draws and paints.
Paul Cezanne: Le cruchon vert, watercolor, 1885/1887, Louvre, Paris.
Watercolor’s luminosity depends on the sheet on which it is painted, for its brilliance is a balance between transparent washes of pigment and the light bouncing off the bright paper back to the viewer’s eyes. At first, Cézanne worked much as he did in his oil painting, applying the watercolor densely, filling in underlying pencil outlines, covering the paper completely, and highlighting with white gouache. Later he thinned his watercolor and laid down veils of color, incorporating blank paper for highlights. He often applied watercolor to dry, semi-absorbent paper, creating layers of crisply defined brushstrokes with ridges of pigment at their edges.
Our class, because they are used to the dense pigments of the acrylic paints, painted much like the early Cezanne gouache works. It takes a while to learn a new medium, especially one so radically different from their prior experiences. But just as it takes time to learn, it also takes time to unlearn! Ask my golf coach about changing my swing sometime. We’ll get the hang of it eventually.
After checking out the master, we then worked on mixing the secondary and tertiary colors from the primary colors from our Prang 8 Color palettes on our 140-pound watercolor paper (not sketchbook paper, which is thinner and will buckle under the slightest bit of water).
Cornelia’s psychedelic mushroom rainbow
I was still on painkillers for my shingles, so my painted circle never quite closed itself. Instead, it was more of a rainbow, an image of hope after all this rain and my health troubles. My secondary colors looked like rainbow mushrooms popping up from the rainbow. The wetness of some areas bled into some of the colors, giving me the tertiary colors. I had a bit more success working the wet in wet in the blue grey cloudy sky.
Gail W’s Flower
One of our new students, Gail W., imagined her color wheel as a flower in a field. Tim W. focused on the colors as patterns. I had the sense I was looking at a portion of a quilt in progress. While we had the color wheel as an image, we weren’t bound to recreate a wheel.
Tim W’s quilt patterns
Tim B. Always has a unique viewpoint, so his color wheel is moving through space. Mike used some pastel colors in addition to the Prang colors to experiment with the difference between them. He’s used to thick paint with his acrylics, so allowing more water to flood the surface and allow the light to bounce back through the paint will allow his painting to glow more brightly.
Tim B’s flying color wheel
Gail S. finished out her wheel in good form. She has good transparency of paint and mixing of colors of the three sets of colors on the wheel. Gail typically paints with thinner washes in acrylics, so her technique in that medium passes over easily to watercolors.
Gail S’s transparent color wheel
As a first start, we’re on the way. Next week we’ll try a small still life. I hope to be in less pain, so I’ll have more of my brain cells available, or at least they’ll be within hailing distance. I have some great Cezanne still life watercolors to share. A still life will test our drawing skills and our painting skills both. The Victorian art critic John Ruskin said, “No good work whatever can be perfect; and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.”
Mike’s color wheel with Prang and opaque watercolors
We aren’t being graded, so when I say “test,” no one ever fails. We only find out what we’ve learned and what we need to improve upon. Trust me, “we’re all going on to perfection, by the grace of God.” After all, this is a United Methodist art class. If I may quote Ruskin again, “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.” By this he means, art changes us. Art also opens new horizons, allows us to overcome challenges, imagine new solutions, eases our stress, finds companionship, learn resilience, appreciate culture, and develop new skills. At every age, art builds confidence, teaches us compassion for ourselves and others who try new things, and helps us keep an optimistic attitude. I personally believe art keeps our inner child alive and well. May God renew you daily in joy.
Here we are shortly before Thanksgiving, at the time I call the “high holy days of family gatherings.” We’ll be in this space-time continuum until the last whistle of the last Bowl Game—the grandaddy of them all: Sunday, February 11, 2024. That would be Super Bowl LVIII, or three days before Valentine’s Day, as a reminder to those who forget these things. As far as big games go, this tradition is almost old enough to take an early retirement. Thanksgiving is a much older tradition, however, for folks have been celebrating harvests as long as autumn has been a season. It’s always good to get a few pounds on before the winter gets here for good.
Leftover Blueberry Donut Bread Pudding
Our final class for November had a celebratory snack. Both Tim and Gail brought gifts of food: a delicious pumpkin spiced cream cheese roll and yummy blueberry and cake doughnuts. Tim let me bring the remaining doughnuts home, so I made a leftover blueberry doughnut bread pudding from them. Very good!! The recipe is on my Cornie’s Kitchen blog now (link below).
Gail’s Turban Pumpkins
Gail painted a still life of turban pumpkins and Tim finished up his leaf drawing. I worked to complete my print project. I added some bible verses cut from an almost century old Bible. The pages fall apart when I try to read it, but fixing it to the canvas will keep keep it from decaying further. As Isaiah 40:8 says—
“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Tim’s Textured Leaf Study
Sometimes the best part of art class isn’t learning how to create a more beautiful painting, but discerning how to live a more beautiful life. We’re constantly surrounded by the woes and suffering of our world, and this experience can cause us to cast a jaundiced eye on life. We can end up with negative attitudes and emotions that affect our own equanimity and wellbeing.
This is a time when my life experiences in ministry and personal suffering help others see God’s transformational grace at work in human suffering. God doesn’t cause suffering, but God can use this time for good. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8:28—“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
Even Jesus suffered and those of us who bear his name and image aren’t spared this fate. How we handle suffering is the mark of a redeemed person. No one is called to submit to abuse, but we’ll all suffer from illness, indignity, lack of respect, or the ravages of old age. Some of us suffer needlessly because we don’t measure up to an unrealistic ideal image, so we tear ourselves down and say, “we’re no good.” We’re just fine; our expectations are excessive.
