Long Time Ago...

My college roommate and fellow art student at Baylor sent me a picture of myself when I was about 23 years old. That day I was pulling etchings, lithos, linos, and woodcut prints in the printmaking shop at the art department.

How I wish I had had the faith at that young age to choose fine art as a career path .... instead of graphic arts...how different my life would have been.

I'm finally following my heart. I should pursue printmaking...I loved it.

August 2010 - Drawings

This series of drawings are 5 minute sketches. I'm pretty happy to get the whole figure and it be in proportion but better yet the right gesture that is in balance.

Progress....at last. These are loose and quick and I really think they are some of the most expressive work I have done in a while.

These in color are 20 minute conté compressed charcoal sketches.

Sculpture come to life.

This is a bas relief about 10 x 13 inches, stoneware, with one firing that is almost finished. I need to put on a final finish on but I'm pretty pleased with this one in the over-all feel.

Two more bas reliefs are in progress besides this one although I had a bit of a disaster with one when it was accidentally pushed off the shelf by another artist while in storage. Unfortunately the plastic bag came open that was keeping it moist allowing it to dry out. Unfortunately it buckled and did not dry flat. Last night, I re-hydrated it but cracks appeared.

Today, the cracks will be repaired and hopefully the work finished...keeping my fingers crossed. This is a nice series and I have learned a great deal working from 2 dimension into 3 dimension. This is very much like drawing since the gesture is drawn at first.

Other sculptures are nearing completion also. This is still a work in progress...nearing completion...

This work is from a one day portrait workshop created from a live model. I'm planning on a session with Glen, my instructor at his private sculpture studio on Sunday. I need to hollow the head out before firing.

I doubt if anyone would be interested in buying this piece but it will be a good example of my portrait work.

I've been invited to join the Sculpture Society of Oklahoma. I think I will.

Is the Bible irrelavant today?

Do you think the Bible is not read today? A whole lot of people think that exactly and even some people who call themselves of the Christian faith.

Is the Bible irrelevant in this modern world? Then please explain the following to me. The Bible Society of the United Kingdom calculates that the number of Bibles printed between 1816 (since the printing press started printing Bibles) and 1975 was

2,458,000,000
printed copies of the Bible.

By 1992 the estimated number rose to nearly six billion.

That's 6 Billion Bibles printed by 1992.

Furthermore, worldwide sales of the Bible number more than a staggering 100 million each year, far outpacing any other book in history. For a book that some say is not read or relevant....hum.

That's 100 million Bibles printed and distributed each year worldwide

Without a doubt, the Bible is the best selling book of all time. With the world's population nearing 6 billion, what does this mean?

It is estimated that for every living person on Earth, there is approximately one Bible. No doubt Bibles have an uneven distribution world-wide. Few Bibles are available to the massive populations found in Asian nations, the Middle-East, ir Russia for obvious reasons.

Therefore, this is an over abundance in free countries in the Western World to the point that there maybe more Bibles than people in some countries...such as in the United States.

As a matter of fact, in America the average expenditure for Bibles each year is currently...

$425 million.

Isn't that interesting?

Could this love and fascination with this book be the reason this nation has developed to be the greatest civilization the planet has ever known?

"Why is the Bible so popular world-wide?"

... maybe one should investigate this collection of 66 books....but I caution anyone this is not a casual read and no one can understand this Word until the Father....who is the author .... is asked with sincerity that what is read be revealed personally to you. When you eyes are opened, you will receive faith to believe. There is no other way to find out why this book continues to out sell every book on the planet.

"Ask and it will be opened unto you, seek and you shall find"... Jesus said ... what do you suppose he meant?

To find the truth, you have to ask and seek.

"I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. --- this is Jesus final recorded prayer before his death. (John 17)

I encourage anyone who wants to find the answer "why?" to start here....read this prayer and ask for understanding...even if you have doubts and you have no faith of your own. This is where everyone starts. You will be given faith to believe as you seek.

Here is found the power of the Gospel.

Just ask why?

Thy Word hath quickened me...

After sparing with unbelievers . . . . .who have forsaken your Word, Father….then comes a "word" from You via the Holy Spirit through your Word comforting me. You have written your word upon the fleshy tablets of my heart in such a way that my desires are being conformed to your desires.

I am not ashamed, Lord, of the Gospel found in your Word for which you have illuminated me by the Holy Spirit. You are the God of all ages excelling all knowledge and wisdom. Unlike the world's sciences and human wisdom, You never change and are the same since the foundations of this world were lain and time began. Your Word and message never changes.

Thank you for illuminating the Truth to those who are given eyes to see and ears to hear. Thank you for redeeming us and giving us courage to be a witness. Whether it is unto seed planting or until judgment...One a frangrance unto life the other unto a stench of death. Amen, so be it. (II Cor. 2:14)

Psalm 119:41

Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, [even] thy salvation, according to thy word. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments. So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This [is] my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. The proud have had me greatly in derision: [yet] have I not declined from thy law. I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.

II Cor 3:3

[Forasmuch as ye are] manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Awesome. Only the Lord can save and illuminate man and comfort the heart....how powerful and great is your Word that quickens those who believe.

I am greatly encouraged and blessed. Amen and amen.

Brenden Marries Heath

It is finally over ... and they are almost to Jamaica Montego Bay, first port of call for the Conquest. They will stop for one day at the Cayman Islands and then on to Cozumel Mexico ... home Sunday.

