3D without the glasses

I can't draw.  I mean it.  I can trace, I can sketch but there is no depth to my pictures.  That's why I love clay.

This is called "The lamb cross".  The lamb is hand formed by hand and then I apply the wool from a very high tech device found in craft stores, lol.  The tree is hand formed.  I found the less you mess with the clay then the more real it looks.  The cross is stamped from a design I created (it's a lion) and the ledge for the lamb is added and stamped while the cross is still soft.. 

The most time consuming thing is painting the tree by hand and applying several coats.  But I just love how this piece turns out.  Each lamb seems to have a different expression to it's face.  The trees are all a bit unique.  But I love the way it pops off the wall when you see it from the front or the sides.  The fruit of course has meaning once you read the back.  The back says, The Lion of Judah, The Lamb of God, My Lord and my King.

Forgive

Forgiveness.  We need it when we do something wrong and want to wipe it off the slate.  We give it to people we love like our children.  It is a powerful thing, forgiveness.  It does not do away with the act committed but it does heal hearts and mend souls.  Usually we have to ask another person to do the forgiving but then sometimes it is ourselves that we need to forgive the most.

Have you ever been naive and found yourself a victim of someone else's bad action?  Have you ever been verbally abused, scammed of your money, robbed, conned, constantly lied to, etc, etc, etc..?  It happened without your permission.  It happened over and over again before you knew that it was not your fault and that you didn't ask for it.  You participated in this distructive thing by just staying until you could figure out what was happening and get away from it even if it took years. 

You have blamed the other person for their part.  You have forgiven the other person but the hurt is still there.  Why?  Well maybe it is time to forgive yourself for allowing other's to hurt you  by not running away the minute it happend the first time.  Forgive yourself for trusting that person in the first place.  Forgive yourself for believeing they were telling the truth when they were really liying and you just didn't want to believe it. 

We are all human.  We all make mistakes.  Forgiveness is for all of us.  If we don't forgive someone, it does not hurt them.  They usually live with that and accept it.  We don't punish them by holding hatred.  The hatred lives within us and eats away at ourselves.  The person you want justified is the one condemed, yourself.  " Forgive as I have forgive you", simple statement.  Not so simple to do sometimes.  Food for thought.

I was lost and I didn't even know it

I was a typical, active happy kid.  I celebrated Christmas and was taught to live by the rules of the Ten Commandments.  My parents divorced when I was three.  I went to church with my dad when I went to visit him.  The people spoke of a God with hellfire and brimstone, so I decided to be good and maybe He would not notice me. 

As I grew up, I thought Christians were happy people, but they seems like they were missing all the fun.  I did not want to become a God puppet with strings attached to me that wouldn't let me have fun. 

Then I became a College graduate.  I had my first back surgery at 21.  A kind man of God poked his head into my room the night before my surgery.  I was alone and scared.  He asked if I knew God and if I wanted him to pray with me.  my response was, "I don't want to meet God right now"- but my thoughts said, (Cuz then he will notice me, send a lighting bolt at me for all the bad stuff I have done and I'll die on the operating table tomorrow).  He said OK and left the room.

Then I lost my mother and grandparents in a house fire.  I got married 3 months later and had my first child a year and 9 months later.  I had made a terrible mistake.  I married the wrong person and I refused to divorce like my parents.  Two more children and ten years later life was just miserable.  Actually it was to the point I felt like it was killing me.

Late one night I feel to my knees , alone in my den, and I asked God to come into my life and save me from the life I was in.  "If you are real God, then I believe.  Help me!"  No strings were attached.  No lighting bolt was cast down on my head.  No barriers were put up to keep me from doing anything fun.  But, things began to change in me.  I understood the bible then.  I understood the stories and the meanings. 

Ten more years passed.  I had made a promise to God for better or worse in the marriage.  I stayed, but the relationship grew way way worse.  It was during these years that the art sprang forth.  HOPE.  We all need it in times of trouble or fear.  FAITH.  We all need something real to believe in.  LOVE.  We all need it in order to live a full life.   MERCY.  We all need it because we all mess up because we are human and a do-over is granted.   

Why is it that during the hard times we learn the most about ourselves and grow?  We are forced to change or remain in that dark place.  Well, I got a divorce.  I'm still sad that it came to that, but I am grateful that I survived the last 25 years and came out the other side a wiser happier me again.  I have tested the word of God in my own life and seen it to always be true.  I have studied the bible for years and I am constantly amazed at the truth in all of it.  