Greetings from a Distant Time: It was a hope even then, not a reality.
The high holy days, which we enter into now, are fraught with expectations for many people. Families, who have estranged relationships, may feel a sense of loss if someone doesn’t appear at the family table. Likewise, those who’ve experienced a death will feel the pain of the empty chair. We can’t bring back what was, but we can honor their memories and tell their stories. We can live in the present and build new joys for the family we have now.
In the Bible, inviting someone to eat with you is equivalent to making them part of your family. Therefore, family is the people you choose, not just your blood relatives. We can have many families, but we are to love, care, and protect them all. I consider my art students as part of my chosen family.
In the new year we plan to experiment with watercolors, so if that’s an interest, a Prang 8 color watercolor box, brush, and watercolor paper should be on your Christmas list. Our December schedule is light:
• December 1–class— • December 8–no class—I’m going to Raney Lectures at PHUMC • December 15–class— • December 22 to January 3—vacation—no classes • January 5—Watercolor class
I returned from a spiritual retreat at Mount Eagle, at which we studied the Enneagram. This is our United Methodist camp site dedicated to holy listening. Of the nine spiritual personality types, I happen to be a Four: The Creative. I’m “The Sensitive, Introspective Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental.” Fours are self-aware, sensitive, and reserved. They’re emotionally honest, creative, and personal, but also can be moody and self-conscious. Fours sometimes feel vulnerable and defective, so they’ll withdraw from others, and they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living. A Four typically has problems with melancholy, self-indulgence, and self-pity; but at their best, they’re inspired and highly creative, and they’re able to renew themselves and transform their experiences.
One of the things I’ve learned over my years of teaching art is every student is unique. They all aren’t Creative Fours, even if they have an interest in art. When I taught in schools, some of the students didn’t even have an interest in art at all. It was a requirement, and they were unwilling prisoners, who were set on rebellion because they knew they wouldn’t succeed. In most education classes, this would be true. Art education classes teach young teachers how to make lesson plans with distinct outcomes and a list of steps. This makes grading easy: did the student follow the steps and how close did their product match the model?
I don’t teach art this way. Children learn to walk by crawling, but they have to roll over and pull up first. Each step is an improvement over the first one. As long as a student keeps working and learning, their work will improve. We adults have to silence the judgmental voices in our heads that tells us, “You aren’t any good.” Instead, let’s listen to that inner voice of joy which says, “Wow, we’re having fun playing with the colors and making shapes appear—it’s like magic!”
We first looked at a few images of leaf paintings to get some ideas. Often by Friday morning, my brain needs some extra caffeine as well as extra jolts of creative input to get an inspired thought to percolate through the fog. We don’t all learn just by listening, but by seeing also. Sometimes students need a demonstration or hands-on experience to figure out the best way to use the materials. I always try to let them manipulate the materials themselves, since the best way to learn is by doing. This isn’t brain surgery, so we won’t harm anyone. We also won’t lose our salvation if the paint gets out of hand. We can always save our old works and say, “Look where I started from!”
Yayoi Kusama: Leaf painting (1990)
Tim was entranced by the Yayoi Kusama Leaf painting (1990), so he began to work on drawing a leaf in this manner. He’s recovering from carpal tunnel surgery, so smaller movements are better therapy for his hand.
Tim: Leaf drawing in progress
Not everyone is focused on details. Milton Avery is a modern colorist who simplifies the landscape into its essential elements. His trees often look like large leaves.
Milton Avery: Landscape with Trees
The bright colors of the autumn leaves in the landscape provided Mike’s color scheme for his one brilliant tree. Mike has exuberance in all he does.
Mike: Tree Aflame
Henri Rousseau was famed for his jungle scenes. These were green in every shade possible. He visited the botanical gardens in Paris for his inspiration.
Van Gogh favored yellow and orange, especially in his later years. The Mulberry Tree from 1889 is a lovely example.
Norton Simon Art Foundation, Pasadena, CA
Gail went outside to grab an actual leaf, rather than work from her imagination. She has a direct connection with nature, maybe because of her years with the national parks.
A leaf against our painting cloth
Repeating this leaf shape, she covered the canvas with it, allowing it to overlap in some areas and run off the edges in others. Using a monochromatic color scheme, she gave the illusion of shadows and light.
Gail’s Golden Leaves
Matisse sought to reunify humans with each other and with nature. As the great painter said, “What I dream of is a balanced, pure and quiet art which can avoid the trouble of frustrating subjects. This kind of art gives everyone’s mind peace and comfort, like a comfortable chair where they can have a rest when tired.”
Matisse: The Dance, 1909-1910
Viewers in Matisse’s day thought his brightly colored painting of dancers was quite daring, but today we can appreciate his work as an ode to life, joy and nature.
Cornelia: Dancing Leaves
As I’ve been watching the brisk winds blow the gold and red leaves from the trees this fall, I’ve also watched them dance against the bright cerulean sky. When the sun shines on these dancers, they glow even brighter than before. They don’t have a care for tomorrow, much less for today. Now and this moment is enough for them. They remind me of the Lord’s advice to us on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:34—
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
I painted the back side of the leaves with a thin coat of acrylic paint and laid them one by one down on the white surface of the canvas. Then I gently hand rubbed the top of each leaf until I thought I’d transferred the paint. The hansa yellow was least successful as a print color, so I over printed it at the end. I mixed the green ground with the cerulean blue and two yellows. The sky has cerulean, violet, Ultramarine, and white. These I mixed as I painted, so the sky wasn’t an even color. (All skies change color due to atmosphere and distance: they get lighter toward the horizon).