I'll post more pictures when I can. Now I can return to art and my life again.
(My feet still hurt....but my heart is glowing.)

Apology...

To those who follow my blog, I apologize for neglecting to post much. I love to write and express myself and expound about my opinions and beliefs.

Lately, I've been working intensely on wedding plans as my beautiful daughter prepares to begin a new life with her chosen love, Heath.

I've tried to maintain my art and regular life but all the intensity of this planning and the many roadblocks that keep being piled in front has had an adverse affect on me and my work; there is a reason for no new posts or new artwork.

After July 3rd, I will return to art full blast to art and hopefully writing. Please bear with me until then but please please feel free to read my past posts that are archived....and comment if you want.

I'll be checking every day.

Winter Sculpture Session

The sculpture below is my first representational female torso. In the past at college, I sculpted abstract forms but never realism. The figure was taken from a living model...a wonderful and experienced model. This class was a real learning experience and I can see that it is helping my life drawing greatly.

This piece is unfired clay at this point. I'll post the finished piece soon.

I wanted a more dynamic pose but did not have control of it since this was a class project. Often I take people literally and so when my instructor focused on accuracy, I feared to exaggerate....but then my instructor wants me to to exaggerate on the next piece. I feel a little bound up.



Gesture, gestures, gestures ... the key to life drawing.

A Page Turner

Modern Art & the Death of a Culture
by H. R. Rookmaaker

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0891077995/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=AHNEEZ9CVAP3Q&v=glance

Walking through the front gallery of our local art center on the way to life drawing studios, a recent exhibit of contemporary art by local artists intrigued me for each stroll through left a different impression.

The first impression, I thought "this is really top flight work and well done. I'm so proud."

Second time through, my impression began to turn negative. I began to say, oh, that looks like this great artist of the past, or that great one. Where are the new images? This is not original. Creative yes; original no. I'd seen all this stuff before in one exhibit or another or from history. The art began to look dated to me. There is simply nothing new.

Third time through, I thought, this is really feeling empty and meaningless. These artists really seem to me to have nothing to say. Now, I am feeling very negative. My inner voice shouted, "Stop it! You can't do that. You have to LOVE this stuff. What is wrong with you?"

In my view, this art work is very well crafted. Crafted in that it was professionally produced and thought out. I've seen no art in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art any better constructed and that is saying something. It's professional.

However, I came to a truthful conclusion, the art here is simply projecting the pursuit of "ugly." Images of distorted figures ill-drawn to hide the inability to draw. You can be an artist but you don't have to draw. Well that is true. BUT, you have to have something to say.

The questions arose in me: "Is this real." "Is this truthful?" Contemporary masters, I've read have been searching for "the real." Most of the greats.

These movements in art of the 19th and 20th Century were no doubt a reaction to Impressionism, Romanticism, Classical and Religious art, and the "junk" produced in the ateliers and studios of the time but it still baffles me for to me it is praising the ugliest and darkest images of this realm of reality. It is certainly "real" and a lot of it is disgusting but is that for me? What is happening?

I have studied for literally years (with little success) in understanding though I have applied myself with great earnest. The "real" in life does have its balance. Reality is BOTH ugly and beautiful.

Representational art has always been a passion, especially in my idealist youth, for I have searched for beauty in living. For years, I thought maybe I was just not very smart to comprehend all this lofty arty stuff and could not grasp these deep deep concepts.

Bull crap. (An appropriate intellectual educated response.)

At last, I have found an author who puts this all in context and having lived through the sixties and seventies, being in a relationship with God Almighty, I see what has happened.

Culture has lost it's soul and is spirit-less. Art is reflecting that. Our culture is dying and some (and I say SOME) very good contemporary art is reflecting that death. The death of the pursuit of beauty. Rookmaaker has it right.

At last I have some understanding. How short changed I have been in my art education. No wonder the philosophy of art intrigued me but confounded me at the same time.

John Ruskin, the great art critic, made a very profound statement that has never left me in my journey to art knowledge. He wrote, "All art is praise." That is a very profound statement. I almost want to write the word "Selah" (meaning pause and meditate on this.) Ruskin was a very devout Christian and intellectual and he sung the praises of the great landscape and seascape master, J. M. Turner. If you look at Turner's greatest works (late) you see great abstract powerful shapes especially in his seascapes. He was painting for his time declaring the power and majesty of God's creation, the beauty, and glory of it; he discovered abstraction as a way to tell that to us pounding his images into the surface of his paint. This was his expressive voice. He made his sun blinding with brilliance by applying his intellect, and so his suns glow brightly.

Then the wheels came off. Man turned from God when he proclaimed that "God was dead" and so it is reflected in society's art.

This book by Rookmaaker has truly inspired me to produce art for my age and with a spiritual voice of my age. I have no desire to create "realism" as a camera would, and I want to give voice to my ideas that the viewer can relate to. I am in pursuit of the "real" beauty of our time; the praise of our age. For God is indeed not dead. I want to voice the "real" ugly of our time but from the standards of a spiritual person. I desire to experience true inspiration...a noble pursuit.

There is an honest voice and an independent voice developing in me. Yes, I am finding my artistic voice.

Workshop Study

Oil Painting in progress....this is an update on the work that is in progress from the Wimmer workshop. It's coming along.