God does not turn his back on us.  We turn our back on him.  God does not move in our lives unless we ask for his help because he gave us free will.  God does not do bad things to us, we do it to ourselves or others because of that free will.  We blame God for the things that he has no part in. We get mad because we want everyone to go to heaven and God says there is only one way to get there.  But everyone is invited to enter.  If you don't want to follow the rules, then God will let you.  But don't blame God for your choice.  If you ever decide to change your mind....I can tell you first hand...God is just watching and waiting with a never ending love for us all to decide to come home to him.  I made my choice.  I don't regret it one minute.    

Prayer Chain, it sparkles and speaks to your heart

It sparkles, it is colorful and it has meaning.  Each Prayer Chain is unique in the end.  Oh sure the beads are all the same on each one and the charrms have so many different meanings based on the views of the person buying it.  The cross at the bottom has as many as 50 different stamps design choices and can come in about 45 different colors with about 50,000 different saying on the back and different dangle off of the cross.  (Deeply inhaling).....

It's like house jewery, although, there are some who really will wear it around their necks.  Catholics have tha rosary, Jews have a prayer shawl and I wanted something to hold that had words of meaning that would not become stagnent.  These simple words would change in depth of meaning over time as your faith grew and your understanding matured and as life tossed you about a bit.    After 10 years, It has really done just that.  Over time I have added a few new beads, changed a charm or two, created new stamps and added glaze colors.  But this idea is a constant jewel in my collection.

Affordable art for the soul.  That what I try to create.  That's what I want as a gift for myself, so that's what I am making for others. 

Prayer heart-it's a God Thing

This is what started it all. Prayer hearts and fish.

I was reading my bible, trying to find answers to handling the difficult people in my life and the idea for these came to mind. It began as giving myself words of hope and help.

I had a handful and I took them to the first show I did. It was amazing to watch men and women go through the wicker basket filled with them and read each one. Some people would pause, move the heart around in there hand, feel it like it was almost speaking to them. Ladies would turn to me, sometimes with tears in their eyes and sometimes with a smile and say, "this is perfect for my friend" or "I need this".

I hear stories about long ago purchased hearts or fish and how they were held during cancer treatment, in a pocket for years after a wife died or how it comforted or encouraged a loved one. So I have termed them "the God thing". I may make them, but God is the one that speaks to the hearts of people through them. I have my favorite sayings that I do over and over, but they are an evolving item based on my life or the lives of people I know. Whatever I am going through or have gone through are on the hearts.

Remember, out of the heart the mouth speaks". What's in your heart? At times I am filled with love yet other times I am really angry or hurt or frustrated. When I feel the latter, I need to watch what I say or I'll share it with anyone who will stand there long enough to listen. Or course, I feel bad about venting, later.

So the moral of this story...it is human to have all the emotions I have mentioned. What we need to do is "take a hold of every thought and think on that which good". We need to have hope. I find my hope in The truth in my Lord. There was a time when I did not....that Story will wait for tomorrow....

This is me, all 51 years of me. I have earned every gray hair. Life has created every wrinkle. I am unaltered at this time by any physician on the surface and I still have every part that God gave me. There many come a time that I tweek something here or there, but not yet. I am content. But the part that you can not see is the real me. You are the same way. Inside we carry around memories that are sweet and painful memories that we revisit at times.

We find that out of our mouths our hearts speak. We voice our anger at others for the wrongs done to us or the deep love that we feel for another. That is where the art comes from; out of the soul and mind. That is what draws us to the art of others also.

To create is to live

Here you go, just a piece of the chaos I call the studio.  I grew up creating things.  Maybe I created because of my genetic make up since my mother was a sculptor, painter and photographer and my father is landscape architect.  I think creating is in your blood.  Some people create with food, cloth, plants, brick, wood, etc, etc, etc.  I seem to have landed on clay.  Mind you, I can't draw very well (that I did not inherit from my parents), but I can shape, form and see things in a three dimensional way. 

I feel best when I am creating something.  It's like an outlet for my mind and emotions.   The clay is a friend of sorts because my emotions and thoughts  are made visible in it.  Whatever I am sorting through in my mind, comes out through my hands.  Then the piece begins to almost talk, comfort or propel people with the message, color and form.  After 12 years of doing this, the art never ceases to amaze me when it connects to another human being in a soulful way. 

So, this is my first attempt to blog, to reach out to the entire world.  I feel a little naked!  I have no idea who will begin to read this blog.  No idea where the blog will take us.  I really do not like the unknown.  Some people love the adventure.  Me, I like an adventure if someone is with me, by my side.  So, come stand beside me.  I will try too make this site interactive so you have a voice.  We are all in this world together, so let's help each other while we are here.