Next Friday we’re going to make stamp prints. You may have cut your own design in a potato once upon a time in scouts or used vegetables to make prints. We can also use leaves, natural materials, metal objects, or found objects to create prints. Art is a time to explore and experiment. We’ll find out what works and what doesn’t!! Curiosity and the willingness to experiment and explore are all aspects of creativity. We can all learn to stretch our boundaries and learn resilience, which are experiences that help us address the stresses and challenges of daily life.
I learn something new every day. Today I learned a starfish has a brain that covers its entire body. Its whole body is made up of brain nodes! There are days I wish I were a starfish: I would have loads of brain cells!
Joy, peace, and happiness to everyone!
Cornelia
Type Four: The Individualist — The Enneagram Institute
My parents would often say, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” If this is so, I’ve had a one whale of a time in 2023. I don’t know where the time has gone, for I’d swear I just woke up in the bright new year of 2023, and now this year has grown a beard of some length. Indeed, the ground was bare, awaiting the warm breath of spring, and now it has experienced its first freeze.
Autumn is a time of transitions. Not only do the trees change colors, and then lose their wardrobe altogether, but we rabbits go from Halloween’s sugar high on October 31st to overstuffing ourselves and the roast beast at the Thanksgiving feast on the Fourth Thursday of this new month. Then we segue into Christmas somnolence with yet more cookies and egg nog (spiked and plain). On occasion we tramp out to decorate the house or scour the woods for greenery, but those days are long gone for most urban dwellers. We’re going to buy from local providers or have it delivered online.
Some of us on the first day of November will still have some of the 35 million pounds of candy corn which are still produced each year. That’s about 9 billion pieces — over a billion more than there are people on Earth. As far as this bunny is concerned, this is 8,999,999,999 pieces of candy corn too many. I’m not a lover of this form of sugar; give me dark chocolate any day. Fortune reported the “dangerous” amount of sugar consumed by kids on Halloween — three cups of sugar in 7,000 calories of candy. For context: That’s 675 grams of sugar, or the same as chomping down almost 169 standard sugar cubes, according to a Fortune article published in 2017.
A Young Bunny
When I was a young bunny, sugar was so restricted in our home, my friends and I would escape our parents’ notice during fellowship time at church to go to the empty adult Sunday school classrooms. We knew where they kept the wonderful Domino Pure Cane sugar cubes for the coffee the grownups drank. We didn’t care for coffee, which was already gone, but the sugar we fell upon like pirates on buried treasure. We didn’t ever consume 169 cubes at once, since that would’ve destroyed the entire stash.
If these had been the 35 million pounds of candy corn, which are still produced each year for Halloween, neither I nor my bunny friend would have ever touched them. The idea about 9 billion pieces — over a billion more than there are people on Earth—are still produced today is incomprehensible to my bunny brain. I think the texture of corn syrup and gelatin isn’t my first choice.
Of course, when the weather turns colder, our bunny bodies sense the need to stoke our internal fires. We do this by consuming more calories, especially the quick acting carbohydrates we find in the sugars and starches that provide the instant “heat” boost our bodies crave. Actually, any food will heat us up, but fruits and vegetables don’t have the same appeal as warm, savory, and fatty foods do in colder weather. The shorter days and the decrease of light in the winter cause problems with our body’s biological clock and lower the levels of the brain chemical serotonin. Plus, many of us reduce our physical activity, so our exercise induced levels of serotonins drop.
Healthy Eating includes More Fiber
We can overcome this loss by planning to be outside during the daytime and making sure to exercise at least 30 minutes daily. Having protein rich snacks and fiber rich soups with complex carbohydrates will help control our hunger spikes. Perhaps this transition time into longer nights and shorter days is why the First Wednesday in November is always National Eating Healthy Day (November 1). If we do only one new healthy choice per week, and add a new healthy option each week thereafter, we can transition our lifestyle into “Eating Healthy.” As a bunny, I remind my friends, it’s also National Vinegar Day—have compassion on yourself and on others. We can love ourselves and others into a better life with kindness rather than harshness. As my grandfather Bunny always said, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
Day of the Dead Skull
All Saints Day and Dia de los Muertos both are celebrated on November 1. Both recognize the departed loved ones. All Saints recognizes both those who have worked miracles as well as those ordinary saints who have lived among us and given quiet witness to their faith. Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is a three-day festival to remember the ancestors and friends who predeceased us. People decorate altars with marigold flowers, photos, and skulls in memory of the dead. They make special food offerings in their honor also.
All Soul’s Day on November 2 is a Catholic holiday to pray for the souls which aren’t yet in heaven, but are in purgatory. Protestants don’t believe in purgatory, so we don’t attend upon this day as holy.
Cookie Monster: “Me want COOKIES!”
Many of us do celebrate Cookie Monster Day on November 2, because who doesn’t like cookies?! The same goes for National Sandwich Day on November 3, for hot or cold, almost anything can be slapped between two slices of bread and get slathered with avocado or mayonnaise, and it’s good to go.
Sandwiches first appeared in American cookbooks in 1816. The fillings were no longer limited to cold meat, but the recipes called for a variety of things: cheese, fruit, shellfish, nuts and mushrooms. After the Civil War sandwich consumption increased and were sold both in high-class lunch rooms and in working-class taverns. A typical turkey sandwich in the 1980s contained about 320 calories, according to a report from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Twenty years later, a turkey sandwich contained about 820 calories. Choose whole grain bread if possible.
