God's Blue

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-5

It has been so very long ago, that I've forgotten the name of the special paper we had to buy for that class we had to take, that class called Color. I remember it was expensive back then, in my make-every-penny-count college days. I probably could have eaten for a couple of weeks on the amount that precious pack of paper cost. But I wouldn't have eaten steak.

And the blades for our knives had to be sharp, sharp enough to slice through the clay-coat layer without chipping it. One clean, hard, sweeping press at exactly ninety degrees. Some taped the paper to the glass before cutting, some held it with gloved fingers. Tongues touching teeth in concentration, eyes focused on the straightedge and the knife.

We changed color in that class, made optical illusions by placing one against a variety of others to fool our brains into seeing what wasn't there. We learned about hue and shade and shadow, how sunlight casts violet into the green of the grass, how to squinch the color out of an object in order to find its value.

I learned that no matter how expensive the paper, no matter if I bought the packet of 256 sheets, or the packet of 512 sheets, there weren't enough blues to satisfy my hunger for sky and water.

My family went camping last weekend and I drank in the blue of the sky and the blue of the river. I noticed how the green leaves framed the water and deepened its hue. God's blue. It is more than enough.

Sharing today with the 5-Minute Friday community

Season of Singing

Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

Song of Solomon 2:12

Season of Singing

If I invented color

I would make a flaming pink

So intense

It would burn

Through the green.

It would burst

Out of buds

Nestled

In cool hands

Of spring leaves.

Flamboyant ruffles, 

Delicately veined petals

Proudly strutting

Through hidden

Branches.

If I invented color

I would make a flaming pink -

A party

On a bush.

A season of singing!

Small Places

Be still, and know that I am God...Psalm 46:10

I treasure the quiet moments: silent darkness in the early morning, sunset reflection on calm water, cool shadow in treelit glades, mountain snow, amber fields of grain.... Ok, so you have to read this with a music track behind it - maybe Moonlight Sonata - with Lucy - because by the time you get to the fields of grain, you realize that what you're looking for is so over-advertised it's become trite.

You get the picture, right? Nowadays, it's easy to imagine postcard perfect scenes of peace and tranquility. We seek them out, as if something primal in us yearns for them. And we find them. Everywhere. The internet is full of photographic meditations in valleys, on mountaintops, on the oceans, in the oceans, by rivers, in forests, even in home and landscape design. Vacations are advertised to get away from it all - to leave the hustle and bustle behind. You can stay at a resort with a private beach, or upgrade your cruise cabin to include a personal balcony or an oceanview.... Entire vacations are planned around imagining ourselves inside pictures of solitude in nature. Entire industries have been built around providing these experiences.

You know, there is something to be said about seeking peace. But I think sometimes we've got it a little backwards. I'm not sure we have to go big to get there. We don't have to work all year in order to go to some exotic location to eke out a time and space to relax. We don't have to put ourselves in the picture - we need to learn how to put the picture in us.

I believe God works in the small places and spaces in our lives. He is in all of our moments - the important, life-changing, majestic and glorious scenes of mountaintops and oceans, as well as the in-betweens, unforeseens, and pauses in our lives - unexpected smiles, raindrops, color... One of the reasons I love photography so much is that I can digitally capture those details - the sometimes overlooked beauty in the common world around me. The camera lens helps me to focus and frame scenes - quiet moments - that would otherwise be lost in the visual noise of their surroundings.

Thank you, God, for quiet moments, for helping us to find You in the spaces. You are God.

Rooster

I am somewhat addicted to Pinterest.  Awhile ago, I saw a picture that I liked.  It was a dog portrait, but not in the usual sense.  See, it was more of an outline of the breed, with the inside filled in with brightly-colored doodles.  I was really attracted to it.  Just recently, I saw some similar drawings - black and white - of another dog, one of an elephant, and another of just some doodles....  I pinned them onto my Ideas board - and then it struck me.  I bet I could make one.  It looked like the artist just needed a good outline of the subject, with maybe a couple of 'big-space' details to give it some body.  So, I decided to try it out.

First, I bought some 'art' paper and fine-point sharpies.  Once upon a time, I actually knew a little about paper and markers, but it's been awhile...so I looked for the smoothest, whitest paper I could find (at Walmart...), then I read labels and found this.  It says mixed media, including wet media so I thought it would probably do.  I wish I had more colors in the sharpies, but I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg - so I settled for the pack of 24 colors.



Then I printed off a picture I had taken a few years ago.  I do love roosters....  I've actually done a couple of these now.  The first time, I printed the picture in black and white so I could see the patterns without being distracted by the colors.  This time I printed it in color so I could refer to it as I 'doodled'.  Truthfully, they both had their up and down sides - so I guess you just use your personal preference.




 Next, I used this old-school transfer method (literally old school - I think I learned it when I was in elementary school...).  You use the side of your pencil point to 'color' the back of the picture you want to transfer.  I didn't feel like coloring the whole page, so I just checked back and forth to see that I was getting the rooster part.








Then I placed my back-colored photo on my fancy 'art' paper.  I don't like centered pictures, so it's a little off-center.  I did want to make sure I had the whole rooster on the page.









Next, I traced over the lines that I wanted to transfer.  Mostly I needed outlines and block-y shapes.

You can pull the paper up every once in awhile to check that you're getting the lines you want...

Here's a photo of the finished transfer.

After transferring - I used the fine-tip black sharpie to draw the lines I really wanted.  Use an
eraser to erase any of the transfer lines you don't go over.  You can also add your own lines if you think you need to re-shape anything.  I really didn't make a lot of changes on this one.

Next - start doodling in the shapes.  I suppose you could color big blocks first and black-line doodle on top - but I wanted the doodle-lines to define some of my colors.  It was fun.  Some of the doodles look like stylized portions of the original - like swooping feathers...some just fill the space - like checkerboards and diamonds....

I really enjoyed this part.   I remember covering the backsides of all my spiral notebooks in junior high and high school with doodles like this - just three colors - black, blue, and red....

Next comes the color.  I like the saturated colors from the sharpies, but have started to think that more dimension could be added by using colored pencils....  Maybe next time.  As you can see, you can color adjacent spaces with the same color - it works...

More color - one of the nice things about the sharpies is that if you choose a color that you really don't like - you can pretty much go over it with a darker color and it will disappear...

All colored....

I like to finish the picture with a title - and more doodles around the edges.  Just me....

Desktop

I've been taking pictures lately because I just can't seem to get enough of the fall colors around here.  I love looking at the trees...then I love looking at the spaces between the trees - leaves from the other side...  Then I get fascinated with the objects around me - steps and bricks.  With camera in hand, I swear I'm having focusing issues.  Oh!  Not with the camera - with my own attention span.  I keep changing my personal desktop because these pictures are SO MUCH FUN!  Anyway, I just opened a Flickr account so I can share - I think you can pull a copy from Flickr - the pics are already formatted for 'display'.  Let me know what you think!  Here's the link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrysanthalea/