Paraphrase and Wreath Poems

I started very simply putting God's Words into a paraphrase, my own words trying to capture the essence of the idea in scripture. Even doing that a challenge, and it makes you think more deeply about the real meaning and what it conveys to your heart. As you ponder and wrestle with the the words and ideas it brings you close to understanding and insight. I did this page last summer when we were in Romania. On the right is a paraphrase of Ps. 40: 1-3.
My paraphrase:
I was still and expectant before God.
He bent down and listened to my desperation,
put his loving arms around me
and drew me out of the muck and filth.
He placed me on the solid rock.
I had a firm footing; I was secure.
He taught me a new melody of worship to him.
He promised that many others
would come and put their faith in him.
New International Version:
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.
On the left hand side of my journal I took Ps.40:4-5 and put it into a non-rhyming wreath poem. The first time I came across the idea of a wreath poem was in Luann Budd's book, Journal Keeping. She referred to an early seventeenth century poet, George Herbert, who wrote "A Wreath". Budd writes " This poem becomes a wreath; the end of each line becomes the beginning of the next. Wrestling your thoughts into poetry can be a challenge. But the wrestling is valuable in moving the truth into your soul." Herbert's wreath poem rhymed. When I first started I chose to do non-rhyming lines. Here is my example of a wreath poem based on:
Ps. 40:4-5.
I am blessed because I have put my trust in Jesus.
In Jesus I learn to turn aside from my pride and false pleasures.
Those empty pleasures are replaced by the wonders you perform inside my heart.
In my heart I know that your plans for me are beyond my imagining.
Beyond my understanding your wonders are too many to declare.
Too many to declare are your works and I am blessed.
I am blessed because my life is not written with ink
but with the Spirit of the living God.
By the Spirit of the living God I am blessed
New International Version:
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

Beads, Wire, and Dowels

I took another great class at the Stamp Art Shoppe. We made the necklace you see to the left. You wrap colored wire around 20 gauge wire to make the colorful twisty wire + beads. I was immediately taken with the twisted wire look. The long beads with the music around it are small dowels cut in 2" pieces and then covered with paper. I am going to use some of my old papers to make my own beads of this type. Below the photo you can see my journal entry with a drawing of the necklace that I made. I plan to use the two ideas in other ways. I have already used them on pins and gift wrapping. I am sure I can come up with some other ideas.

Writing as part of the learning process

Every semester i talk to my students about "writing" and "thinking" and the important connection between the two. Peter Elbow, a noted scholar on writing, "... meaning is not what you start out with but what you end up with." Following up that idea with John C. Bean in the book "Engaging Ideas", "Writing becomes an exterior sign of an interior thinking process. Writing is important because learning is improves when writing is part of the learning process. Writing forces the writer to become more careful and more engaged participants in the learning process." Writing is not just a communication skill but also a process and product of critical thought. I am fascinated by the connection between thinking and writing and how writing allows a much more thorough, richer, clearer and more systematic way of thinking. That is what I have been experiencing when I write the short, starkly simple and amateur poems based on my reading. It may not be great literature but it has helped me think more deeply and given me added insight into a passage. It is definitely a learning process which requires deeper thought and a much more engaged and interactive participation with the text.

Uphold Carry Sustain Rescue

I am still memorizing and using Isaiah 46:3-4 in my morning quiet time. After using those words in synonym verses I changed over to use them in an antonym poem:
Make - Destroy
What is the opposite of "make"?
The opposite is fearsome to comtemplate.
To tear down, to take apart
It transmits despair unto my heart.
The true antithesis is destroy.
Have mercy, my Lord, to not employ.

Whether I craft a poem of some merit or not, each morning when I undertake this type of concentrated effort it takes me deeper into the concepts and allows me to wrestle with the meaning and emphasis. I find that I approach each morning with so much enthusiasm and anticipation working with these ideas in both word and image.

A Repitition Poem - What have you done?

Based on Jeremiah 3:1-10
What have you done faithless Israel?
What have you done unfaithful Judah?
You have left me.
You have not returned.
You have defiled the land.
You have lived as a prostitute.
You have been ravished.
You have sat by the roadside waiting for lovers.
You have sat like a nomad in the desert.
You have the brazen look of a prostitute.
You have refused to blush with shame.
You have called me Father.
Yet you have wrath.
You have anger.
You have gone up on every high hill.
What have you done?
I have taken to entertaining myself with guilty pleasures.
I have run after other gods.
I have forsaken the will of God.
I have defiled the holy temple.
I have lived with rebellion.
I have chosen contamination.
I have sat in a cold and dreary desert.
What have you done?
What have I done?

I found myself in the last few months becoming quite worrried about my "old age". As I have been reading through Isaiah these verses were particularly comforting, and I undertook to memorize them.

Isaiah 46:3-4

"You whom I have upheld since you were conceived,

and have carried since your birth.
Even to your old age and gray hairs

I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

I will sustain you and I will rescue you."