We seniors have more than time on our hand
“Fall Back” on Sunday, November 5, when Daylight Savings Time Ends. We get another hour of sleep on this day when the clocks go back 1 hour at 2 am. I won’t be awake to notice it, but I suggest those of you who aren’t good sleepers begin to look at your evening routines. Set a wind down time on your clock, watch, or mobile device. Let it remind you to turn on quiet music, read inspirational books, or begin your bedtime routine. Sometimes taking off our outside clothes and wearing our “at home” clothes is a signal to our mind to let go of the cares of the world.
Fighting over Van Gogh Pokémon Gifts at the Museum
Go to an Art Museum Today Day and National Chaos Never Dies Day are both celebrated on November 9 this year. I don’t normally consider chaos and art museums as being in the same category, but Disney has made several Night at the Museum movies that revolve around the trope of ancient Egyptian gods awakening to cause havoc. Actual chaos recently erupted at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam when visitors realized the gift shop had already sold out of the Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat promo card, which was modeled on the Vincent self-portrait. Evidently a small group of fans descended on the gift shop, causing a ruckus, and buying out the merchandise. It’s now for sale on eBay.
2023 Veterans Day Poster
Armistice Day marks the November 11,1918 anniversary of World War I, a war which began in August 1914, that few expected to last beyond Christmas. In 1921, an unknown soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This First World War was “the war to end all wars,” but we’re an overly optimistic nation. We’ve had a Second World War since then, plus many a regional conflict. Every time our battle ships show the flag somewhere, people think it’s going to be WWIII. Fear mongering doesn’t help the nation. We’re better and stronger than that. Plus, we have the moral duty of leadership: our country needs to show the world there’s a better way.
As I recall, both the North and the South expected the great Civil War to last just a short while, just as Putin entered Ukraine believing his army would roll into Kiev in mere weeks. Yet WWI lasted four years, WWII was six years (the US was involved only the four years from 1941-1945), and our Civil War was another 4-year slog. Wars aren’t so much “won” as lost by attrition: one side loses more men, materiel, and willpower so they surrender to the other. War is the most brutal way to settle our differences.
Armistice Day now is Veterans’ Day, November 11, but observed a day earlier (10th) this year. We celebrate our veterans who do the difficult and challenging work of using judicious force against enemy combatants, rather than civilian populations. All of our enlisted personnel take the same oath to protect and to defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic:
I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God).”
The US Constitution, 1787
We are an unusual people, we Americans, for our loyalty isn’t to a party, a president, or a person. We are loyal to the constitution, which protects our democratic institutions, values, and freedoms. We can be thankful for those who were inspired to write it, heard the prophetic call to amend it, and have the wisdom to keep us on the straight and narrow.
National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week is November 11-19 this year. While the economy is recovering, the loss of pandemic assistance funds Is hurting lower income households. They are making hard choices: food or rent, medicine or food. The number of homeless veterans has decreased, but so has the overall population of veterans. The bad news is veterans are still overrepresented in the homeless population. As you prepare for your own feast this year, I hope you remember the hungry in your community. The best way to help is with a financial donation to the local food bank. The bank can purchase food from the warehouse food bank at greatly reduced prices, thereby providing more food per dollar than individuals can purchase on their own.
World Diabetes Day is November 14. Diabetes is a disease on the increase in the world today. In the US alone, over 37 million people have this disease and over 8.5 million have it but are undiagnosed. Over 96 million US adults have prediabetes, a condition in which their insulin doesn’t take the sugar out of the bloodstream well. Switching to whole grains, less processed foods, and adding more fiber to the diet usually helps lower the blood sugar. So does daily moderate exercise.
National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day is November 15. This is a good day to practice this task, since you’ll be filling it up with excess foods if you’re hosting the feast, or you’ll be traveling away from home. If the latter, you don’t want to return home to spoiled food if the power goes off for any length of time. Ugh: I won’t regale you with the story of stench of the refrigerator in the garage which didn’t power back on after a power outage. Those outlets need to be reset manually because they’re in a “might get wet” zone. The refrigerator inside will come back on automatically. (This turned out to be a get rid of the refrigerator day.)
National Stuffing Day is November 21. If you bake your bread mixture outside of the great bird, it’s called dressing, but if you cram it into the bird, it’s stuffing. It’s safer to cook the bird without stuffing, also quicker. When baking stuffing inside a turkey, it can get get wet and mushy. If you make a flavorful stock from the turkey neck and giblets, you can make your stuffing moist and flavorful without turning it into mush.
If you live in a giant pumpkin, buy a smaller pumpkin for your pie
Pumpkin Pie Day is also November 21, so you can prepare this ahead of time if you wish. You can make a handmade crust or use a store-bought crust from the grocery. Pre bake it and fill it with the pumpkin mixture.
National Cranberry Relish Day is November 22. You can easily make your own with the juice of an orange, some sugar to taste, and cinnamon combined with a package of rinsed cranberries. Heat over medium in a saucepan, stirring frequently to keep from sticking. When the berries burst, reduce heat to simmer and reduce the liquid. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Take off the heat and put into container for icebox. Chill overnight to let seasonings combine. Serve cold as side dish.
Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, November 23. You’ve baked the turkey, and it smells amazing! Let me introduce you to pan gravy from the drippings. You need a little flour, about 2 Tbs; some pepper, about ½ cup of drippings, and 1 cup of hot water. Put the drippings in a heavy saucepan or skillet, add the flour, stirring constantly over medium high heat until flour turns caramel color. This is a medium roux. Slowly add hot water, stirring so no lumps form. Keep stirring till smooth, reducing heat. Add more water slowly if gravy thickens too much. Pepper and salt if necessary.
