Artandicon's Blog

  • Eclipse T-Shirts

    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,…

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  • Time Travel and Iconography Experiments

    Every once in a while, I like to go on journeys. Sometimes they’re actual trips, such as my recent vacation over spring break to visit family down in Texas, but other times I like to “time travel.” The best way to time travel today, since I don’t have access to a DeLorean, is to study…

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  • A Prayer to End All Suffering

    I don’t don’t know about you, but I don’t willingly sign up for pain or suffering. Pollen season isn’t my friend. I could do without all this yellow and green stuff clogging my brain cells and my lungs. As I cough and die, swill decongestant tonics, and huff my asthma inhaler, I wonder if this…

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  • What’s the Point of Suffering?

    I’ve visited the Holy Land twice, and I’m always surprised how small this country is. So much history and events of our faith happened here, yet the land isn’t much bigger than Vermont. This land is a place of great suffering, marked by the historic sites of Masada, Megiddo, and Golgotha. It’s also the place…

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  • Nativities Then and Now

    Every Christmas, my family would put up a beautiful tree and decorate it to the nines. My dad would always tie this living sculpture to the nearest window frame so the tree wouldn’t topple over. He was well aware at least one of his three curious and rambunctious children would no doubt be crawling under…

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  • Art for the Inner Child

    What is the purpose of an art class? Why does anyone learn to speak a foreign language or take up a craft or sport they’ve never attempted before? We must want to explore some unknown universe or get out of our comfort zone, or as my old favorite television series would announce weekly, “to boldly…

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  • Sharansky’s Hanukkah

    NOTE: This extraordinary story comes from Arguable by Jeff Jacoby, an opinion writer for the Boston Globe, on December 12, 2023. I’m sharing it with all of you because even in the worst of times, even with the least of resources, if we have faith in God, we can be a light unto the world.…

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  • Season of Light

    As the days grow shorter and the nights lengthen, the chill air adds to the darkness of our world. We can give into this dour outlook, especially this year with devastating wars in Ukraine and Gaza, or we can light a candle against the gathering gloom. Cultures across history have seen the time before year…

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  • Rabbit! Rabbit! Welcome to December 2023

    “Gloom begets gloom,” my daddy always said, “so if you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, it’s best to go back and get out on the other side.” Some folks today don’t have much of the Christmas or holiday spirit, for they’re only looking at the dark side of world events or…

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  • Prints, Pumpkins, and Possibilities

    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…

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