I wanted to go deeper into the passage and understand it more fully. Recently I have been reading a poetry writing book for young people with the intention of using some of the ideas in my journal classes. One suggestion was for a synonym poem. With that idea in mind I went to an online thesaurus and looked up "sustain". There were many synonyms (30+) and I wrote them all down in my journal. Then I went alphabetically through the list and made 2 line poems. The suggestion was to use 3 to 4 synonyms in the first line and then a rhyming line for the second verse. I used the aid of an online rhyming dictionary for the second verse. The poems are simple and I do not pretend in any way to be a master wordsmith but the process made it possible to continue to think about the idea of God sustaining me through "old age and grey hairs" and began to change a heart of anxiety to one of hope and trust in God's promise. Here is a sampling of the verses:

Aid, Assist, Abide

I will ever be by your side.

Bolster, Brace, Bear

My Word has promised that I will care.

Continue, Carry, Comfort, Confirm

My Word, my love, I have affirmed.

Keep alive, Keep up, Keep going

Your love for me is everflowing.

I found that the process of working through the words using poetry and then writing them in my journal with color and calligraphy allowed time to ponder and contemplate the ideas to a depth not possible when I just read over the text. It seeps into my life in a fuller and richer way.

Liam, Jack and Uncle Peter - 2

Liam, Jack and Uncle Peter

Twins - Twice the blessing

I promised some pictures of the twins but then experienced a number of difficulties with getting photos to my blog. Google has upgraded and changed procedures and now it is certainly not working for me with the ease that it had previously. But here are 2 photos from 2 weeks ago. We had a wonderful four days taking care of Jack and Liam. You forget so quickly how extraordinary it is to be around little children. It is a real delight. And we are enjoying every moment.

A sweet prayer

From the Moleskin web site:http://notebookism.com/
Prayer of a Writer
Lord of all things, whose wondrous gifts to man include the shining symbols known as words, grant that I may use their mighty power only for good.Help me to pass on small fragments of your wisdom, truth and love. Teach me to touch the unseen, lonely heart with laughter, or the quick release of tears.Let me portray the courage that endures, defiant in the face of pain or death; the kindness and gentleness of those who fight against the anger of the world; the beauty hidden in the smallest things; the mystery, the wonder of it all . . .Open my ears, my eyes; unlock my heart. Speak through me, Lord, if it be your will.Amen.

Crown King for Christmas

The entire family braved the open road, snow storms in Denver, a race to make the plane in Lubbock, one day for Christmas shopping in Dallas, cross country travel from Delaware, and international travel from Mexico to join Mike, Lara and Liam and Jack in Crown King, Arizona for Christmas. There is no place like family for the holidays. We enjoyed immensely the chance to be together and celebrate the holidays with two incredibly engaging 18 month old little boys celebrating their second Christmas in this world. What a priviledge to be with children at Christmas. Pictures of the twins to follow next time.

 

2006 and family holiday portraits

Last week I spent going through my calendar of 2006 and my journals of last year. I recorded the highlights on some new journal pages. Below are two of those pages. My calendar for last year featured William Morris art work, so I decided to incorporate some of my favorites in the background. I have always loved the art that came out of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England.
The last journal page is some sketches of a pastel painting that I am working on. I knew I wanted to have more practice working on faces and the painting of my family around the Thanksgiving table in 1938 afforded practice with 14 or 15 small portraits. I want to draw each of them in my journal to get some practice before I tackle them in the painting. It is facsinating when you do portraits of people because the smallest stroke of the pen can capture the person or completely make them into someone else, a stranger. Aunt Lucille and Uncle Stephen bear some very small spark of the people I knew in my childhood. Aunt Kay and Aunt Mary are definitely off the mark. Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!!!


 

"The palest ink is better than the best memories"

I read this quote in Danny Gregory's web site, dannygregory.com, and it certainly captured my experience with drawing. Sketches have a way of capturing a moment that photos or memories just don't do in the same vivid way.
I took the first week of January 2007 to look back through my journals of 2006. I wanted to be reminded of all that had taken place last year, but I also desired to look with a critical eye toward the design and art of what I had produced on those pages. I kept a list of what I thought had "worked" and what had not. I hope to incorporate what was successful in the pages of 2007. Here are some of my favorite design elements from 2006:
1. Frames around my drawings or writing
2. I always like the pages that have drawings on them, usually the more time I spend on the drawing the more I like it.
3. Flowing, gyrating writing.
4. Writing around the frames
5. Columns of writing
6. Watercolor rather than the markers
7. Drawing with labeling
8. Distressed ink backgrounds
9. Letters connected to the lines above and below.
I also did better when I had a theme/design element that I continued to use for a number of weeks. I am thinking I might break the year into quarters and try to have a clear design thread, and a drawing challenge/image to work on in that quarter. I am thinking that this first quarter it may be faces and ovals. More on that in the next segment.
All three of the pages below are inspired by gifts given me by my friend, Kate. I love persimmons and one day she gave a number of wonderful bright orange globes of persimmons. I put them on the sink counter and enjoyed them for a number of days. then one early morning I brought them into the bedroom. I usually awake around 5 and have a quiet time reading my Bible, praying, and using part of the Bible reading to inspire my journal pages. The persimmons were a lovely accompaniment to God's word. The third page is a darling angelic ornament that Kate made. When we arrived home from a wonderfully adventurous Christmas in Crown King, Arizona this button angel was waiting in the mail.