The idea of “thanksgiving” for the harvest is as old as time, with records from the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Native Americans in North America celebrated harvest festivals for centuries long before Europeans appeared on their soil and before Thanksgiving was formally established in the United States.
In the 1600s, settlers in Massachusetts and Virginia had feasts to thank for surviving, fertile fields, and their faith. The Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, had their infamous Thanksgiving feast in 1621 with the Wampanoag Native Americans. The three-day feast consisted mainly of meat: wild fowl procured by the colonists and five deer brought to the feast by the Wampanoag. A a stew called sobaheg was most likely served as a side dish to the main course. It was an easy way to make use of seasonal ingredients, for the stew often included a mixture of beans, corn, poultry, squash, nuts and clam juice. All are used in the traditional dish today, and all would have been available in 1621.
Potatoes weren’t around in 17th-century New England, but corn was plentiful. Natalija Sahraj
Corn and cornmeal were the main carbohydrates on the first thanksgiving meal. The first New England crop of potatoes was grown in Derry, New Hampshire in 1722, so no mashed potatoes were on the menu. Corn bread, corn mush, and corn puddings abounded, since the Native Tribes had shown the colonists how to plant beans, squash, and corn together to maximize growth of all three. The harvest of 1621 likely included beans, squash, onions, turnips and greens such as spinach and chard. All could have been cooked at length to create a green, pulpy sauce that later became a staple in early New England homes. Sweet dishes concocted from sugar or maple syrup weren’t on the menu, nor were honey sweetened deserts. At least, the Pilgrims didn’t have to save room for pie.
After the Pilgrims, for more than two centuries, individual colonies and states celebrated days of thanksgiving. The first national celebration of Thanksgiving was observed for a slightly different reason than a celebration of the harvest—it was in honor of the creation of the new United States Constitution! In 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation designating November 26 of that year as a ”Day of Publick Thanksgivin” to recognize the role of providence in creating the new United States and the new federal Constitution. During the Civil War, President Lincoln called for a national Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November after the Battle of Gettysburg. In the Great Depression President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day to the next to last Thursday in November. After two years of public unhappiness, Congress passed a law in 1941 setting Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.
Thanksgiving, 1858, by Winslow Homer, Boston Public Library
During the week of Thanksgiving, from November 19-25 or 26, we have the holidays of Church/State Separation Week and National Bible Week. If you haven’t been giving thanks for your blessings up to this time, take a break, breathe, and rejoice that you are alive. Give thanks for your hands, your food, your breath, and your heart of love. Share this thanksgiving with someone else. If each of us gives a bit of hope to someone else, we can help others have something to be thankful about.
Chocolate answers all questions.
After the rush of Thanksgiving, some of us bunnies may need medicinal chocolate. November 29 is Chocolate Day. Depending on your personality, you can buy fancy chocolate to share, or you can enjoy it by yourself along with a good book and some lavender tea. If Thanksgiving Day was really overwhelming, National Personal Space Day on November 30 might be calling your name. We all have times in our lives when we don’t need hugs, either because of physical or emotional distress. Besides, we bunnies need to catch our breath before we dash into the Christmas season.
I’m thankful for each of you who read and share my stories.
I don’t do wine painting classes. Since I teach in a United Methodist Church, our Wesleyan temperance tradition holds sway: we serve no alcohol. However, out in the world beyond there are classes where everyone drinks wine and paints the same image. They’re out for fellowship purposes more than for art, but these classes serve to get people started in the basic techniques of the media. Students copy the teacher’s model painting, often working along as the teacher instructs the class. This is the “show and tell” style of teaching, which usually results in most students’ works approximating the teacher’s example.
Wine painting classes: One Lion to Rule Them All
College art education classes often are taught this way, but art classes in art schools are never taught like this. Why you might ask? Because art schools exist to help students find their own voice, for they know copying another’s style only diminishes a student’s true voice. The creative spirit within each of us is unique, breathed into us by a holy God. Ecclesiastes 12:7 reminds us at our end, “the breath (Spirit) returns to God who gave it.” If art students are copying any art works, their teachers are humble enough to send their students to the masters first, or to life itself.
Laguna College of Art and Design art class
Art, like golf, is a humbling experience. In both we’re always playing against our handicap: we want to be “Perfect,” but we weren’t given the means to accomplish this goal without God’s grace. We go on to perfection by degrees, with the help of God, if we don’t get lazy and take the shortcuts, as the Adam and Eve, Prodigal Son, and many other great stories tell. As Jesus reminds his followers in Matthew 23:11-12—
“The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Why is it difficult to draw from life? Or for that matter, to really look hard at a painting to copy it? From an early age, most of us are taught it’s impolite to stare. In some cultures, even looking directly into the eyes of another person as you speak is unacceptable behavior. I know my parents taught me to look at them when I was in trouble, even when I wanted to look down in shame. I had to face their anger. While I didn’t enjoy it as a child, it prepared me as a teen for hateful comments from my peers, and as an adult for discrimination in the workplace. I could look people in the eye and call them out. This is likely why our early teenage children roll and flutter their eyes at us when we call them to account. They “look at us” without “looking.” And why we say, “Look me in the eye!”
19th century humorous postcard: The Artist’s Studio
We also have thoughts running through our heads: our to do lists, our concerns about our friends and loved ones, as well as the woes of the world stage. The more we learn to focus on the present moment in which we find ourselves, the better off we are. I find when I can pay attention to my colors, patterns, and how they come together on the canvas, I forget everything else.
I have some artist friends who always have a glass of wine in the studio, since it helps them relax. I think they just like wine. I’m a coffee lover, but too much caffeine makes my hand jittery, and too much wine would make my hand sloppy. I personally believe in moderation in all things, but then I’m sold on Aristotle’s “golden mean,” or the “Goldilocks zone,” where
“at the right times, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way, is the intermediate and best condition, and this is proper to virtue.”
