Artandicon's Blog

  • Dinosaurs and X-acto Knives

    I must be the last dinosaur on the earth who still hand cuts with an X-acto knife and a mat knife. Fair warning—this is an old codger rant of sorts. I still have the knife I used in art school. It’s the same one that took a slice off my left index finger when I…

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  • Crossroads and Callings

    Nine years ago…how time flies when you’re having fun! I was at a crossroads in my life, however, with a preexisting health condition I’d managed to live with successfully through three high stress careers since 1977. Accumulated stress isn’t good for the body, so my seizure disorder began to make itself visible. When my neurologist…

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  • The Burning Bush

    How long does a new and unusual aspect of our environment need to be in place before we notice it? On the other hand, how long does it have to persist before we treat it as the new normal and begin to ignore it? My mom and dad were married right after World War II,…

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  • HOT OFF THE EASEL

      It’s summer, so what other temperature would it be? I’m in the midst of destroying some of my old works, since I’m tired of looking at them, I’ve grown beyond them, I’ve learned what I needed from the act of doing them, and the best ones from my past series got sold. These “unsold…

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  • Pantocrator icon: Progress Report

    Progress: the 13th hour on the Pantocrator Icon. Acrylic on gold primed canvas. 18″ x 24″. Good things come to those who persevere. Painting an icon is one of the ancient spiritual disciplines. The artist isn’t just copying by rote or filling in a design, as in a paint by numbers craft piece. Instead, the…

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  • Generation to Generation: Learning to be Free

    “The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” ~~ John 8:35-36  With all the Paula Deen jambalaya on the airwaves lately about her treatment of African-Americans and her misplaced desire to have a…

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  • The Journey Never Ends

    “A highway shall be there and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray.”~~ Isaiah 35:8 All good things come to an end, but the ending is just the beginning of something new. This week a…

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  • Exploring New Lands

    “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’” ~~ Genesis 12:1  Finding a restroom in the States is pretty simple. Most of us eat in “box” restaurants, not that we always eat fast food. Every chain restaurant is…

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  • Doing Battle With The Dragon

    “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, 
but the victory belongs to the Lord.”  ~~ Proverbs 21:31  As I journeyed with my group along the Silk Road on the fourth day of our pilgrimage, we saw the twin peaked volcano Mount Erciyes, on which St. George of Cappadocia was said to have slain…

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  • We Journey By Stages

    “And Abram journeyed on by stages towards  the Negeb.” ~~ Genesis 12:9 “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor” (Deut 26:5) is likely the first affirmation of faith in the Bible. It speaks to a people who began their lives with a call from God to journey in faith: “Go to the land that I will…

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