 

 

This is phase 2 of the process of this page. I did some distressed ink backgrounds and rubber stamp letters. I have more to do coloring in the leaves and probably using some more text. "It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in." Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) or as Tim Holtz said in the class last weekend "Don't overthink it." 

The page is never finished

I posted this first page the other day but was not very satisfied with it visually. I went back to it yesterday and colored in the letter blocks and it became so much more appealing. It continues to reinforce two lessons that are important. The first is that any drawing that I do adds something to the page that is much more interesting than just design, or letters, or rubber stamps. The other lesson that continues to reoccur over and over is not to become discouraged with a page I have created because a design never has to be finished. If it doesn't look quite right come back to it, over and over if necessary, because it usually can be redeemed. That has definite application to my daily life. It is the story of process and journey not the destination or the finished product. I know I am a work in constant process. Sometimes the pages of my life are incredibly messy and ugly, but God is in the process of redeeming it and making it a design of beauty. He is the Creator and my days are just the pages in the process of His creation. I included the beginning of the next page and thought it would be interesting to watch the process as it evolves with color and words.
 

40 Days a second time

We (Peter and I) have embarked on a 40 day journey with the rest of Arcade Church. Jake has chosen to call this "40 Days of Community". I so enjoyed the structure of the first 40 days and being more intentional about my journaling so that I was more than happy to commit to this 40 day journey. I wanted a design template before even starting out, but I am finding it is more a process of discovery and you can't have all the questions answered in the beginning. It really does have to be a voyage of discovery. In the first few days I have learned a number of lessons. I was inspired by stampersanonymous.com for the layouts; they have some wonderful stamp art in their gallery. Today I decided I liked the idea of small little boxes in some part of the design for my prayers of the day. I want to keep finding just a few words from the Bible passage I am reading that day to highlight in my journal entry. I decided I will pick up something from nature each day from my walk/run. I will bring that back to draw the following day on my page. The lesson I have been learning from that is that I always like my pages better when I have drawn something no matter what it is. I thought it would be best to only take something from the walk that is right "at hand". I love the phrase "at hand". I was pondering the idea on my walk this morning about having a get-together-craft night in the neighborhood and just invite anyone who is interested. That way I could share some of what I have learned in the classes I have taken. That is just an idea for the first of the year. I also want to use some of my stamps and inks more often in the layout of the pages. There are always so many ideas, some of which work and others that don't and get left by the wayside.
We are reading the New Testament in this 40 days. It is more reading than I usually do in the morning so Peter and I decided we will finish in the afternoon. Already we said to each other it was really nice to come back together and read God's word later in the day. Speaking of the wayside just now I was reminded of the seed that falls by the wayside that we were just reading in Matthew. The Word "entwined" with the dailiness of life. It is very good and warms the heart.
 

Classes by Tim Holtz 2

Another project this weekend at the Stamp Art Shoppe was "Fireless Raku". The same clay used for the "clay fragments" was used for the Raku. We took the clay and pressed it into a mold. When it is removed from the mold it is baked in a little appliance called a melting pot. After baking it is then painted with "Perfect Pearls" interference colors and they come out looking like Raku pottery. The second picture looks like a typical rubber stamp image but we learned how to make our own customized ink pad to give they varied colors on the rubberstamp and be able to make multiple printings from the ink pad for that particular rubber stamp. It was very interesting but I was not completely satisfied with my color choices and I am not an avid rubber stamper. I don't know that I would use this technique. The third photo is a rubber stamp of the same Christmas image stamped in black but then going back into it with colored "distressed inks". Then it was placed in the "Memory Glass" frames amd some charms were attached. It has real potential for personalized Christmas ornaments with photos in the frame. It was a great creative weekend. I am not sure what I will do with all the ideas, but I enjoyed getting to learn some new techniques and now I get a chance to think about how to incorporate them into my own work.

 

Classes with Tim Holtz

I spent the weekend in 3 classes at the Stamp Art Shoppe in Roseville. Tim Holtz, a designer for Ranger Products, was the teacher. He was entertaining and an excellent instructor. The first picture is what he calls "fragments from clay". They come out looking like metal but are really just clay stamped with rubber stamps and painted with "Perfect Pearls". Most of the products mentioned are from Ranger. In the second class we made a small 90 page book. The signatures (groups of pages) are hand stitched together to make the book and then the book had two canvas covers on the front and back. The canvas covers were colored with "Distressed" Ink and then covered with a thin coating of beeswax. Then some collage materials were placed on top. I chose part of a Van Gogh drawing, a torn piece of my grandparents Hungarian marriage certificate (both of which I had printed on rice paper) and a piece of rice paper napkin. Rice papers work well because they are thin and become transluscent when covered with the beeswax. The canvas covers are then glued to the front and back of the book and the antiqued door handle is glued down. A few other little trinkets are added and the book is finished. I haven't yet decided what I am going to use it for. 90 pages is rather intimidating.


 

Lord, it is time. The summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundails, and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetness in to the heavenly wine. Rainer Maria Rilke