We barely avoided the 15th government shutdown since 1981, but we now have a House majority without a Leader due to a few extremist members. These Republican Party members who are “pirates who take no prisoners and make no compromises” might want to catch up on their ancient philosophical reading before chaos ensues. Sometimes life imitates art: if you have MAX, you can watch Michael Cain in “Our Flag Means Death.”
Little Vase of Flowers
All creativity improves with either time or wine. Both allow you to loosen up and not control what happens but go with the flow of what happens on the canvas, instead of forcing the paint to go where you want it to be. I have canvases which began in one direction and ended up in quite another. I can only say my original idea was rejected by the painting in progress, for I had to “listen to what the painting wanted to become.” As Psalms 104:30 says:
“When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.”
In case you’re wondering, the “ground” of a canvas is the white primer, so it’s not a stretch to say, God’s Spirit works through us to renew the face of the “ground.” Some texts translate this as the “earth,” and God’s Spirit also works through us to restore and renew our planet to health after all the damage from industrial pollution and man made climate changes.
Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance genius, claimed, “There are three classes of people: Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” We can all learn to see. How we learn to see takes time and effort. This is why I always talk about some examples of good art before we begin our work. I know most people haven’t seen the masters, so getting images in mind is important. A little art history lesson never hurt anyone. Then I explain the project and we get to work. Stephen King, the noted author, says this about the creative experience: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
Tim’s Flower
In class we were using the flower arrangement which had been residing in the kitchen fridge for the past several weeks. I don’t know who to thank for it, but we put it back where we found it. Our group was given the key to use patterns and textures in the work. Tim wants to learn to draw from life better, but he was struggling to get his proportions to scale. I showed him the trade skill of using a pencil or part of his hand to measure part of the object and compare its size to another part.
We give away our secret sauce recipe all the time! Everyone knows how to multiply with a ruler for a scale drawing, but that idea often doesn’t occur to them if they aren’t using it on a flat plane. If they have no real ruler, the idea of using an ordinary object as a measuring device also doesn’t enter our brains. This is normal, but once upon a time, we used our bodies to measure the work in progress: a cubit was the distance from the elbow to the middle fingertip and a hand-width was just that: the width of the four fingers. Over the years these were standardized to 18 inches and 4 inches. Horses are still measured in hands today, but we moderns measure in feet and meters rather than cubits.
Gail’s Texture Painting
Gail lined out some lovely patterns on her canvas and made good progress on her painting. She always gets a good plan and executes it.
Mike was glad to be back after doing renewal work/manual labor. This creative exercise of moving bold colors and strong patterns around his canvas was a welcome respite after all that physical activity. A mental challenge seemed welcome to him.
Mike’s Flowers
I had done a pattern piece in the week before, so I enjoyed painting the still life, and may use it as a study for something larger later.
Late 1800’s Levi Strauss advertisement
We finished up our works on the second session. Tim reworked the pumpkin drawing from an earlier time and Gail finished up her texture painting of the flowers. Mike dropped in with Van Gogh books before going out on an errand of mercy to rescue a young client. He was impressed with the amount of blue clothing the people wore in Van Gogh’s paintings. I reminded him the very denim jeans we wear first came from Nimes, France. We call these “jeans,” because the weavers in France were trying to imitate the techniques of Genoa, Italy, but failed, and made instead the sturdy fabric that’s blue outside and white inside. Hence, “jeane de Nimes.”
“I did not know that!” He exclaimed.
Art is for wondering, for seeing new things, for opening up our minds to new realities and new possibilities. Whenever we go beyond what we already know, we open a new brain pathway and create new connections between the neurons. This keeps our minds agile and staves off the worst aspect of aging: the pessimistic belief that nothing is new under the sun. If we keep the optimism of a child, for whom everything is the newest and best, we’ll keep a youthful heart and spread joy wherever we go.
I was reading an article in the New York Times the other day. In “How I Learned to Love Finishing Last,” the author wrote about her slow pace as a runner. As one who regularly finishes last in my age group in the annual Spa 5K Walk each November, I’m optimistic one day I might get old enough to be in a nonagenarian age group all on my own. Perhaps if I’m 90 and still doing a 5K, they’ll give me a ribbon just for participating! “The last will be first and the first will be last,” especially if there’s only one of us in the race!
“When we compare ourselves to others,” said Dr. Justin Ross, a clinical psychologist in Denver who specializes in athlete mental health and performance, “we set ourselves up to suffer. Instead, the real psychological benefits come from enjoying what your body can do.”
Portrait of Yayoi Kusama in costume in front of pumpkin painting, photo: Noriko Takasugi
Suffering physically isn’t what art class is about, although we may suffer indignities to our egos, but this shouldn’t hold us back from doing our art works. The case of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is evidence even hallucinations of voices and images can’t keep an artist from creating. If our daily efforts don’t measure up to what we imagined in our mind, it’s merely because our inner eye sees better than our hands can execute our vision. Sometimes our eye forgets what it once learned, for we haven’t used our skill of looking in a while. A runner doesn’t leap off the couch and immediately run a marathon or even a 5K. The smart athlete takes the time to train progressively for the distance beforehand. Also, they get new shoes.
Kroger Run: Two ghost pumpkins and a small pie pumpkin
Sometimes the coach has slept over the summer also. Just as students in school need a time to relearn last year’s lessons, as a coach in art class I sometimes forget the lessons, which are second nature to me because they’ve been inculcated by multiple teachers since I was eight years old, aren’t as ingrained to my own students. I also forget I’m always observing everything around me: cloud patterns, changing colors on trees, sunlight dappling on tree branches, shadows on the ground, and reflections in windows. I think about these patterns rather than about what I need to do next or next week. My calendar will remind me of these things in due time. I’ll be wrapping this up soon so I can work on my monthly Rabbit blog.
Rabbit playing “Hide the Pumpkin.”
A National Institute on Aging study found five healthy lifestyle factors — physical activity, not smoking, not drinking heavily, following the Mediterranean-style diet, and engaging in mentally stimulating activities — can have important benefits. People who engaged in four or five of these behaviors had a 60% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s compared to those who only followed one or none. People who followed two or three of the activities had a 37% lower risk. This is your free wellness plan from Dr. Cornie, who has no medical degree, but did stay in a Holiday Inn once.
Debunking the Myth of the Split Brain Theory
Although we commonly think art is a “right brained” activity, in 2013 a group of researchers at the University of Utah discovered people actually use both sides of their brains equally. Back in the 1970’s when I was seeking employment after graduate school, the “Art is a right brain myth” ruled the creative work world. I once suggested I’d be a good candidate for a museum position because I understood both the artistic and the logical mind. I was not hired. Intuitive understanding of the brain a half century ahead of time doesn’t exactly open the doors to a fancy job.
As I recall, I got a checker’s job in a grocery store and ended up counting the teller trays and preparing the bank deposits for that store. The good news is creating works of art is a multi-process activity, one that depends on several brain regions and on redundancy of art-related functional representation rather than on a single cerebral hemisphere, region or pathway. This means even when we lose our ability to form words (typically a left hemisphere activity) our ability to create art still exists. We can still express our inner feelings and thoughts. This is good news for the aging and those who love them.
One one the great sadnesses in my ministry is being with young people who desperately want to have their old one’s memories recorded, but waited too late to ask them or were too busy with their own lives to sit and listen to these stories of the olden days. Once their old person has a stroke and loses the ability to form words, the opportunity has passed. Those stories will be locked in their minds due to aphasia, and no one or no amount of time will pull them out. We always tell young parents their babies need to be enjoyed while they’re still young, but we should also tell families to get the stories of their elders while they still can. “Strike while the iron is still hot” will take on a new meaning one day.
We needed bigger pumpkins
Gail and I were the only ones in class today. Lauralei showed up to gift us chocolate cake and keep us company. Tim and Mike were out of town. Gail and I both repainted old canvases. I showed some of the unusual ways pumpkins have been decorated by various artists, but none of them sparked any interest. We got down to work by covering our old canvas with a base of titanium white paint. Then I located all three of the pumpkins with circles and drew a baseline for the object on which they sat. I didn’t look over at Gail’s work for a while, but then I noticed she’d almost completely finished one pumpkin without roughing in the shapes of the others.
Gail had a big canvas today.
“Did you plan on finishing that one pumpkin before drawing the other two?” I asked.
Gail gave me a “needs more caffeine” stare.
“That’s what I thought. Maybe next time draw in the rough shapes so you get everything located in space relevant to each other.”
Pumpkin Spice Latte Time
We kept on painting until clean up time. I often say “I’ve slept since then.” It’s my all purpose excuse for forgetfulness or just plain airheadedness. Sometimes I have my mind on other things and I’m not focused on what’s in front of me. I forget about the wisdom of Brother Lawrence, who said “many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances and particular exercises while they neglect the love of God which is the end. This appeared plainly by their works and was the reason why we see so little solid virtue.” He also said, “there needed neither art nor science for going to God, but only a heart resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but Him and to love Him only.”
Cornelia’s small painting of pumpkins
We know Brother Lawrence from the classic text, The Practice of the Presence of God. Although it dates from the late 17th century, his lessons on living life in joy in the present moment, all for the love of God are invaluable for us modern folks who tend to live for our 15 minutes of personal fame, social media clicks, or self interest. We aren’t used to the monastic life today, or to the discipline of that lifestyle. We live in a Burger King world, in which each individual gets his or her own way to every extent possible. Unfortunately, the Christian lifestyle is one of discipline, but not harsh punishment:
“Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” ~~ Hebrews 12:11
In art class we focus on the disciplines, just as the guild artists taught the apprentices back in the day. These disciplines are not only for safety, for some of our art tools are dangerous, but also some of our techniques are proven to yield better results than others. This is why carpenters measure twice and cut once. They also cut on the outside of the line, rather than the inside. They can shave down a piece easier than adding to it. Murphy’s Law recognizes this: “A wire cut to length will be too short.”
Zen Tangle drawing of pumpkins: exercise in texture
Art class has no mysteries, but we can forget the “secret gnostic knowledge passed down by word of mouth” from our previous classes. I often use the excuse “I’ve slept since then.” Another good excuse is “My mind has gone to Pluto.” I share these with you all, for they’ve always worked for me. Of course it helps to be a natural blonde. Then again, I’m very organized, but I’m also very active, so sometimes my calendar gets overwhelmed, and I pull out the “OOPS! Card.” Even in retirement I’m still creating and sharing my faith through art and writing. It’s my way of exercising those brain cells to keep them from dying off. We old folks can still learn new things, even if it takes longer. This is what we call the persistence of effort. Those who keep using their skills won’t be losing those skills.
The same goes for learning a new skill. It’s all a matter of repetition. We can’t get frustrated if we don’t get it on the first try. We won’t be a good role model for the young if we have that attitude. We need to lower our expectations. I used to think I couldn’t knit, but only crochet. After my mom, who was a stellar knitter passed on, a friend taught me to knit in an afternoon! Where this sudden bilateral coordination came from I have no idea, but it was so welcome. Perhaps I needed to be in the right frame of mind, or I wanted to be able to carry on my mom’s memory, but I was definitely receptive to her teaching.
Letter to Theo Van Gogh, September 18, 1888
It’s never too late to learn and we’re never too old to start learning. Art isn’t just good for the brain, but it’s good for the soul. Art is our attempt to represent truth, beauty, and nature in media that can be accessible to others. By doing this, we bear witness to the creation and the Creator. We only need give our best efforts, and let God’s Spirit guide our growth.
Joy, peace, and perseverance,
Cornelia
We have pumpkins galore on the autumn altar.
How I Learned to Love Finishing Last
How the Aging Brain Affects Thinking | National Institute on Aging
Perspective is both a mental outlook on life and our ability to view things in their true relations or relative importance. In art class, we use the tools of perspective to make a two dimensional surface appear three dimensional. One of the techniques is drawing parallel lines as converging in order to give the illusion of depth and distance. An untrained eye doesn’t see this at first, but once the illusion is pointed out to them, they never can unsee it. We worked last year with one vanishing point—railway tracks—and two vanishing points—buildings seen on the corners.
Two Point Perspective
There are mysteries in this world which we don’t understand, but those of us who have been taught by others with this “secret hidden wisdom” can share it with others. The Ancient Greek mystery religions kept their knowledge for only the select few, who learned it by word of mouth in secret ceremonies. The early Gospel, however, was proclaimed openly to all who would receive it. Yet even in Corinth, some believers wanted to be more special or spiritual than others. Paul wrote them, saying they needed to know “Nothing beyond what is written,” for the scriptures contained within enough for their salvation (1 Corinthians 4:6). As an apostle, he was a steward of the “Mysteries of God,” and even if he were to understand “all mysteries and all knowledge, and…have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but… not have love…(he’d be) nothing.” (1 Cor 13:2)
Cornelia: Art Room Door
As a teacher, I can provide students with learning opportunities for every skill in art. Thanks to Oaklawn UMC, and the generosity of my clergy pals over the years, I have a space in which to teach. I don’t charge for the lessons, since I consider this my ministry in retirement. I’ve taught every age from kindergarten through adulthood. There’s no age I don’t relate to. As Dale Chihuly says about art: “Most of art is the work. Not every piece is a success. We learn from our mistakes more than from our successes. If we don’t show up to work, we never have a chance to do well.” (It’s not an exact quote—I watched the film last night).
Gail: stage 1
As I tell folks, we may be saved by grace, but progress in art is by works. We can’t have our egos invested in the product. Right now Tim is in recovery from carpal tunnel surgery. Doing light exercises with pencil is good for his wrist muscles. Art class is a form of physical therapy. He wanted to draw a pumpkin because it had some shapes he’s struggled with over time. He noticed if he moved forward or backward by mere inches, the image he saw was different. This too is a matter of perspective. What is our view point: is it fixed or variable?
Gail: stage 2
Gail and I worked on painting an interior scene. I freehanded my painting, while Gail used her ruler and pencil to draw in the door shapes. I still wasn’t totally recovered from my colonoscopy—my age is catching up on me. My brain felt foggy, but I was trying. We came back for a second week to work on this project.
Gail: stage 3—extended floors
When we leave our work, we have an opportunity to clear our minds and reflect on other things. On returning to our canvas, we then look at our image with fresh eyes. My engineer friends call this the “saturation principle.” Just as the land can only absorb so much water before it runs off, our minds will get clogged up and we just can’t seem to make progress. Getting up for a drink or a walk about is a good thing. Sometimes the paint won’t dry fast enough for us either! That’s an indication to work in another area, even if we don’t want to. We must listen to what our work is telling us.
I often let my paintings rest overnight while I get a good night’s sleep also. In the morning, I’ll see if it still holds up, or if I need to keep painting. Sometimes I’ll take a “finished” painting down after a few months and repaint it. If it won’t last three months under my eye, it doesn’t leave the house. But I’ve learned from the experience. If we ever quit learning, we are dead. I don’t plan on being dead any time soon.
ABC—Positive and Negative Choices
Learning how to see in art is the most important lesson in art. Most of us won’t be Michaelangelo or Leonardo, but we can be the best of who we are. Our outlook on life in art means accepting our imperfections and our weaknesses. Some people can’t accept the learning curve necessary to make acceptable looking products. The point of art class isn’t the product. It’s the process of doing. With the doing, the “product” will come around eventually. We just need to have a positive attitude. Besides, our salvation isn’t dependent upon our accomplishments in art, but our faith in Christ and our love for Christ spread abroad into God’s world.
A Gift from my Mom
Perspective is also our attitude towards life. As Bob Ross, the great philosopher of happy trees and the joy of painting once said,
“If you have light on light, you have nothing. If you have dark on dark, you have nothing. It’s like in life. You gotta have a little sadness once in a while, so you know when the good times are coming. I’m waiting on the good times now.”
He said this in a PBS episode filmed shortly after his wife had passed away. Art class is also therapy for the soul, for we paint our emotions on the canvas, whether we realize it or not. We don’t have to talk about our feelings, but art helps us express them.
When I taught art back in the dark ages, I told my students if they learned only one thing from me, they would never forget it. A positive attitude leads to positive behavior and positive behavior leads to positive consequences. A negative attitude leads to negative behavior and negative behavior leads to negative consequences. That’s the simple ABC’s of life in the art room. Try it. You’ll like it. This is how we teach “Perspective.”
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